BRIDGEPORT — Mayor Bill Finch, excoriated in recent days over his proposed budget that would deeply cut the school health clinics, said Tuesday the clinics could remain open if they were privatized.

Finch, at a news conference in City Hall Annex, announced the formation of a seven-member committee that will make recommendations for turning over operation of the 10 school clinics to private health care providers.

The committee, comprising mostly health care professionals, will take about three weeks to come up with a new model for nine in-school health care centers. Optimus Health Care, a private nonprofit agency, already manages a 10th clinic.

"My charge to them is to provide the same services that the children are getting now," Finch said. "But it's no mystery that there are other entities that can bill at a much higher rate than we are billing now."

Finch was referring to the reimbursement the city gets from Medicaid for services provided at the clinics. Other health care providers can bill Medicaid at a higher rate than the city if they're federally qualified, officials say.

"I know it was tough for the mayor to take all of the type of criticism that he's taken recently, all the while knowing that his intentions were never to leave the children behind," said City Councilman Ezequiel Santiago, D-131. "It's very important that everyone knows that a lot of work has been going on behind the scenes — it's really a benefit for the city."

Finch said

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that one or more health care suppliers — ranging from a private physician to one or both of the city's two hospitals — could take over the clinics.

"Our marching orders from the mayor are to make sure that the services provided to our children here in the city do not diminish at all," said Alana Kabel, the city's deputy chief administrative officer, and also a committee member.

The committee will begin meeting this week, she said. The mayor said that "wherever possible," clinic employees laid off because of budget cuts will be offered jobs under the facilities' new management.

City officials say there are 60 clinic employees, 20 of whom are in danger of losing their jobs.

"We're going to go out to the health care delivery community and say, ' What do you got? What can you do to help our kids? How can you pay for it? How much money will you need on top of that?' " Finch said.

The mayor added that the clinics see about 65 percent of the students in the schools they serve. As for why the city hadn't looked into privatization earlier, Finch said, "I think you can see the price you pay when you suggest something like this," in reference to protests from parents.

He also criticized the federal government for failing to provide universal health care, as well as the state General Assembly for failing to pass a progressive income tax that would transfer more of the burden of paying for the state's neediest residents in the larger cities to the state's wealthier residents.

But the Legislature, top-loaded with representatives from the suburbs, has shown little interest in changing the taxation status quo.

The mayor said that school health clinics in Connecticut's other large cities — Hartford, New Haven and Norwalk, for example — are operated by outside providers.

Catherine Sullivan-DeCarlo, the spokeswoman for New Haven public schools, said that school clinics in the Elm City are run by several health care organizations, including the Hospital of St. Raphael and Yale-New Haven Hospital.

In Waterbury, school clinics are operated by the city's Health Department and overseen by the school system, according to spokeswoman Nancy Vaughan.