Connecticut’s educational system sits at a crossroads and faces a critical turning point about how education and associated youth services in this state are delivered.
To find ways to address this, the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities (CCM) convened the 119K Commission to come up with a strategy that delivers a roadmap of comprehensive reforms. The resulting report, called “Young People First,” details the systemic issues that hinder academic success by prioritizing education, mental health, equity, relevance, support and community engagement.
The number of youths impacted has left many people wondering how did this go unaddressed for so long? One challenge is the educational and associated systems largely operate in a vacuum, void of ensuring student needs follow them throughout their educational paths, calling for a need to increase coordination between stakeholders. One of the recommendations of Young People First is to build state-level data infrastructure that appropriately tracks and identifies needs throughout students’ educational journey and beyond.
Fortunately for Connecticut there are a few examples of model leaders already working in this state as a foundation for the state to build upon. Middletown and New London have youth service bureaus that excel in their respective areas and, with the right investment, can be utilized as the hubs in a larger network.
Did you know, for access to resources, youth have to connect through an antiquated and outdated system developed in 1976 that continues to exist in the same form today? Wait times are prohibitive and, when there is success getting through, youth must navigate the right combination of words to access the help they need. Coordinating with the United Way of Connecticut, we can modernize the system into something young people will actually use and benefit from –-like an app.
Likewise, the disconnection to school is deeply rooted. The Commission heard from multiple students who shared their stories of a fragmented system that is not a recipe for success and perpetuates cycles of poverty and disadvantage. We cannot continue to make our graduation requirements “rigid” and “prescriptive,” but rather create and implement conditions for promoting success, while meeting student needs where they are.
Young People First identifies vocational and STEM education opportunities that help make educational content feel like “real life.” Meeting student needs in areas they have interests provides positive results and opportunities which promote successful outcomes and career opportunities.
The report emphasizes a need to increase the capacity of our schools and educators to support their efforts. The Commission was not surprised to hear that most young people described educators as the “most defining aspect” of their educational experience. But for years CCM has sounded the alarm on school funding – in fact, since 2017 the state has reduced real-dollars commitment by an average of $400 per student.
In Waterbury, nearly three-quarters of kindergarten or preschool teachers worked with children whose parents were incarcerated, had physical or mental health conditions, as well as witnessed or experienced violence in the home. In a survey by the Connecticut Education Association, many educators said they were dissatisfied with working conditions and likely to leave the profession early. To assist educators, our report calls for funding the training of non-profit community outreach workers in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) as frontline connections with young people and their families.
We need to build coalitions between all stakeholders and, most importantly, the community themselves to tackle this effort. Only through cross-sector collaboration can we create the kind of “long-term systems change” that we are striving for. That is what Young People First is calling for, and that’s what we can achieve by working together.
Investing in opportunities for our youth is not merely socially responsible; it is a contribution to our future. Barriers to success are well documented. Funding gaps, bureaucratic red tape and social inequities all hinder progress. We must work collaboratively in creating coordinated strategies that effectively promote youth development.
You may hear that the potential costs of the necessary reforms are unreasonable. I am here to say, the means to pay for this exist without raising your taxes. The cost of doing nothing will be catastrophic. A commitment to action is an investment our state’s future depends on!
Joe DeLong is the Executive Director and CEO of the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities.