David E.A. Carson, former head of People’s Savings Bank, now Peoples United, was one of four long-time supporters of public education honored Tuesday morning by The Bridgeport Public Education Fund, an organization he helped get off the ground in 1983. Carson, in brief remarks, spoke forcefully about the nature of public education. He emphasized that “public” means exactly that, and that all constituencies, most partidularly the students, have to be included in the process. “No one constituency should own public education,” he said. “And the public owns it when – sorry, Mayor – people elect their school board members.” The remark drew substantial applause in the ballroom of the Bridgeport Holiday Inn. The audience included Bridgeport Mayor Bill Finch, an advocate of a mayorally-appointed school board. Just minutes earlier, in fact, the mayor had once again extolled the virtues of an appointed board to the roughly 300 people in attendance.
The other honorees were Geraldine Johnson, the city’s first female and African-American schools superintendent; Phyllis G. Marsilius, a BPEF founder and Elizabeth M. Pfriem, a philanthropist who has long supported education initiatives in the city.
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It is easy for David Carson to preach from Cape Cod. He has no idea how bad things were in the Bridgeport School System. Plaudits to Bob Trefey and his group.It is still democracy. If you do not like the people Finch appoints or anything else he does then you vote him out. As that great philosopher Bill Parcells said ” If you want me to cook the meal then let me do the shopping”
When David Carson long a leader in Bridgeport’s business community goes against the sleazy policies of Bill FInch and the Bridgeport Regional Business Council one should realize how sleazy Mayor FInch’s attempt to squelch democracy on the BofEd is!
Wise words from a prominent member of our community. I hope Finch choked on his lunch….I wonder if the Mayor was sober at the time