CEA-Advisor_February-March-2023-issue_no-ballot_web

FEBRUARY – MARCH 2023 CEA ADVISOR 9

HERS’ STORIES, VOICES n accounts, classroom realities

Talking to legislators is key to getting our legislation passed. Tell them your personal stories. Understanding the real, day-to-day impact of everything from hot classrooms to high caseloads is powerful, and it’s easier when lawmakers can put faces and names to the issues. • Call, write, and email them. (Find your legislator at cea.org/legislative-resources .) • Subscribe to the CEA Daily ( cea.org/daily ) and check your inbox for CEA Action Alerts that let you know where and when your voice can make the biggest difference. • Attend CEA meetings and events where legislators come to listen to your concerns. CEA regularly organizes legislative “back-home” meetings where teachers can speak directly with their local senators and representatives in their home or school districts about their challenges. These meetings happen in person in your district as well as on Zoom, and they are an important way for your elected officials to connect with their constituents, hear your stories, and take your message back to their colleagues at the State Capitol so that good laws to support teachers, students, and public schools can be passed. The Torrington Education Association recently hosted Representatives Michelle Cook and Jay Case as well as Senators Stephen Harding and Lisa Seminara to share their experiences related to teacher safety, the reading program, standardized testing, the kindergarten start age, and teacher and paraeducator recruitment and retention. As a result of similar meetings, Cook has introduced a bill into the legislature that addresses teacher safety in cases of dysregulated student behavior. TEACHERS TELL IT LIKE IT IS Senators Julie Kushner and Ceci Maher and Representative Keith Denning participated in a CEA organized Zoom meeting with Ridgefield educators, who also spoke about the reality of unsafe, disruptive student behaviors, unrealistic workloads, and the need for greater incentives for people to enter and remain in the teaching profession. Expressing concern that the growing needs of students and reduced capacity to meet those needs make it difficult to attract and retain teachers, Kushner—who, among other things, has introduced a bill to lower the years of credit teachers need to receive their full pension—emphasized that more needs to be done to support educators. “This is an issue we must keep pushing.” Denning agreed. “I applaud all the work you’re doing, I've been working with the supers, and we are looking at these issues at the legislative level.” Rep. Keith Denning and Sen. Julie Kushner, shown here at CEA’s Breakfast with Legislators, also participated in a virtual “back-home” meeting to hear concerns from Ridgefield teachers.

A VOICE—AND A WIN—FOR STUDENTS In an emergency vote on February 9, the Connecticut General Assembly unanimously passed legislation to extend free school meals to all students through the end of this school year. Legislators voted to direct $60 million from the federal American Rescue Plan Act to K-12 breakfast and lunch programs. CEA Vice President Joslyn DeLancey, who testified on a bill that would ensure free school meals beyond this school year, said, “Our members routinely reach into their pockets to buy meals for students. Every day, even in the most affluent school districts, teachers witness children going hungry. This crucial measure—expanding the school meal program to all students—will prevent that.” “I’m trained as a social studies teacher, but the expectations go far beyond that. They include worrying about test scores while also making sure we aren’t piling too much onto our students, because they're too stressed. I am one teacher, and almost half my kids have individualized education plans.” “It really saddens me to see my friends and colleagues who are excellent educators but who are also burnt out. Seventy-four percent of Connecticut teachers are currently considering leaving the profession. Enable our teachers to be the best they can be by giving them the resources and time they need.” Back-home meetings are happening now. Contact myvoice@cea.org to schedule one in your district. “How very tiring this work is. It’s crushing to finish your workday and have just as many hours facing you because of what it takes to be prepared to teach the kids in front of you. We are looking for some relief from the exhaustion. What can be done to make the work of the teacher more manageable? That would be my number-one ask.” “I typically work through my lunch and feel devalued. We are all still rebounding from COVID, including our students. I have never seen so many anxious kids, and I worked in a psychiatric hospital before I became a teacher.” Among the candid firsthand accounts educators have shared with legislators are these. “We have kids throwing furniture. We have kids hitting teachers. We have some kids with unusual and threatening behavior, and no one knows what to do with them.” “We had a student smash a whiteboard over another student. Teachers are getting physically ill from the stress, and when they're out, we don't have subs. We have a child who thinks he is a dinosaur and has clawed, bitten, and drawn blood from teachers multiple times. No learning happens in that classroom while we are dealing with these behaviors. I came from the business world, where I felt so much more protected and supported.” “The evaluation process that teachers have to go through needs to be fixed. We are the most overevaluated profession there is.”

cut lawmakers met with more than 100 teachers, g members of CEA’s Legislative Commission photo from top), to discuss the challenges s face and ways legislators can help. THE DATE! s CEA Lobby Day at the State Wear #RedforEd and come share ries and ideas with legislators.