A former student, Aleysha Ortiz, is suing the city of Hartford and the local board of education. Ortiz alleges she graduated without learning how to read or write. She claims it was due to negligence and lack of proper support for her developmental disabilities.
The lawsuit claims Ortiz was denied necessary testing for dyslexia. It also claims she was removed from special education curriculum and only tested for developmental disabilities on her last day of school, revealing significant unmet educational needs.
I hope she wins.
I was pigeonholed holed into the remedial track and stonewalled whenever I tried to get out of it. They graduated me without the basic state requirements.
I recently called them just asking for a piece of paper saying that I did not fulfill the requirements and did not properly graduate. They refused me and insisted that I was fine. I did get them to admit that I tested Advance Proficient for science even though I was placed in remedial science.
I just want this piece of (legal)paper so I have one less brainworm while I fix my education for real.
You’re better off. Just getting a GED
I have one. It’s exactly the same as a HS diploma. Just a path to community college.
Standard republican play book: Break shit and when called out wonder why it’s broken.
The school to prison pipeline is malfunctioning because Ortiz was smart enough to sue.
“Republican play book” dude it’s Connecticut. And none the less Hartford. That city hasn’t had a Republican mayor since 1971.
The issue is that educational funding is predominantly on the municipal level, rather than the state level.
The only mention in the article about Republicans is the CT Republicans being outraged about how the schools have failed this child. Which is entirely justifiable.
But rather than look at the underlying system issues lets resort to flinging mud at people who had zero impact in the current situation.
so you’re saying it’s not republicans that are predominately concerned with defunding education?
or that republicans are not routinely “surprised” when their policies cause problems- exactly like this?
interesting. You’re right. I’m just flinging mud. I couldn’t possibly have a valid point (like maybe don’t get rid of the fucking department of education.)
By the way. Your stats on funding sources is wrong. (PDF warning, but here’s the budget break down as of April '24
a screen grab of the overall breakdown:
I was stating the CT Republicans had little to no impact on the outcome of this student’s education because they have little impact on local politics in such a blue area. And resulting should have no reason to presume that any policy stances of their have an impact on the people of Hartford.
If Trump stripped the Dept of Education on day one that still would be irrelevant here as this student is the victim of over a decade of the school system failing them.
On your BTW, my point wasn’t about Hartford’s education costs but more on broader educational costs. In suburban CT well funded schools get nearly 70% of their expenses paid for by local property taxes. The failure of the city of Hartford to raise funds on the municipal level vs other municipalities is relevant here. Which of course stems from the difference in economics status between their citizens. Hence my critique of local funding playing such a big role.
CT has some of the finest public schools in the nation. But they sure as hell are not the ones in Hartford.
On your BTW, my point wasn’t about Hartford’s education costs but more on broader educational costs. In suburban CT well funded schools get nearly 70% of their expenses paid for by local property taxes. The failure of the city of Hartford to raise funds on the municipal level vs other municipalities is relevant here. Which of course stems from the difference in economics status between their citizens. Hence my critique of local funding playing such a big role.
CT has some of the finest public schools in the nation. But they sure as hell are not the ones in Hartford.
“well funded schools” in what I’m guessing are… rich, white, suburbs.
hartford is lowest in terms of per-capita income. So blaming the city for their residents not being wealthy is… rather a dick move.
I was stating the CT Republicans had little to no impact on the outcome of this student’s education because they have little impact on local politics in such a blue area. And resulting should have no reason to presume that any policy stances of their have an impact on the people of Hartford.
If CT republicans are more eager to dump money on education int heir state than CT dems are, then they’re an entirely different breed of republicans than anywhere else in this country. Which is why education funding in red states is vastly exceeded by education funding in blue states.
which brings me back to my original point: It’s patently disingenuous, hypocritical and totally on brand, for a republican to call out failures as being related to funding when they’re predominately the ones who predominately called for the funding to be cut. Reduced education spending is a core part of the republican agenda. And it has been for as long as I can remember.
Personally, I rather expect the issue has more to do with school administration rather than funding. Of course, the school district would blame a lack of funding- that’s somebody else’s fault. They’re certainly not going to admit to systemic failures.
US in last fucking place in 1st world in Education, life expectancy but the number one in war. This teen needs to join the army, lose a leg and become a hero if he wants to be somebody. Thank you for your service sucker.
Except she’s a woman, so very likely to be sexually assaulted in the military (and that’s if she even gets in, DEI and all that), and vets get shafted as well. Her losing a leg to an IED will be ruled “not service related,” and she will be denied any funds related to care or issues resulting from said injury after she leaves the military.
Holding kids back & provide extra support costs the school money. A large percentage of schools either don’t have the money or their bloated bureaucracies are siphoning off the money. Where I live the average pay for teaching is like $22/hr. but people in admin easily make upwards of $100/hr. Additionally, the admin staff is many times larger than the staff at multiple schools.
I hate to go ‘Boy, I don’t buy it’ but, uh, I kinda don’t?
This is one of those things that COULD happen, as long as every teacher, every administrator and the state itself were all intentionally trying to make it happen.
CT has standardized tests that are required to be taken to progress through school, so how can someone who can’t read or write pass those?
And EVERY teacher she had from first grade on just accepted the fact she clearly was unable to read or write, and thus was almost certainly not doing any work, and just decided that’s a-ok and we’ll just pass her along anyways without doing anything?
Somehow feels like there’s a lot more to this story than just her side as presented by that article.
CT has standardized tests that are required to be taken to progress through school
I don’t know about CT, but I deliberately failed one of my state required tests in NJ and they passed me anyway. It’s all theater.
Me: “My kid has a learning disability. Can you give her some reasonable accommodations?”
My Kids School: “But does she really though?”
Me: “Uh, yeah. She has a diagnosis. From a psychiatrist. Also, you have noticed her grades are abysmal, right?”
School: “They’re not that bad. She’s actually doing pretty well.”
Me: “She has mostly D’s and F’s. Is that seriously what you consider ‘pretty well’?”
School: “…”
I’m doing some major paraphrasing but this is the gist of actual conversations with my daughters school administration. I’m not saying I believe it’s very likely that someone could graduate without being able to read and write. I’m just saying that in some school districts, there’s a greater than zero percent chance of that happening.
As a teacher, admin will not listen.
“Hey this kid cannot read. Hey this kid smells like shit and has been wearing the same outfit for the past two weeks. Hey this kid is telling her classmates which gas stations will sell vape carts to minors.”
As a teacher, do you pass students who cannot read? While your grievances are fair, OP makes some very valid points.
Yes, I did, because failing a student required me to set up a parent meeting and getting them to agree to a contract with a list of assignments that the student could turn in at any point up until the last day of the semester.
I’ve read that in some states, it doesn’t matter if they pass or fail. Or that failing isn’t a thing that happens to students.
Either way, they don’t get held back. Grade level is a stand in for age, nothing more, in some places.
I absolutely buy it. I know someone whose job it is to teach kids in grade 6-8 how to read. Some can’t read three letter words. This is in a blue state. This teacher I know frequently talks about most of her colleagues being grossly negligent in a variety of ways.
I graduated many years ago now, but I did graduate with someone who could not read or write. He was a sport prodigy, so they lied to keep him playing. It definitely happens.
(without looking into it to verify) isn’t this likely because of “no child left behind”?
if it is, they’re doing it wrong. it means to help everyone graduate, not abandon everyone and set the bar so low everyone auto-graduates
No Child Left Behind was designed to defund schools. If it wanted to fix things, poor test results would result in a investigation and overhaul of the district. Instead it just punished the school with less federal funds.
