To the editor:
Connecticut has one of the largest disparities in educational outcomes between high-income and low-income households. The difference is clear and it exists across public schools. Reforms are proposed to help close the gap by improving outcomes for all students, especially those from low-income families.
The Committee on Finance, Revenue, and Bonds will hold a public hearing on Wednesday, March 6, to consider House Bill 5101 and hear public comments. This bill would create a new K-12 scholarship program that would provide tax credits to those who donate to scholarship-granting organizations. These scholarships help families access educational opportunities that are currently out of their financial reach.
This legislation could help more than 150,000 children in Connecticut who currently have income levels at or below 250 percent of the federal poverty guidelines. Such programs are in place in nearly 20 states, and in 2022, 325,168 students across the country took advantage of these scholarships.
These scholarships will make a huge difference in the mental development of today's youth and improve outcomes for all communities into the future. There is a huge demand for them in Connecticut as well.
The Connecticut Center for Educational Excellence, the state's only statewide scholarship granting organization, opened last year and received nearly 900 applications from families in nearly half of Connecticut's municipalities. All of that happened within the first few months of the scholarship becoming available. And demand is only increasing.
We have long accepted that there are differences in educational outcomes between high-income and low-income families. Attend a local school board meeting and you'll learn how socio-economic demographics explain why schools aren't improving and why the town needs to put more tax dollars into making improvements. You will be asked what they are doing. We need to stop accepting these points at face value, and we can look to success stories like Marva Collins to explain why.
Marva Collins was an educator in a local public school in a poor community in Chicago. She became dissatisfied with the educational system that had been built around her and she dropped out to set up her own school. The story that follows sounds like something out of a movie, and it actually was, but it shouldn't be. That can and should be our basic expectation.
Mr. Collins invested his own money to open a school in his home, which he named Westside Preparatory School. She started with just a few students, but as word spread about her activities, families came knocking on her door to enroll their children.
Eventually, the school outgrew her home, so she renovated some office space a few blocks away so she could educate hundreds of students. The school shined as a beacon of opportunity in a community plagued by crime, drugs, and a dysfunctional system. Despite all the chaos, gangs, and poverty, her students excelled.
Many of her students were considered “unteachable” by public school authorities. But once in Ms. Collins' classroom, her students could quote Shakespeare and Chaucer. One student attended 14 of her other schools, but she was told by all of them that she could not study. But Collins told her, “Welcome to success. Say goodbye to failure. You're here to stay. You're going to learn.”
60 Minutes interviewed Collins' students for its “Where They Are Now” segment years after they attended Westside Preparatory School.A student who had been described as “retarded” had graduated from college before entering Collins' classroom. best performance And they were planning to open a homeless shelter. There were business owners, teachers, Air Force sergeants, and law students. Every story is a success.
Passing a tax credit scholarship program here in Connecticut could help bring more stories like the one associated with Collins to fruition. It will help you realize more dreams.
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Bryce New York Chinault is director of external affairs at Yankee Institute.
