Osmanu Draws On “Lived Experience” For State Rep Campaign

by PAUL BASS The new haven independent

Abdul Osmanu was a 14-year-old high school sophomore when he first geeked out on the state Education Cost Sharing (ECS) formula.
Now he’s a 22-year-old candidate for state legislative office looking to apply what he learned to help public schools improve.
Osmanu, a Hamden Legislative Council member, is one of three candidates seeking the Democratic nomination for the open 94th General Assembly District seat in an Aug. 13 primary. The others are Steve Winter and Tarolyn Moore. Incumbent State Rep. Robyn Porter is retiring after 10 years in the post. The district includes southern Hamden and New Haven’s Newhallville and Prospect Hill neighborhoods.
Campaigning “on the doors,” Osmanu has heard most of all about the need for better schools and productive stuff for kids to do, Osmanu said during a conversation Tuesday on WNHH FM’s “Dateline New Haven” program.
A core challenge for improving schools involves increasing state funding through ECS, Osmanu said, an issue he learned about when he did a project about ECS for his sophomore AP U.S. Government class at Hamden High School.
His takeaway from the project at the time?
“There is a mandated amount of money that the state is supposed to give us by their own formula that they don’t always actually match up to giving us in full and total.” That “hampers” the ability of the school system to “offer us certain programs.”
If elected, Osmanu vows to push for increased funding through ECS in part by joining other Democrats calling for revisiting the state’s “volatility cap.” That’s a different formula, one that limits how much of a certain year’s tax receipts the state can spend. The cap, the product of a bipartisan 2017 legislative deal, has improved state finances by filling the rainy day fund and paying down debt. “I am not by any means saying we should spend down all the surplus” but rather that the state should “adjust fiscal guard rails” based on the better-than-expected revenues that have come in since the formula was established, Osmanu said. (Read more about the issue here.)
Even if such a revisiting takes place next session (the governor opposes it), legislators will still need to make painful choices between which pressing needs to fund. Osmanu said he would put housing and education — both pre-K-12 and college-level — at the top of his priority list.
On housing he’d support proposals discussed in previous sessions to stabilize rents and expand just-cause eviction protections to renters.
Osmanu said he takes those stands out of personal experience, one reason he argues that people should vote for him.
For instance, his family faced foreclosure when he was 8 years old. In the end, help from Yale Law School’s housing clinic helped them remain in their home.
Similarly, he temporarily lost his health insurance last year when a short-term job (managing Liam Brennan’s New Haven Democratic mayoral campaign) increased his income.
“I actually have some of the lived experience that we need” to tackle issues at the Capitol, Osmanu said. He called himself “someone who’s going to go up and fight, similar to how Rep. Porter did. I’m someone who’s seen what housing insecurity looks like.”
The Democratic Socialists of America and the Working Families Party have endorsed Osmanu’s campaign. He and fellow DSA- and WFP-endorsed state representative candidate from Hamden, Laurie Sweet, are holding a campaign canvassing kick-off rally at Villano Park this Saturday starting at noon.