April

LOBBYING

APRIL 2018 CEA ADVISOR 7

REJECT CEO-Led Commission Recommendations— Raising Taxes, Taking Aim at Worker Freedoms and Teacher Pensions Raising the state sales and gas taxes, eliminating the estate and gift taxes, selectively raising business taxes, eliminating collective bargaining for state workers, and reforming the Teachers’ Retirement System were just a few of the recommendations released by the Commission on Fiscal Stability and Economic Growth. The 14-member commission, made up mostly of wealthy business executives— nine of whom have strong ties to the Connecticut Business and Industry Association—proposed 10 key recommendations, the majority of which take aim at the state’s middle class. “There is much to unpack in the commission’s report, but raising taxes that disproportionately harm the middle class while providing tax cuts for the wealthy is not a formula that makes sense,” said CEA Executive Director Donald Williams. “Raising the state sales tax and gas tax while eliminating the estate and gift taxes and lowering income taxes most significantly for the wealthy are not the bold reforms our state needs to help grow our economy. While we agree with other recommendations to improve our infrastructure and cities, we oppose taking away the rights of working men and women that will worsen wage inequality and make Connecticut less attractive for skilled employees,” Williams said. While the commission called for increasing the minimum wage to $15 per hour, it also called for striking collective bargaining rights for state workers, which would put state employee pension benefits and funding in the hands of the legislature—the very body that has underfunded the Teachers’ Retirement System for decades, thereby creating a significant unfunded liability that has jeopardized the fund’s solvency. The group also recommended changes to the contribution levels and benefits of the Teachers’ Retirement Fund. CEA is advocating against the most egregious parts of this plan and urging legislators not to accept these harmful proposals. One proposal put forth by the commission—using revenue from the state lottery system for the Teachers’ Retirement Fund—is a concept CEA could support, said Williams, noting that it could reduce the unfunded liability, ensure a consistent revenue stream, and improve the long-term viability of the fund. (See story, page 5.)

REJECT Lower Standards for Teacher Certification and Provisional Certificates to Charter School Teachers as a Way of Recruiting Minority Educators trauma, coupled with displacement and uncertainty,” said Rossomando. “The educational needs of these children go beyond classroom space and include English language assistance, access to social workers, trauma- informed instructional practices, and potentially additional aid to provide for daily necessities. CEA urges the legislature to consider these additional needs as it determines how best it can serve the children of Puerto Rico who are now the children of Connecticut.” SUPPORT Assistance for Schools That Have Enrolled Students from Puerto Rico Displaced by Hurricane Maria An estimated 1,500 children from Puerto Rico are enrolled in Connecticut schools after being displaced from their homes in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria, and these schools have received no additional funds or support. Ray Rossomando, CEA’s Director of Policy, Research, and Government Relations, testified in favor of a bill to help school districts serving these students. “The children affected by this disaster have experienced a severe

A bill that would relax teacher certification requirements, ostensibly as a way of recruiting minority teachers, is “a slap in the face to the decades of struggle that people of color have spent overcoming the stigma of not being as good as our non-minority colleagues,” said Bridgeport teacher Mia Dimbo. Dimbo, a member of Connecticut’s Minority Teacher Recruitment Policy Oversight Council and CEA’s Ethnic Minority Affairs Commission, testified against the proposal, along with Dr. Lara White, a The bill, they said, opens the door to business-run charter schools to “certify” teachers who do not meet the same standards as their counterparts in Connecticut’s traditional public schools. “This bill reduces professional standards under the pretext of luring more minorities into becoming classroom teachers,” said Dimbo. “I am social studies teacher at West Hartford’s Hall High School. socioeconomic barriers to prove they are as capable as their colleagues. There is a difference between removing requirements that create unnecessary hurdles and lowering professional standards.” “I ask that the members of the panel support districts that are creating innovative programs to identify and recruit students of color to careers in education,” said White. “As a practicing teacher of color, I cannot support any proposals that would lower the standards, professionalism, or expectations for any Connecticut educator.” “It is obvious,” Dimbo said, “that the intent of this bill is to make teacher certification more dependent on who you know than what you know. Certainly, the state’s business-run charter management organizations welcome this bill.” In some business-run charters, she noted, more than half the teaching staff is uncertified, which exceeds the legal maximum of 40 percent. Teacher turnover in those schools is excessively high, with most teachers leaving within three years. “This is one of the many insidious ways that business-run charters profit from taxpayer monies. They hire unqualified teaching staff to deliver scripted lessons and zero-tolerance discipline policies, pay them low wages, insulted, as are all teaching professionals who overcame

overwork them, and repeat this cycle every time one of them resigns because they are tired of being exploited. This bill would certify individuals to teach even if they do not have a single college-level course in teaching.” “As an experienced teacher of color who has taught in Connecticut magnet, charter, and public schools and who has tirelessly supported efforts to recruit and retain more teachers of color, I have concerns about the contents of this bill,” White added. “I am apprehensive about suspending professional credentials and preparation programs to allow charter schools to hire teachers who would be unprepared and overwhelmed.” The chronic problem of high teacher turnover and lack of teacher preparation within business-run charters, she said, would only be exacerbated by a bill that lowers the bar. Teachers Mia Dimbo (above) and Dr. Lara White (below) object to a bill that weakens teacher certification standards.

CEA Executive Director Donald Williams (left), Connecticut AFL-CIO President Lori Pelletier, and AFSCME Council 4 Executive Director Sal Luciano talk to reporters about the commission’s report.

SUPPORT Protecting Student/Teacher Data Privacy

Data on students—and with it, teacher and classroom data—must be protected from breach, abuse, and misuse, especially by third parties profiting from the collected data. That’s the position CEA has taken in supporting a bill that would ensure parents are informed about data privacy laws and the collection of student data by third parties. “In recent years, CEA sought to protect classroom information from the dangers of insecurity and negligence after incidents of loose data arose in Connecticut when third-party contractors provided services without paying heed to data security,” CEA’s Ray Rossomando told members of the legislature’s Education Committee. “Together

with a handful of other states, Connecticut is setting the standard for online protection. Yet there are a small number of large online companies arguing that compliance is too difficult. They are using their power to force a standoff between compliance and the educational needs of students, and they are arguing that Connecticut should simply roll back its law and defer to FERPA.” Created in 1974, before most people had touchtone dialing in their homes, FERPA is a federal student privacy law that has not evolved with the times. “With this bill,” Rossomando told the committee, “you come down on the side of the children, and we support you on this.”