This is the second time Segarra's campaign has stretched the city's graduation rates for rhetorical gain.
Mayor Pedro Segarra is making his case for reelection this fall. But his fundraising emails still contain some questionable numbers.
The fundraising email's subject line says five years of progress. It was sent Thursday to supporters celebrating Segarra's leadership and giving them "five reasons to support Pedro on his fifth anniversary."
One of those reasons is that graduation rates have gone from 29 percent to 71 percent. The problem is, when he took office the average graduation rate was 57 percent.
"It's extremely misleading. It's factually not true," said Richard Wareing, who Segarra appointed to the board of education. He serves as it chairman. The two have recently tangled over budgets, but Wareing said he hasn't publicly committed to a mayoral candidate.
"It's extremely misleading. It's factually not true."
Richard Wareing
"It's demonstrably not true," he said. "I can't say whether it's more incompetent than it is dishonest or more dishonest than it is incompetent. Because it's both."
The campaign said in a statement that the email should have clarified that the graduation rates actually go back to 2006 -- when Segarra was on the city council. But Wareing said that's not how the email reads.
"If the mayor is relying on the fact that he was on council when the graduation rate was 29 percent and now it's 71 percent, I mean, with due respect to the council, they don't really have a role in public education," Wareing said.
This is the second time Segarra's campaign has stretched the city's graduation rates for rhetorical gain. Earlier this year, he told donors that "graduation rates have more than doubled since I took office."
