A well-done report showing the need to improve education for young children in New Britain will be released tonight at the Vance Village School.
The Leadership Work Group, a project of the New Britain Discovery Collaborative is releasing the report, "Blueprint for Improving The Lives of New Britain’s Young Children Birth Through 3rd Grade". This report is very thorough, and the parents and other community participants, especially Merrill Gay of the Discovery Collaborative, deserve thanks for their hard work in getting it done.
The report focuses on improving the education and well-being of children from birth to the third grade, based on evidence showing that children who fall behind by the third grade are more likely to have difficulty in many ways the rest of their lives. It has been shown that maintaining a child's well-being and educational opportunity in every one of these first years of life is critical for a lifetime of successful learning and achievement.
The report show that the challenges facing New Britain's children are great. Here are just a few troubling statistics (from the report):
In certain important ways, the report is very timely. Gov. Rell has just proposed a "Deficit Mitigation Plan" that proposes cuts to a number of important services that benefit the people of the state. Some of those cuts would reduce exactly the things that this report shows need to be improved.
For example, the report cites how important it is to have state funded programs to reach out to expectant parents and link them with key services to ensure that they have healthy babies. But Gov. Rell's newest budget proposal would cut funding for the Children's Trust Fund, which supports exactly those services in New Britain. Gov. Rell's budget proposal would also cut funding for child day care and teen pregnancy prevention, two other things the report says need better state support in New Britain.
So this report shows why Gov. Rell's budget plans are unfair for the people of New Britain. Clearly, we need a better plan than this so that the state budget is balanced, not just in dollars and cents, but balanced in the values we should uphold.
The report takes things a step further by clearly laying-out the reasons for some of the key things I have been fighting for at the state Capitol, for example,
For being one of the wealthiest states, Connecticut has some of the most intense inequality in the nation and has one of the more frugal state governments (as a UConn study has shown). The result of this is that there is little funding available as I and other legislators advocate for education and other services, like those the blue-print report calls for, and well as for reforms to lower unfair property taxes and similar inequalities.
As a legislator representing a district that includes middle class and poorer people and families, it is frustrating to watch the combination of a Governor and state legislators, who are from wealthy communities, blocking efforts to make the budget priorities of the state fairer for the middle class and poor.
One of the reasons the "Blueprint for Improving The Lives of New Britain’s Young Children Birth Through 3rd Grade" is important and valuable is how clearly it lays out why certain funding priorities are important for the most important and vulnerable members of our community - the youngest.
Making the goals of this report a reality will take a lot of hard work. I plan to use the good work that went into this report to continue my efforts to build a stronger community.
The Leadership Work Group, a project of the New Britain Discovery Collaborative is releasing the report, "Blueprint for Improving The Lives of New Britain’s Young Children Birth Through 3rd Grade". This report is very thorough, and the parents and other community participants, especially Merrill Gay of the Discovery Collaborative, deserve thanks for their hard work in getting it done.
The report focuses on improving the education and well-being of children from birth to the third grade, based on evidence showing that children who fall behind by the third grade are more likely to have difficulty in many ways the rest of their lives. It has been shown that maintaining a child's well-being and educational opportunity in every one of these first years of life is critical for a lifetime of successful learning and achievement.
The report show that the challenges facing New Britain's children are great. Here are just a few troubling statistics (from the report):
- 36% of third graders read at grade level, the 2nd lowest level in the state
- 15-20% of children have insufficient language, literacy and numeracy skills when they arrive at kindergarten
- Only 10% of children starting kindergarten in 2008 were rated fully ready by their teachers
- 39% of children starting kindergarten in 2008 were perceived by their teachers to not be ready
- 21% of children arrive at kindergarten with no preschool experience
- poverty among New Britain children is great - 62.7% of children are eligible for free or reduced price meals at school
- 300 children are on the waiting list for infant/toddler childcare
- 9.8% of babies are born at less than 5.5 lbs., exceeding the state average of 8%
- 16% of babies are born to teen mothers, more than double the state average of 6.5%
- 37% of pregnant women do not receive adequate prenatal care
- Obesity rates among young children are rapidly increasing: 19.4% of 4 year olds are obese, 18.1% of 3 year olds are obese
- The 63% of children who rely on HUSKY face significant barriers in accessing any type of specialty care
- Despite improvement in preventive dental care, access to restorative dental care remains very limited
A. Reducing the number of Low Birthweight Babies...and then the report proposes concrete strategies to improve the quality of life and educational opportunities for kids in those key areas.
B. Increasing the number of Mothers with a High School Diploma
C. Reducing the rate of Obesity in 3 and 4 year old Children
D. Increasing the number of Children Ready for Kindergarten
E. Increasing the number of Children Reading at Grade Level
In certain important ways, the report is very timely. Gov. Rell has just proposed a "Deficit Mitigation Plan" that proposes cuts to a number of important services that benefit the people of the state. Some of those cuts would reduce exactly the things that this report shows need to be improved.
For example, the report cites how important it is to have state funded programs to reach out to expectant parents and link them with key services to ensure that they have healthy babies. But Gov. Rell's newest budget proposal would cut funding for the Children's Trust Fund, which supports exactly those services in New Britain. Gov. Rell's budget proposal would also cut funding for child day care and teen pregnancy prevention, two other things the report says need better state support in New Britain.
So this report shows why Gov. Rell's budget plans are unfair for the people of New Britain. Clearly, we need a better plan than this so that the state budget is balanced, not just in dollars and cents, but balanced in the values we should uphold.
The report takes things a step further by clearly laying-out the reasons for some of the key things I have been fighting for at the state Capitol, for example,
- Education funding. I have been pressing for significant increases in state funding for our local schools - and I and the other New Britain legislators have won millions of dollars of increased education aid for New Britain. But, there is much more that needs to be done. For example, the report points out that kindergarten classrooms should have education paraprofessional - something held up by budget constraints. As I have been pointing out at the State Capitol, Gov. Rell's own education funding task force recommended that New Britain should receive an increase of $30 million a year in education aid (and similar increases for other big cities) to provide an equitable education for New Britain's kids. Another group, CCJEF, produced a study that says that the increase for New Britain should actually be $88 million a year. That is why, while we have won millions of dollars of increased state aid for our local schools, I continue to fight hard for more.
- More pre-school classrooms. I am proud that we won, in the State Legislature, significant increases in the number of early childhood education classrooms for New Britain kids in the past few years. But, as the report points out, there are more than three hundred children who still need access to pre-school classrooms. Completing this work is a high priority for me.
- Pre-School teacher pay. Increasing the number of early childhood classrooms in New Britain was a real achievement. But today's blue-print report shows that a major obstacle for young children is the need for their pre-school teachers to be better trained. The problem is that pre-school (day care) staff are generally so poorly paid that, to provide for their own families, they tend to quickly leave for better paying jobs. This leaves little time for professional development to turn them into highly skilled pre-school teachers. The solution is simple, but expensive - pre-school teachers need to be paid better - much better. As helpful as Gov. Rell's administration has been in expanding early childhood education classrooms, she has not really addressed the pre-school teacher pay issue - which is nearly as critical as expanding pre-school classroom spaces.
For being one of the wealthiest states, Connecticut has some of the most intense inequality in the nation and has one of the more frugal state governments (as a UConn study has shown). The result of this is that there is little funding available as I and other legislators advocate for education and other services, like those the blue-print report calls for, and well as for reforms to lower unfair property taxes and similar inequalities.
As a legislator representing a district that includes middle class and poorer people and families, it is frustrating to watch the combination of a Governor and state legislators, who are from wealthy communities, blocking efforts to make the budget priorities of the state fairer for the middle class and poor.
One of the reasons the "Blueprint for Improving The Lives of New Britain’s Young Children Birth Through 3rd Grade" is important and valuable is how clearly it lays out why certain funding priorities are important for the most important and vulnerable members of our community - the youngest.
Making the goals of this report a reality will take a lot of hard work. I plan to use the good work that went into this report to continue my efforts to build a stronger community.
