Gateway Community College Professor Colena Sesanker said consolidations over the years have had an impact.
“Costs are adding up, our students are paying for those costs, not just in the actual dollars, but in the reduced services,” Sesanker said.
“The money isn’t getting to the classrooms. The money isn’t getting to the students,” she added.
She said when teaching positions are vacant they go unfilled but they are hiring administrators.
“That means our students aren’t getting services required, but we have lots of people doing fancy things in offices,” Sesanker said.
Chikwon Loyd, a senior at Capital Community College, who is the first in his family to go to college, said the state should prioritize education funding.
If the legislature approves the program, which requires fuel suppliers to buy permits for pollution, it will go into effect in 2023. Fuel suppliers are expected to pass the extra cost onto consumers.
“These taxes are the most regressive taxes. They’re going to hit the middle and lower-income harder than they would at the higher echelons,” Kelly said.
But Democratic lawmakers argue it s all for a good cause lowering carbon emissions.
“Here we are joining together to really combat climate change,” Sen. Christine Cohen, D-Guilford, said.
Cohen, who co-chairs the Environment Committee, says they will be putting the money raised from fuel providers toward lowering carbon emissions and investing in things like electric vehicles.
Zoning/Open Space Public Hearing Abruptly Halted Written by Sarah Clark
HARTFORD, CT – Today, CT Democrats on the legislature s Planning & Development Committee closed down a public hearing on multiple bills that raise questions of environmental zoning issues, open space preservation and overdevelopment, and local control, in effect turning away over 150 people who had signed up to testify.
Republicans sought to recess the hearing and restart it following today’s House session to give the public the opportunity to continue testifying at a later date or time. Democrats denied the request and ended the hearing.
Senate Republican Leader Kevin Kelly (R-Stratford)
Battle over a proposed mansion tax highlights CT s affordability issues
Alexander Soule
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Martin Looney, D-New Haven, is sworn in as Senate President Pro Tempore during the of the start the legislative session held outside at the State Capitol, in Hartford, Conn. Jan. 6, 2021.Ned Gerard / Hearst Connecticut Media
For East Hartford resident Torrina Evans, it’s about long, stressful nights spent figuring out how to make ends meet on the low pay she draws in disabilities services.
For Woodbury’s Deborah Schultz, it comes down to how much more she’ll have to shell out in retirement, dipping into a lifetime of earnings she and her husband saved over the years.