Though the legislature’s Education Committee and the Higher Education and Employment Advancement Committee have different sets of priorities this year, some underlying themes are being echoed in both groups, including greater equity and accessibility in not just the classroom, but also the workplace.
Members of the Education Committee plan to use the 2024 legislative session, which begins Feb. 7, to build on work from last year’s aggressive agenda, with a focus on relief from mandates on districts, making the teacher certification process less overbearing and consideration of expert recommendations on special and early education.
Members of the Higher Ed Committee plan to discuss additional funding for the state’s public universities and colleges, expand initiatives for greater accessibility to higher education or certificate programs for underrepresented students and consider ending legacy admissions at Connecticut universities.
K-12
Rep. Jeff Currey, D-East Hartford, said education was a top priority for “every leader of each respective caucus” in 2023 — something he had never seen in his nine years in the legislature.
Currey, who is co-chair of the Education Committee, said the committee accomplished everything it wanted to, including the passage of two omnibus bills, Senate Bill 1 and House Bill 6762, that targeted dozens of issues like school climate, teacher recruitment, services for multilingual parents and increased Education Cost Share funding.
Now, the committee wants to carry that momentum into 2024 through the help of several task forces that have worked throughout the summer and fall to generate recommendations.
The mandate relief group, formed out of last year’s session, has met every month and gone through binders of education requirements — deciding whether some are still needed, repetitive or if they need to be “tweaked,” Currey said.
“And we’ve got some ideas on how to best move forward if and when the legislature decides that it wants to add certain things, whether it be professional development, in-service training, various studies — things like that,” Currey said. “[We hope] there’s going to be more of a check and balance when it comes to those mandates. We’re also looking to have a package of how we can provide some relief to districts.”
The Teacher Certification Council also builds on efforts last year to recruit and retain more educators.
“In the last 30 years we have not really touched our certifications. And it’s all just a mishmash of regulations, statutes and guidance,” Currey said.
To teach in Connecticut, educators must first pass a college-entrance exam, complete an approved educator preparation program then pass a content area assessment, according to the state website. Connecticut also requires “a three-tiered certification continuum that recognizes the progression of a teacher’s professional career,” the Connecticut Education Association said. Teachers are issued three certificates: the initial educator, the provisional educator, and the professional educator.
“It’s time to really find a way to streamline that and make the process a bit ‘easier,’ and I put easier in quotes because oftentimes people confuse easier with lesser standards. That is not the objective here,” Currey said. “[The state Department of Education through the council] has done tremendous work with reciprocity and those types of things to help build teacher retention and the recruitment process.”
Currey also expects to hear recommendations from a special education task force, chaired by Fran Rabinowitz, the executive director of the Connecticut Association of Public School Superintendents, and Andrew Feinstein, a long-time education attorney.
Early education legislation is also expected to be drafted based on recommendations from the Blue Ribbon Panel, an expert panel created from an executive order last year to address early childhood initiatives.
The five-year improvement plan, submitted in December from the panel, proposed dozens of “key action steps” over the next five years, starting with workforce development, teacher benefits and compensation, and improvements to system infrastructure in the first three years.
“These [recommendations] are separate from what folks [from the teacher unions or other stakeholders] may have as far as other priorities,” Currey said. “But this is hopefully going to be some of the things that we focus on, in addition to ensuring that the $150 million [of ECS funding] we secured [last year] is being provided to districts.”
Higher Education
The state’s public higher education institutions, including the community college system, regional state universities and the University of Connecticut have been vocal for months about funding challenges as COVID-19 relief money runs out.
The Connecticut State Universities and Colleges system has been preparing for a steep $140 million shortfall in the upcoming fiscal year, which will begin in July. UConn is also anticipating a $70 million deficit.
The unbalanced budgets have triggered worry among faculty and staff as union members within these institutions all say budget cuts may result in layoffs, reduced services for students and increased workloads for staff.
Rep. Gregory Haddad, D-Mansfield, who serves as a co-chair on the Higher Education and Employment Advancement Committee, said he and other lawmakers had seen the higher education “crisis coming from a long way away,” citing burdens from the pandemic, demographic shifts, revenue shortfalls and now an “evaporation” of COVID-19 federal funds as contributing factors.
“I think this is going to be a priority — to do what we can to be as supportive as we can of the idea that we should be investing in public higher education in Connecticut,” Haddad said. “But, we’re not the money committee. That’s the Appropriations Committee. So we will be doing what we can to be supportive of additional funding, but we’re not the ones who make the [final] decision.”
As for other priorities that the committee may have more control over, Haddad said lawmakers will focus on making higher education more accessible and equitable.
Legislators plan to look at banning legacy admissions in Connecticut, a practice that gives preference to applicants who have a familial relationship to alumni.
Last year, Wesleyan University announced that it would end legacy admissions — a decision that came weeks after the Supreme Court ruled that race-conscious admissions were unconstitutional.
“Prior to the Supreme Court decision, Black and Hispanic high school students already faced challenges that made it much less likely for them to go to college, and to take away from colleges and universities the best tool they had to sort of mitigate that difference, will only make it harder,” Haddad said. “So, legacy admissions is one thing that we will do.”
Similarly, Haddad said another priority would be to “bolster” the Minority Advancement Program, which supports K-12 students with academic resources including help with completing college and financial aid applications.
For students who don’t want to go to college, the committee plans to continue working on workforce development initiatives, particularly in regards to certificate programs.
Haddad also mentioned a focus on the oversight of private occupational schools, noting the closure of Stone Academy, a nursing school that abruptly shut down last February and left hundreds of students in limbo for months as the state audited the validity of their classes, hours and clinicals.
“We’re having a conversation with the Office of Higher Education to see if there are things that we can do that will help bolster their ability to respond to those closures and maybe even do more to prevent them in the first place,” Haddad said.