On the state’s 2022 Smarter Balanced assessment exams, given to students in third through eighth grade, 60.5 percent met standards in English, compared with 60.4 percent statewide, and 57 percent met standards in math, compared with 65 percent statewide. (Stamford, a nearby city with a 16,000-student district, didn’t fare much differently: 57 percent of students met standards in English and 58 percent met standards in math.)
Overall, 65 percent of Bridgeport’s students are eligible for free or reduced-cost meals, while the statewide figure is 41 percent. Bridgeport’s six high schools have a four-year graduation rate of 76 percent, versus Connecticut’s 90 percent overall rate.
School officials say Bridgeport’s system is chronically underfunded. Last year, spending there was $16,439 a student; in contrast, Stamford spent $19,625, according to state data.
The Commute
Bridgeport has a major stop on Metro-North’s New Haven train line, from which 10 trains depart for Grand Central on weekdays between 6 and 8 a.m. The shortest trip takes an hour and 21 minutes; the longest takes an hour and 45 minutes. A monthly pass is about $384. The stop, downtown on Water Street, also offers Amtrak service.
The Greater Bridgeport Transit bus system also offers service along more than a dozen routes within the city and beyond it.
Bridgeport has enjoyed ferry service to Long Island since 1872, when crops were hauled to the city’s factories. In the winter, boats carrying cars depart 10 times a day for Port Jefferson, a trip that takes an hour and 15 minutes. The fee for most vehicles is $68.
The History
Employees of a major pie bakery on Kossuth Street once passed the time in the parking lot by throwing empty pie tins back and forth. The pastime, at William Frisbie’s bakery, soon became a hit with local children, according to the Bridgeport History Center at the Bridgeport Public Library, and the children turned it into a sport. Yalies in New Haven followed suit, calling the game “Frisbie.” In the 1950s, Wham-O, a California company, made plastic versions of the tins and tweaked the name slightly, producing the Frisbee.
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Source: | This article originally belongs to Nytimes.com
