Press Conference on Education Funding for Bridgeport Public Schools (05/11/2026)

Bridgeport leaders, elected officials, educators, and community members gathered at Fairchild Wheeler Interdistrict Multi-Magnet Campus to celebrate historic investments secured for Bridgeport Public Schools and the collective partnership that made it possible.

Mayor Joe Ganim, Interim Superintendent Dr. Royce Avery, Chair of the State Delegation Christopher Rosario, members of the Bridgeport legislative delegation, City Council President Jeanette Herron and members of the City Council, Board of Education Chair Jennifer Perez, Board members, and community stakeholders came together following the passage of the State budget and City Council Budget Committee budget to recognize a major step forward for Bridgeport students and schools.

The press conference highlighted a combined $35 million in proposed new funding support for Bridgeport Public Schools, including a $15 million increase in state Educational Cost Sharing funding and an additional $20 million in local and state support. Mayor Ganim and City Council leadership also discussed the City’s proposal to further increase local funding for Bridgeport Public Schools, which includes accelerating $10 million in local funding for the upcoming fiscal year and directing an additional $10 million in state Mohegan-Pequot funding to the district. The proposal is expected to advance to the full City Council for a final vote on Tuesday evening.

Leaders emphasized that these investments will help protect classrooms, preserve essential positions, and continue supporting students, families, and staff across the district while keeping the focus on student success and long term stability.

Speakers thanked the Bridgeport legislative delegation, the Mayor’s Office, City Council members, Governor Ned Lamont, Senate President Martin Looney, Speaker Matt Ritter, and community advocates for standing together and prioritizing public education. The event reflected a united commitment to ensuring Bridgeport students have the opportunities, resources, and support they deserve.

Transcript

SPEAKER_10 0:02

Good afternoon, everybody. Uh, welcome to today's press conference. I'm State Representative Chris Rosario, Chair of the Bridgeport Legislative Delegation, and it's an honor to be together with a host of community leaders, uh, folks who have been championing uh education funding and just other issues for the city of Bridgeport. And I just want to uh tout all the hard work that this legislative delegation has done, historic funding for education, uh, support for our nonprofits, uh, keeping our schools and communities safe, uh, as well as investing in our child care uh um and early childhood education for the city of Bridgeport. Uh, you're gonna be hearing from members of our delegation. We're gonna start off with our senators. Uh, we have Senator Gatkar Wilcox and Senator Heron Gaston, and they can come up and say a few words.

SPEAKER_04 0:58

Uh good morning, everybody. Uh it's good to see everybody here. I'm a call and response person, so I like when you talk back. Uh, we worked indefatigably as a delegation to make sure that we're bringing back uh dollars and resources to the city of Bridgeport. Um, I want to just pay homage to uh one of the best delegations, if not the best delegation in Hartford, uh led by our fearless leader and chair, Christopher Rosario. Can we give him a round of applause along with all of you? We know that education is critically important for our young people. Um with an educated population, uh, our students can give back to the world, uh to their families, uh, and just create a healthier and safer community when we invest properly in education. Um, so I want to just thank the uh Superintendent Public Schools for his advocacy, for his leadership, for his vision for Bridgeport Public Schools. And I do believe uh that goodness is getting ready to rise from the ashes and that what has happened historically uh is going to be uh dealt with in a very proper manner moving forward, that our schools will be properly funded. And you have advocates and champions both in the House and in the Senate, each and every day, uh, who go up there and we think about our young people because we know they are truly our future. Uh, we've also made deep investments in the nonprofit world. Uh, we know that nonprofits uh are the backbone to our communities as well. We hear all the time where the attorney general say that the world runs on Duncan. We say that in Bridgeport, uh our communities run also on our nonprofit organizations providing services, whether we talk about mental health, uh all the way to food insecurity, and we are addressing those concerns and needs. And so I just want to uh just offer up a few words on behalf of our Senate leadership. Uh they work with us very uh uh hand in hand this time, making sure that what we need for Bridgeport uh came to fruition, uh, in addition to uh what the vision was in the House, and making sure that we're on one accord uh to bring back these resources. And so I'm just uh blessed and fortunate to serve with this wonderful delegation and to all of the community leaders who helped uh push us in the right direction and making sure that we have our finger on the pulse of what matters most to the city of Bridgeport. And I also want to lastly say thank you to the city council uh that's here with us on today as well. Uh we help bring the resources down, and then you all help to make sure they get distributed properly throughout the community, and you work hard every day for your constituents. So we want to also say thank you uh for your partnership and all the work that we've done. Thank you, everybody.

SPEAKER_03 3:35

Good morning, everyone. I'm State Senator Sujada Gadkar Wilcox. Um, I'm so thrilled that we're able to make this historic investment in education. Um, and for me, especially, everything is historic. It's the end of my first uh session, uh, my first my first term uh in the Senate, and so I'm so glad that we got a lot done. Uh in what what I heard was a very short session and not much gets done. Um and that's really important because uh even in a short session, you know, it goes education is non-negotiable. And I'm glad that we made an investment in education. Uh, I'm really proud to be with this delegation. Uh, I know that in the House and the Senate we had different approaches uh to how to make that uh to that education funding work, um, but that we came together and we we advocated with our leadership. So I just wanted to, you know, thank the leadership in both the House and especially our Senate leadership for listening to us every day when we came to say, you know, what else are we doing to make sure we support education? Um and also to stand with this entire team of advocates here, um, all the way from uh the city to the town council to city council to the Board of Education to our state delegation. Um it's just it's inspiring to know that we can use our voice uh to make sure that our children get what they deserve, which is um the best quality education that we can possibly give them. Um and while I'm glad that we made this first step, I think there's still a lot more work to be done. Um and so I'm very glad that the governor has put together this blue ribbon commission to look at the ECS formula because I think we do have to make sure that it is in fact equitable. So one of the challenges for us this year was to make sure that we uh provide the proper investment that Bridgeport needs immediately, but in the long run, we have to adjust the formula so that we don't have these gaps year after year. Um, and I'm so glad that we're gonna be able to do that. Um, and I know there were so many in the community that were advocating for education as well, and I know they will keep doing that because it was that grassroots momentum that really helped push that conversation along, push the funding to happen for this year, and and also that will well make sure that you know no city um is left out of the conversation when it comes to that Blue Ribbon Commission, and that we have historic investments in education going forward. That's what we should be prioritizing as a state. It's certainly the most important thing to me. I just want to mention that later today the governor is also signing um House Bill 5003, which is an important labor bill, so a lot of workers' protections are in there, including protections for teachers. So there's a lot that we've done in education around students, around teachers, um, and I'm so proud of this whole delegation, of this entire team, uh, and just to be here with you today. Thank you so much.

SPEAKER_10 6:17

Thank you, Senator. I know they're not here, but let's give a uh strong round of applause on Senator President Martin Looney on a great career, and Senate Majority Leader Bob Duff. Let's give them a round of applause. We're here for a reason. We're in Representative Fred G's district here, Fairchild Wheeler. He's got some amazing news to share. Representative Fred G.

SPEAKER_05 6:40

Good morning, good morning. Welcome to the 126th, the best district in the city. We heard the clarion call. We heard the clarion call from students, from parents, from teachers, the delegation, the mayor's office, city council, all of the constituents and the stakeholders in the city of Bridgeport came together and we made it known. It was egregious that the state would underfund this city for so long. $11,500 per student was an egregious act against our students. And we fought hard together as a unit to make sure that the funding that this city needs to push our students forward into the future was adhered to. And I'm glad to stand with this delegation that we stood together, arm in arm, to make sure that the resources that we needed were coming back to this city. We thank the mayor for his advocacy, we thank the city council for standing with us, and most of all, we thank the superintendent and the board of ed for working with us every step of the way. We are not finished yet. We have more work to do. I know the governor has his blue ribbon uh commission that's going to look into ECS funding, but we're not going to stop until every student is accounted for and every dollar is allocated to the city of Bridgeport. The fight goes on, the future is ours, and I'm glad to stand with these people to fight for our city. God bless you. I'm talking about BMA. BMA. BMA Bridgeport Military. Bridgeport Military Academy. We have, I forgot what we did.

SPEAKER_10 8:21

It's going to be coming here.

SPEAKER_05 8:23

It's going to be coming here. It's going to be coming to the 126. That's right. We passed the legislation. I'm talking about money today, but BMA is coming to the one district of 126, and we're excited for that to happen in this community. Thank you.

SPEAKER_10 8:36

All right. We're going to have the chair of the Judiciary Committee, Steve Stashram, come up, followed by the chair of the legislative black of Puerto Rican caucus, Antonio Felipe. All right.

SPEAKER_06 8:52

Thank you, Chris. And look, I I think you've already heard it from my colleagues. You continue to hear it. We heard the advocacy. We heard loud and clear from folks around this city that investing in education was the number one, number two, number three, and number four priorities this legislative session. And the delegation, I you know, 12 years I've been up here. This delegation every year seems to get tighter and tighter and tighter and working together for one common goal, which is what happened this year. And you saw the results of that. You saw a historic investment in education. You saw us standing united with the mayor and with the city council to say the state is going to do the lion's share of the work and lead the way. But we need the city to meet us in their own budget, and we're very appreciative of the city council stepping up and adding $10 million in their budget for education funding. Um we've fought in terms of looking at investing in infrastructure. Certainly last year we secured the money for a new special education school, and I know we're standing with the governor as he looks at is there a more equitable way to fund special education than to rely solely on local districts to do that. I know there's an announcement forthcoming on another uh potential new school, right? I'll leave that for somebody else. But the um but the other things that this budget in this year showed us is in addition to the direct dollars, we've also provided an opportunity for the city board of ed to look at MARB. Uh we know I know we have some of the technical assistance team who's been working with Bridgeport with us here. We want to further capitalize on that. Um, there are resources available through MARB to continue to not just fill the current gut budget deficit, but to actually build back. We know we need to bring librarians back, we know we need to bring social workers back into our schools. There's investments that have to be made above and beyond just filling the gap. We've also invested in this budget in early childhood education. We know that the more prepared a student can be coming into the schools, the better it is. So I really want to thank uh the superintendent and his staff as well on that. And finally, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention some of the work beyond just what may be seen as pure education. You know, I was heartbroken to see the article the other day in the Connecticut Post about 700 students who have not shown up to school because they're afraid of ICE enforcement. This legislature this year, and this delegation in particular, stood very firm and said we are under attack from the federal government. We have nameless, faceless ICE agents who are wreaking havoc in our communities. We are not gonna stand for it, and we led the way in passing the strongest anti-ICE bill anywhere in the nation in order to protect the constitutional rights of our citizens. And frankly, I think that's gonna be as important as we continue to move forward and reinvest in our schools. So thank you all for your leadership this year.

SPEAKER_10 11:57

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Before I have Antonio, chair of the Legislative Black and Puerto Rican caucus, come up. I do want to quote one of our colleagues right before the end of session, uh, Representative Corey Paris from Stanford. He saw us all leaving uh the speaker's office and he said, Man, we gotta get our stuff together because Bridgeport's kicking our butts. So times have changed. Representative Felipe.

SPEAKER_07 12:23

Good morning, everybody. I don't know if we're standing in the best district in the city of Bridgeport, but uh, but I won't lie, it's pretty nice over here, even though those BMA kids, the few that do come here, they're gonna miss the South E. I just want to really quick step back for a second and give everybody kind of a feel for where we really are. Because I sit here and I know with my delegation members with the city and with the Board of Education behind me, uh, we squeezed water from a stone this year, and we still didn't get everything that we know we needed. Not that we asked for, that we needed. Right? We got $25 million. It is a tremendous accomplishment. It's the second time that this delegation has gotten the largest amount of ECS funding in one year to this school district. But to but to sit here and say that that is enough would be to lie to folks, right? We want to talk about a blue ribbon commission. You need to continue to call to hold us accountable. The blue ribbon commission could be something that far and away does something tremendous for the city of Bridgeport, or it can be another study with a blue ribbon on it. We need to make that decision to hold everybody accountable to make sure that the dollars go where they need to go. I remember when I chaired the subcommittee on appropriations for education, and the things that we did to help Bridgeport were increasing the weights for concentrated poverty, right? Where was not looking at how property taxes are in our ECS formula? Why do we have to keep our city in poverty in order to get more money? Why do we have to make sure that our property values have to rise to a certain amount to make sure that we get more money? Why can't we look at the needs as they stand? Every time that we want to do something to develop the city, to make it the entertainment capital that it is, to make it a hub for this state of Connecticut, we have to look back and say, well, you might miss out on some funding because you're not going to be in this concentrated poverty level anymore. You might not have the same level of free and reduced price lunch. Or you might have to price out your neighbors in order to get that boost in property taxes. I am here saying that it was a tremendous thing that we did, and I want to make sure that we are proud of that. I want to make sure we're proud of the city for the $10 million that they are putting in. But in no way should be this should this be where we stop, should this be the end of the road. Hold us accountable all summer as we run for office, hold the governor accountable as he runs for office, and make sure that next year we're coming back and we're talking about the inequities that we haven't quite addressed yet. Thank you, everybody.

SPEAKER_10 14:45

Thank you. We got the chair of public health, Representative McCarthy Vahy.

SPEAKER_00 14:52

Thanks, Sir Fazario. I am going to echo what has been said here. What I think about is those crew teams who are out on the river and rowing together. And that's what I think. We've all been in this boat together with the people from the city, our mayor, our city council leaders, the delegation together, as you've heard, the people from the technical assistance team who've been incredible to work with and help support the city, our leaders in Hartford. Represario mentioned Senator Looney and Senator Duff. Representative Ritter, the speaker, and our majority leader, Jason Rojas, have also been amazing in terms of supporting us. And every parent and student, and that's really where I want to focus my remarks, is on the students. They are our future and they are why we are here. Their voices were so powerful in this advocacy effort. The incredible gift of their presence, their strength, and their promise when they came before us in Hartford and told us why it was so important that these funds are invested now, today. And I couldn't agree more that this is not over. This is a conversation that must continue. We have a system of funding education that is based in inequality. It is based in the property tax. It is based in every single separate municipality being funded. So certainly districts like Trumbull, Fairfield, Darien, Greenwich, Westport, and others come to the table with different resources to start. And Bridgeport as a city supports all of those communities in the services that we provide. This is also part of the conversation that we need to continue to look at. How we address those property tax and some of those structural inequities. So today, I know some have said this shouldn't be a victory lap, but I'll call this a gratitude lap. I'm going to say thank you to every single leader who is standing here, every leader who is standing in front of us today, and all those who are part of this really historic investment above and beyond in education. But we all know and we go clear-eyed into the next steps that we have to continue to do more. Why? Because of our students. They are at the heart of what we do. So thank you to all of you, especially who are educators, the superintendent, our teachers, and I see some of our administrative leaders here today for what you do to help make sure that these students are able to believe and achieve that promise that we are trying to provide. Thank you.

SPEAKER_10 17:50

Thank you. Any other members of the delegation here? Okay, before uh I'm gonna have the mayor come up, but before I do that, uh I do want to ask each and every person behind me to give a strong round of applause to the mayor's staff, Constance Vickers, Tom Godet, Anthony Pailetto, from the superintendent's office, Giancarlo. None of this wouldn't happen without their assistance. So I'm gonna say publicly thank you. And and next, I just want to give a big strong round of applause and a welcome to our mayor, Joe Gannon.

unknown 18:21

Thank you.

SPEAKER_08 18:23

And to our to Chris, right back at you and the delegation. Uh, you mentioned the city council, the board of education, our superintendent. We banned those. And you know, a lot has been said. I want to join the choir, um, as you said, in an appreciative or thank you lap to uh everyone who's here and those that are not here, those that have been mentioned that and those that haven't, to see the results of real hard work and leadership by our delegation, as was pointed out, with the support of leadership in Hartford all the way up, in large part through the collective and cohesive work of so many. And I don't know who said it, whether it was Steve or Chris, but this delegation um has taken front row center in demanding, in demanding that Bridgeport get its fair share. And today is a historic day in that process. We want to say thank you to that. Thank you for your hard work in bringing the dollars back to the students of the Bridgeport schools. And note that you know, we've said it the word uh teamwork and working together. We see how impactful it is, a delegation that stands together. Uh I dare say, with a mayor and a city council and a and a superintendent and a board of education that have all shouted from every opportunity at every microphone at every forum to speak up for the children, maybe the largest still school district in the state of Connecticut, certainly with the largest share of needs and challenges that are being met and overcome on a day-to-day basis without enough money. So today, in many ways, is an appreciation lap, but it is a historic day for Bridgeport schools. One that in the in the figurative speech of kind of push starting a car towards equality, towards equity and funding. The only way we can get there, we can provide uh the best teachers which we have, we can provide some of the best schools, and I dare say we have those too. And we can compete at every level, our students can, but we need the funding, and this is a big step for schools. You know, we felt at a local level, myself as mayor, as you pointed out, um, the management team, our city council, that um this was an opportunity to meet the state and say not only do we asking for demanding, as you brought back, uh tens of millions of dollars back to the city of Bridgeport, that we would step up to with the burdens that we have on a local budget. This is and will continue to be a top priority. Thank you. Let's continue to not only advocate together, but produce the results that we've seen come together today. And as I think each of you said, we'll be with you next year and the session after. The battle goes on for our students, for our children of the Bridgeport Schools. Chris and the delegation, thank you so much.

SPEAKER_10 21:08

Thank you, Mayor. Next, I'm gonna have Council President Jeanette Heron, followed by her budget chair, uh Ernie Newton.

SPEAKER_11 21:17

All right, thank you, thank you, thank you. Good morning, Bridgeport. Today you see powerful leaders in the back of me. These people have done so much hard work for the community, for our students. But I have to say to the community, you are not, if you are not seen, you are not heard. We still need you in this coming year to advocate with us. The Board of Ed will start to do that push again. We will call, we will ask, we will advocate. Come and join us. Next year is going to be even tougher, but we can do it with the delegation here. They've heard us. Hartford has heard us, and the governor has heard us. So I want to thank the community first and foremost for fighting for your. Children. Keep it up. We're here to help. Call us. Whatever we need to do, we're gonna do. My budget co-chairs worked really diligently to make sure we were able to put more money into what we need. It's not enough yet. We're gonna get there. I was out of town. I was on Zoom meetings and team meetings every single day to make sure we were all working together with the mayor's office, with the delegation, with my council colleagues, and we have several here. So thank you. We are gonna work harder. Hartford, thank you for being here and working as hard as you guys have as well. Thank you. Thank you.

SPEAKER_09 22:41

Thank you, um council president. You know, the state sent a loud, clear message to Bridgeport that we want you all to put some skin in the game. And I think the mayor in his budget, five million this year, five million next year. But we also took ten million of peacock dollars that go to our budget to get the council to agree to put it towards education. That's a $20 million increase from the city. I want to thank the delegation, the governor, as a person who served and fought real hard to try to get them to give us more money. The reality is happening now. So I want to thank everybody. Wasn't easy. We had to, I don't want to say twist arms, but we will vote on the budget on tomorrow, and hopefully it'll go smooth as I'm hoping than it did in the committee meetings, but I think we'll be okay. But Bridgeport stepped up to the plate as the delegation asked us to, and we put in 20 million of taxpayer dollars to help fund education. Thank you all. Thank you, Councilman.

SPEAKER_10 24:15

You know, the NFL just recently had their draft, and I know the NBA just had a draft lottery, and sometimes when you pick somebody number one, you're not sure if you're the guy. I want to publicly say we have our guy, Dr. Avery. Come on up.

SPEAKER_01 24:31

Awesome.

SPEAKER_09 24:31

I hope the board heard that.

SPEAKER_01 24:34

I want to say thank you this morning. Uh, I think, you know, thank God for having me, bringing me to Bridgeport. It's been a great experience coming to this city, uh, engaging an educational system that has you know opportunity to be one of the best in Connecticut, and we're on our way. This is a thank you for you know providing the necessary funding to be able to make this district what it is. Uh, we have so much hidden potential, and I think the state, the city, the board, this whole community is going to put Connecticut to the test. You know, you have to invest in children in order for the community to even thrive. And so we're way uh way ahead of the game right now. Uh $25 million from the state, 10 from the city is a great start. Uh, and I think for me, taking this leadership role over 18, 20 months ago, and not really knowing where we were gonna go, uh, and just staying grounded and trying to make sure that we do step by step and getting people together to make that happen. Uh Chris Rosario and his team and the delegation, you know, tireless meetings after meeting after meeting about what we need. Uh, you know, Mayor and the City Council, Jeanette, you know, and her team, making sure, meeting after meeting, talking about what is really needed and what the city can do. Uh uh there's just such a great opportunity. The senators, you know, bringing your your expertise together and bringing it all together in one package is meaningful. Uh the Board of Ed and Jennifer Perez and her leadership, uh, my my non-board member, you know, uh, you know, uh group that led what we did every day since then. My my educational cabinet, uh 100% behind me every step of the way. Uh the the community, the families, and I can tell you, one of the things we did to put forward this year was students. Student voice is a key to success. When you saw our kids perform and do what they need to do to advocate for the other children, most of these, most of these students that presented were seniors getting ready to leave. They want to leave a legacy for what's to come in this district. And so, very, very powerful. Uh, and the best is yet to come. So, if we're invested, if you give us the money that we need to do, I will make sure that the funds are invested in the children that will thrive in this community. So, I thank you, thank you, thank you. Uh, I want to put a shout out to my family, they've been a very huge support in getting me here and keeping me here, uh, even though it's cold, but it's good. So, again, I thank you guys. Thank you for welcoming with open arms to this community. And I I'm here to stay uh if you want me. So I'm here. Awesome.

SPEAKER_10 27:29

All right, thank you, superintendent. Next is our chair of our board of education, Jennifer Perez. Let's give her a round of applause.

SPEAKER_02 27:38

Good morning. Um, I want to begin by expressing gratitude to the mayor's office, um, our state delegation, our city council, and our superintendent and his cabinet and team for the investment they've made to Bridgeport Public Schools this year. Over the past several months, we've had honest and collaborative conversations with our delegation, our city council, and the mayor's office about the realities facing our district and the urgent need for additional funding. Today's announcement reflects what can happen when the city and the state leaders come together with shared understanding in investing in our children. This moment is bittersweet. We are deeply appreciative of this funding, and we believe it will help stabilize the district this year. However, we we know that many families are struggling right now. Um there's a lot of uncertainty with this world, and just a lot of financial strain happening with our district. And I think it's really important that they have a place, that our students have a place to come to every day and know that there's gonna be stability. Um we know that this is just a start. Even with the increase, our district continues to face significant challenges. And I just want to leave this here with our educators and our our our administrators, who I see a few here today. Um, the Fair Child Wheeler behind us, a lot of our students here have been great advocates at the state, led by their administrative um administrators. So I thank you um for being here and and for your support and those who are behind the scenes as well. Um we couldn't do this without you guys. And um just want to thank all the the teachers and staff, um, the cabinet who have really shown up for us, and our board members, who are um I believe two of them are behind me our vice chair Joseph Halovic and Rob Traeber, along with um the rest of the seven, uh the other nine, or I'm you know what I mean. Uh and so just want to again thank you. This is just a start. We know next year we're gonna come out swinging and really um have to come together again for increased funding. So this is just an amazing start, and I we really thank you all for being here. Awesome.

SPEAKER_10 29:52

Thank you. Also, I want to give a big shout out to Rob Traver and the Anhoc committee. Let's give them a round of applause. We had a very significant conversation not too long ago, and I want to continue those. I'm not sure if there's anybody else from the delegation that wants to speak, but in closing, I do want to recognize uh our majority leader, Jason Rojas, but more specifically, our speaker, Matt Ritter. In my time in the legislature, there has been no better speaker for the city of Bridgeport than Matt Ritter. Let's give him a round of applause. Very early on, he publicly said Bridgeport is the priority. Now, in many years past, he's we've had New Haven come at him, we've had Hartford come at him, Waterbury, everybody come at him, and he said no, Bridgeport is the priority. He kept his word, and I'm gonna publicly thank him. Let's give him another round of applause.