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CSCU consolidation Dear legislators: What might arguably be the most important moment in the long, contentious history of Students First and the Board of Regent’s controversial community college consolidation plan occurred on March 11 at a Higher Education and Employment Advancement Committee meeting. In the four years I was chair of this committee, I’ve heard Students First spoken of positively about only in these presentations by your administration. I think I took one single meeting with two professors who came in to talk with me positively about this proposal. I’ve been contacted li...

House Bill 6441 gives municipalities new and better tools to address climate change Reef Ball Project at Stratford Point There is a sense of urgency in communities across the state to take action to respond and adapt to climate change.  Ask any municipal chief elected officer, town manager, planner, or engineer: There is no shortage of ideas or projects.  There is, however, a shortage of funds. Paterson and LaFrance With just weeks left in the 2021 legislative session, the Connecticut General Assembly has a pivotal opportunity to address that fiscal issue head-on by approving Governor L...

End arrests of young children in Connecticut You’re standing in an elementary school hallway. A fourth grader and a fifth grader get into a fight. Nervous to intervene, a school employee calls the police. A cruiser arrives quickly. The children are arrested and led from school in handcuffs. Andrew Fleischmann Hard to imagine? It’s allowed, and it’s happening in Connecticut schools today. In fact, Connecticut kids as young as seven are being arrested. And, though a host of organizations advising the legislature requested our state’s age of adjudication be raised to 12 – so that a chi...

Congress must protect the Charter Schools Program. A generation of kids are depending on it. I am a mom, an education advocate, and a native of Connecticut. During the pandemic, public schools in my state have struggled mightily to meet the needs of students and families. During this difficult time, I’ve been heartened by the nimbleness of the charter school sector. Gwen Samuel Although my child did not have the opportunity to attend one, I can see that these innovative public schools had the flexibility to pivot when they were forced into remote learning and are uniquely set up to meet the...

Protecting all children: Promoting health equity by insuring undocumented children The General Assembly’s Appropriations Committee has favorably voted out  S.B. 956, An Act Providing Medical Assistance to Certain Individuals Regardless of Immigration Status.  The state, not surprisingly, has countered with a fiscal note that presents a two-year cost-estimate of $267 million to $374 million. But what if the cost of gradually insuring everyone who is eligible for health insurance in the state but for their immigration status works out to less than ten percent of that amount?  Wouldn’t th...