Corda Resorts To Scare Tactics

Norwalk's School  Superintendent Salvatore Corda threatens to cut athletic and after-school programs, along with teachers and other positions, if the Common Council requires another $3 million to be cut from Corda's proposed 8.3 percent increase in the education budget.

Corda said the $3 million would require eliminating:

• 50 percent of funding for the high school athletic program;

• middle schools' after-school intramural program;

• the dean of students at each high school;

• 50 percent of extracurricular funding;

• a program designed to reduce suspensions;

• seven new teachers recommended to reduce the number of high school students in more than one study hall;

• more than $500,000 from special education funding;

• four literary specialist teachers;four teachers in the academically talented program at the elementary schools.

Corda is resorting to Scare tactics 101. Whenever public administrators are faced with not getting all the money requested for proposed budgets, they threaten unpopular cuts. City managers threaten to cut the number of police officers and firefighters. School superintendents threaten to cut teachers and athletics.

Where does Superintendent Corda get off proposing an 8.3 percent increase in the first place? If $3 million more must be cut from Corda's outrageously large proposed increase, he should protect the teachers and athletics and let the budget axe chop some of the fat from the bureaucratic empire of administrative staff positions he has built at the central office.

Comments

[Diane]

It gets worse. Today he issued some sort of white paper defending his budget, and equates his necessary increase to a $2 per taxpayer increase in taxes, and goes on to question who wouldn't be able to afford that amount of money in Norwalk. How dare he speculate on what we can and can't afford. He doesn't pay any taxes in Norwalk, so he shouldn't propose raising mine. If $2 is reasonable,I'll collect $5.00 from everyone until I get enough to buy out this arrogant bureaucrat's contract, and then ship him home to Purchase NY for good where he can continue to have NO vested interest in the children and citizens of Norwalk.

[Matt]

I'm amazed, actually. This is the first time I can remember that an official hasn't tried to cut funding from the music departments. Perhaps we finally got that message across =)