It’s time for Connecticut legislators to free families from the diaper tax, giving them and their children the same boost as states like Massachusetts, Minnesota and New Jersey. The Connecticut Office of Fiscal Analysis has determined that liberating baby diapers from the state sales tax would free up $4.3 million annually, thereby leaving moms and dads with more money to care for their babies.
Schools/Child Welfare
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Connecticut must keep up the momentum in school integration
A new report from UCLA shows us how far Connecticut has come since the Sheff v. O’Neill school desegregation case in Hartford — and how far we still have to go. Connecticut is the lone success story among states in the Northeast, bucking a national trend toward more racially segregated schools,
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Let’s not put Connecticut children on the medical marijuana bandwagon
We owe it to our children and youth to be careful not to jump on the “marijuana band wagon.” I urge the legislators of this state to exercise caution and prudence in moving forward with laws increasing our youth’s access to medical marijuana.
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Connecticut policy on life-threatening food allergies in schools needs refinement
We are unaware of what will come of the legislature’s task force investigation on the subject, but it is obvious that there is a serious need for policies and practices to be revised and implemented around the management of life-threatening food allergies in schools.
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Connecticut should ban flame retardant chemicals in kids’ products
There is a bill before the CT State Legislature which would ban some flame retardant chemicals from children’s products. Does this sound counter intuitive? It is not. An Act Concerning Toxic Fire Retardants in Children’s Products, is an opportunity for us to rectify this dangerous exposure of our children to toxic chemicals that are linked to many serious diseases.
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Great need, great opportunity, for educational advancement in Connecticut
At a time when coalitions, community groups, faith-based leaders, educators, and parents across the state are committed to addressing educational injustice in significant ways, this is a moment of great need and great opportunity. We call on members of our Congressional delegation to move education in Connecticut forward, and not roll backwards.
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Myths about Bridgeport charters hurt the entire community
Let’s get one thing straight: Bridgeport charter schools do not syphon money away from traditional public schools. This is not only the most pervasive myth about charter schools, it’s also the most damaging.
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Connecticut is in trouble, but we can fix it
Connecticut is in trouble, but we can fix it if we work together. Here are some strategies for improving life in our state.
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Governor, let’s invest in, not harm, an education project that works
The work teachers do to teach good writing is more than just words to them and their students. That’s only part of the reason why state legislators should not let Gov. Dannel Malloy cut funding to summer and after-school programs like the Connecticut Writing Project at Fairfield University.
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Connecticut’s SBAC testing will bring an egregious contradiction
Generalizations like “efficiency,” “accountability,” and “reliability” have been used time and again to describe the benefits of standardized tests. SBAC is no different. However, before Connecticut lawmakers authorize SBAC testing in Connecticut, they should understand what those terms mean for the parents, teachers, and, most significantly, students who will, day in, day out, live with the realities these terms eschew.
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Connecticut lawmakers should pass comprehensive charter school reform
Connecticut children need new, high-quality school options, and Connecticut taxpayers need an updated charter law that ensures those schools are well run and successfully monitored. We encourage the General Assembly to focus on passing comprehensive charter authorizing reform that implements all of the policies above – but to leave the moratorium on the cutting room floor.
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Bridgeport public schools losing big money to charters
Recent claims about charter schools and their funding by the state director of the Northeast Charter Schools Network are false and misleading, at least as they pertain to Bridgeport. According to one city school administrator’s calculations, charter schools will siphon away over $26 million dollars from our school system over the next five years.
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Connecticut should provide bilingual education for all
We need to embrace the fact that speaking more than one language is a 21st-century skill that all American students should have, yet our state is lagging behind others in its adoption of bilingual education programs. So, people of Connecticut, its time that we demand that our state takes the lead on providing quality bilingual education for all children, K-12.
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One educator’s wish list for renewal of No Child Left Behind Act
The No Child Left Behind Act is up for renewal. Most famous was its promise of having all U.S. students proficient in reading and math by 2014. That was the year the U.S. would again be number one in education; that year has come and gone. Here is my wish list for the No Child Left Behind reauthorization.
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CEA rhetoric not helping kids, public schools are
The CEA’s recent Op-Ed, “Connecticut charter schools a good idea gone awry,” made a bunch of claims that aren’t only false, they’re dishonest and frankly insulting to parents who are exercising their right to choose a school for their children.