The Westport school system is highlighted prominently and favorably today in a New York Times front page metro section story about Connecticut’s Project Choice.
The project allows 1,600 children from Connecticut’s poorest communities “to attend some of the state’s best performing—and wealthiest—schools,” the newspaper said.
The report showcased Alexis Miller, 7, one of 34 Bridgeport children chosen via lottery to participate in the Westport program. “For many parents, the dream destination is Westport,” the newspaper said, “Living in One Town, Learning in Another.”
“They say the district has paid for class pictures, field trips, test preparation, summer programs and $40 cabs rides home when participation in extracurricular activities means missing the bus,” the Times said.
“One year, the district even supplied Game Boys to improve students’ behavior on the long rides.”
The story also detailed success stories of students who have participated. One Bridgeport student cited was Omari McPherson, who graduated from Westport’s Staples High School last year and received scholarships to attend Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Massachusetts.
Project Choice has its roots in the 1989 lawsuit Sheff v. O’Neill which challenged the racial balance of public schools in poorer versus wealthy communities. The argument was that separate is not equal. According to the Times, the dispute is still the subject of litigation.
The Times said that suburban schools are under no obligation to accept students into Project Choice. Those that do receive $2,000 per student per year from the state plus $2,100 per student for transportation.
According to the report, this total is “hardly a dent” in school systems such as Westport where the per pupil expenditure is $13,455.
But according to Westport School Superintendent Elliott Landon, who was interviewed for the Times story, “the math was not so dramatic.”
“While he (Landon) spends $13,455 on each of his district’s students, the state’s third highest cost,” the report said, “the additional expense of adding one child to a classroom of 19 is nominal, he said.”
This program,and the program which preceded it in the 60’s and 70’s, makes the Westport school system stand tall. It is wonderful that we pay for the transportation enabling the kids to participate in after-school programs. Many will remember the uproar when the program was first instituted, and how the remarkable Joan Schine almost was removed from her chairmanship and membership on the Board of Education by a group of irate parents who worried about the influence the Bridgeport children might have on ours. Carole Donenfeld