I love it. Mayor Bill Finch threw a grenade into a gathering of municipal leaders in Hartford on Wednesday assembled to discuss the impact of this economic tsunami on their respective governments.

The mayor had the audacity–and courage–to come out in favor of school vouchers. When chief executives from around the state come together to lobby for additional taxes to fund crippled budgets, they don’t exactly want to hear about a voucher that would allocate public funds to a private school system.

But maybe that would make the public school system stronger. This is Finch at his best–a pain in the ass, fox in the hen house, turd in the punch bowl–grabbing wimpy pols by the nuts to say what they won’t: the current state of public education doesn’t work.

Vouchers provide choice, reduce public class size, while diversifying private school education, Finch stressed. The core of Finch embraces views of an old-time liberal’s liberal, although the reality of governing from a chief executive’s seat has him conflicted about providing more education dollars while homeowners are being taxed into the poor house.

“We’re not fair to black and Puerto Rican kids,” Finch told the gathering, his way of saying the playing field is not even.

There are days the mayor puts his feet on the floor in the morning and says screw it, this is how I feel and I’m letting everyone know about it. Wednesday was one of those days. I’m looking forward to a lot more.

Lots of fantastic, successful kids have come out of city schools with a lot more to come. I have great admiration for city teachers. It’s a different world inside a classroom at Harding High than Joel Barlow serving students in Easton and Redding . Part of that is a state legislature controlled by the suburbs. A link to the BOE web site under the OIB Education heading highlights those successes.

By the way, Finch’s recommended budget is now loaded on the city’s web site. Click the City of Bridgeport link under the Government heading at left, grab a cup of joe and check it out.