NBFA Director and CEO Ronelle Swagerty
(December 13, 2023) - New Beginnings Family Academy (NBFA) provides students a meaningful, high-quality education through experience-based learning that helps them develop essential social, emotional and critical-thinking skills. To better connect NBFA’s mission to our audience, The NBFA Voice will spotlight important matters on academics, social-emotional learning and more from the voices of NBFA.
NBFA Director and CEO Ronelle Swagerty examines the issue of Connecticut’s inequitable public education system, how it devalues parent choice and leaves some of the most vulnerable students behind.
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When I joined the team at New Beginnings Family Academy (NBFA) 20 years ago, I could not have predicted I would spend the next two decades fighting for funding equity for Bridgeport’s first elementary public charter school and those like it. But here we are.
NBFA opened in 2002 to 156 students in Kindergarten through 3rd grades whose parents -- most of whom cannot afford private or parochial school tuition -- were searching for free, high quality public school options in Connecticut’s most populous urban center. NBFA grew a grade each year until it reached 8th and in 2013 added Pre-Kindergarten. In June 2022, the school phased out 7th and 8th grades to concentrate its limited resources on the formative years.
With a household poverty rate of 23%, more than double the state average, Bridgeport residents regularly contend with food and housing insecurity, neighborhood violence, un- and underemployment and high drop-out rates. Students carry these adult-sized stressors into schools daily, limiting their ability to take in academic content. NBFA’s whole-child model helps address these big emotions through an emotionally responsive curriculum and preventative strategies that enable children to form critical attachment bonds, develop empathy for self and others and ultimately access learning.
This is difficult when NBFA receives just $11,525 per student from the Connecticut State Department of Education, which is 20% less than Bridgeport district schools. It is noteworthy to mention the failure of equitable funds Bridgeport receives compared to neighboring counties. Yet, public charter schools remain the most underfunded public schools in Connecticut.
NBFA fervently believes that every child deserves a "school that heals" where bold strategies are embedded to strengthen relationships, enable children to self-regulate more quickly and keep challenging students who might otherwise have been issued a suspension in school learning. The lack of proper funding has real-world consequences for students. Recent studies have found that students from poorer socio-economic backgrounds scored lower on mathematics and science standardized tests compared to their counterparts of more affluent means.
The Connecticut State Legislature correctly sees the value of a charter school education, as the upcoming school year budget is set to increase funding for charter schools by $600,000 next year. While this momentum is positive, the funding is a drop in the bucket to make up for the 20% gap needed to address the immediate issues of at-risk students compared to their wealthier peers in the state.
Parent Deidre Lindsay is a staunch advocate for an equitable public education system. The mother of four, three of whom attended NBFA in its early years, believes families should be able to choose the public school that best fits the needs of the individual child.
“I found what worked for each of my kids. I don’t think that because of your economic status, you should have to compromise your child’s education. Public education is a right, not a privilege,” Lindsay states. “If you make a million dollars a year and I make $5, my child should be able to get a high quality education just like yours.”
Exercising her parental right to choose the best school for her children, Lindsay has enrolled them in charters, magnets, Catholic, traditional public, parochial and elite private schools. Today, two are teachers, one is an engineer and the youngest is studying forensic science at Loyola. Their success and that of hundreds of other NBFA alumni, underscores the results of a new study from Stanford University’s Center for Research on Educational Outcomes, which found that public charter schools nationwide provide students with stronger learning advancements in both reading and math when compared to traditional public schools.
Across the nation, public charter schools are presenting an effective option to educating the most vulnerable students. Connecticut must completely fix the funding gap issue so NBFA and others can have the proper financial resources needed to advance the learning of all students; respect the rights of parents to choose a free, high quality education for their children; and ensure that more Bridgeport children obtain the education they need to succeed. True equity is way overdue. We’ve been here long enough.
Lawmakers must resolve to eradicate inequitable funding disparities in the state's public schools. In the next legislative session, Connecticut's elected officials must ensure that all public schools have equitable funding and not forget the successes charter schools are providing for those students in need.
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