It’s hard to believe 121 pink slips have been issued to Enfield teachers — a scene being repeated in cities and towns across the state — while the state sits on a projected $270 million surplus, after tucking $1.4 billion extra cash under its mattress.
It’s astonishing that year after year our state has refused to acknowledge the pandemic sacrifices of our teachers at the same time we’re sitting on a rainy day fund of nearly $6.6 billion. With billions of dollars at our disposal, it’s unfathomable that Connecticut won’t fully fund special education or support the high costs of early childhood education, leaving Enfield, Danbury, Stratford, New London, and every municipality in between to shoulder that financial burden even as their budgets fall far short of what’s needed.
And it’s hard to believe we are arguing about giving educators fair dismissal rules — the same protections afforded to nearly every school employee, from custodial to administrative support staff — in the midst of a crisis of respect in our profession.
Connecticut, what are we doing?
For decades, we’ve rested on the idea that our education system is one of the best in the country, and you won’t get an argument from me. But the reason that still holds true today is that we are essentially asking educators to live and serve as martyrs.
We refuse to provide a living wage for our starting educators, we allow damaging rhetoric to lead public comment on education, and we continue to micromanage and overregulate public education to the point that we are compounding the shortage of educators in our state.
Thinking we can keep doing more with less is not a strategy for success.
What do job seekers and job creators value? What brings families into an area and keeps them there? Where do businesses locate and thrive?
For answers, let’s turn to our friends in real estate. What do they use to evaluate and sell property? The education system, access to health care, and public safety are all significant metrics. Each of those fields, however, is facing a workforce shortage.
What happens without these key public service providers? I certainly hope we never find out, but to avoid that kind of crisis, we need intentional and visible support, meaningful and sustainable investment, and legislators who back up their pro-educator statements with action.
We need to take a hard look in the mirror and remind ourselves that government exists for the purpose of taking care of our communities, not to turn a profit. We look to our government to use its collective resources to grow our economy and serve our communities.
It’s no accident that Connecticut’s education system has long been ranked among the nation’s best. Getting there took years of careful investment and the shared belief that our education system is only as good as what we put into it.
Research bears out that educators matter more to student achievement than any other aspect of schooling and that a strong educator workforce is the single most important investment in student success.
Withholding funds that would allow our education system and the cities and towns served by our schools to thrive is a move in the wrong direction. What took years of effort to achieve could take only a legislative session or two to dismantle.
It’s election season, and our educator workforce is massive. We serve over 500,000 students and their families in this state. We matter, and it’s worth reminding legislators that educators not only teach, and we not only shape the future of our state, but we also vote.
It’s time to step up and support educators. Talk is cheap but a winning, high-performing public school system is not.
Kate Dias is President of the Connecticut Education Association.