April_2019

2 CEA ADVISOR APRIL 2019

LEADING

“Not everything that is faced can be changed; but nothing can be changed until it is faced.” James Baldwin, American writer, poet, and social activist

The education community is confronting the ethnic and racial disparity between our nation’s teaching force and student population, and we are facing the issue head-on. In Connecticut, as across the country, a lack of minority teachers means that the teaching community does not adequately represent the

impact of NEA Bylaw 3-1(g), which governs ethnic minority representation at the NEA RA and other related policy and racial justice work. We focused on awareness, capacity building, and action

Leading: Our Perspective

Jeff Leake, CEA President

to engage and activate members, leaders, and

stakeholders in on-the-ground efforts to combat institutional racism and advance racial justice. We are using what we learned to create opportunities for greater member involvement and outreach and the recruitment and retention of ethnic minority educators in our state. In the months ahead, you will have opportunities

student and community population. We know our teachers are doing all they can to help their students by highlighting the strength of their diversity and uniting them together (see story on page 11). But we also know the critical importance of increasing the percentage of minority teachers to represent our state and country’s overall demographics. The National Education Association addressed this disparity in NEA Resolution I-49, which states, “Our Association acknowledges that our society’s historical and current practices have systematically advantaged and privileged people of white European ancestry while disadvantaging and denying rights, opportunities, and equality for people of color. The Association encourages its affiliates to work with family and student partners to develop, initiate, and promote programs that will lead us to repair, heal, organize, and advocate to achieve racial justice so that every student and educator may fulfill their full potential.” Governor Lamont understands the need to shrink the gap between the percentage of minority students in the state and the percentage of minority teachers. At a news conference last month at Harding High School in Bridgeport, he outlined a bill that will expand mortgage assistance and student loan forgiveness programs to more teachers, and encourage more minority students to enter the profession (see story on page 5). CEA supports the governor’s bill and other innovative approaches to recruiting and retaining minority teachers. Together with our members, we have been vocal in supporting several new bills aimed at moving the teaching profession forward to better reflect student diversity and community schools (see pages 4-5). At back-home meetings with their legislators, teachers from across the state have been sharing their concerns on this issue as well as teacher pensions and classroom safety (see story on page 4). And in last month’s CEA Advisor you read about a grant CEA received to help students of color pursue teaching careers. Your leadership team has also been working on strategies to achieve an appropriate ethnic minority delegation to the NEA RA and to advance our racial justice work. Together with our CEA Board of Directors, the leaders of our local affiliates, and our staff, we are encouraging the identification and recruitment of ethnic minority members to become involved at all levels of the Association and to support and advance racial justice in education. We were so proud to have Bridgeport teacher Ana Batista and Waterbury teacher Sean Mosley join us in Washington, D.C., on April 6 along with representatives of 18 NEA state affiliates for a day- long conference, Race Equity in the Association. Together, we worked on identifying and assessing key levers for measuring the success and race equity

Tom Nicholas, CEA Vice President

Donald E. Williams Jr. CEA Executive Director

CEA GOVERNANCE Jeff Leake • President Tom Nicholas • Vice President

Stephanie Wanzer • Secretary Kevin Egan • Treasurer

CEA Vice President Tom Nicholas (center) is joined by Waterbury teacher Sean Mosley and Bridgeport teacher Ana Batista at the National Education Association, in Washington, D.C., for a conference on race equity. Missing from the photo is CEA President Jeff Leake, who also attended the conference.

John Horrigan • NEA Director David Jedidian • NEA Director

CEA ADVISOR STAFF Nancy Andrews • Communications Director Lesia Winiarskyj • Managing Editor Sandra Cassineri • Graphic Designer Laurel Killough • New Media Coordinator April 2019 Volume 61, Number 5 Published by Connecticut Education Association 1-800-842-4316 • 860-525-5641 cea.org CEA Advisor The CEA Advisor is mailed to all CEA members. Annual subscription price is $5.72 (included in membership dues and available only as part of membership). Institutional subscription price: $25.00. Advertising in the CEA Advisor is screened, but the publishing of any advertisement does not imply CEA endorsement of the product, service, or views expressed. CEA Advisor UPS 0129-220 (ISSN 0007-8050) is published in August, October/November, December/ January, February/March, April, May/June, and summer (online) by the Connecticut Education Association, Capitol Place, Suite 500, 21 Oak Street, Hartford, CT 06106-8001, 860-525-5641. Periodicals postage paid at Hartford, Connecticut. Postmaster: Send address changes to CEA Advisor , Connecticut Education Association, Capitol Place, Suite 500, 21 Oak Street, Hartford, CT 06106-8001. Production date: 4-15-2019

to join us in this work as members of CEA’s Ethnic Minority Affairs Commission reach out to ask for your participation in a number of activities, from letter writing to conferences, including an April 25 EMAC workshop, Color of Justice Revisited, at Testo’s Restaurant in Bridgeport. We hope you will join us. Only by facing this issue together can we bring positive change. April 10, 2019 Diversity in education To learn more about CEA’s work to improve the ethnic and racial makeup of our state’s teaching force and how you can get involved, please contact CEA President Jeff Leake at jeffl@cea.org or CEA Vice President Tom Nicholas at tomn@cea.org with the subject line “Racial Justice.” And please take a look at the resources below: neaedjustice.org/racialjustice neaedjustice.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/ Racial-Justice-in-Education.pdf