Students Bring $chools Push To Capitol

HARTFORD – Ever since his first year at Hillhouse High School, Badu Smart knew he wanted to take honors biology. He worked hard to secure a spot in what he hoped would be a more rigorous science course — only to find out that the class had been canceled for lack of a teacher. 

Smart, who is now a senior at Hillhouse, shared that story with state lawmakers Wednesday as he traveled to Hartford with 80 fellow New Haven Public Schools (NHPS) classmates to speak up about teacher shortages, building disrepair, and other challenges faced by a city school district in need of more state funding.

The NHPS students spent most of the day at the state legislative office building, where they and public school students from New London and Hartford — along with Mayor Justin Elicker — testified before the Education Committee in support of Raised Senate Bill 1511: An Act Concerning Disconnected Youth. 

The bill seeks to increase state funding for school districts that serve students eligible for free or reduced price meals, multilingual learners, and students requiring special education services. The proposal would also promote school-based telehealth mental health services, and require the distribution of youth employment funds to regional workforce development boards to be based on the percentage of disadvantaged youth in a region.

After taking a train to Hartford at around 7 a.m. Wednesday, dozens of New Haven students met up with peers from New London and Hartford to testify together at the Education Committee meeting. 

The students spoke about educators leaving mid-year, resulting in classrooms with a revolving door of substitutes or entirely without teachers. They expressed a lack of faith in their cities’ educational systems, and spoke about how so many students don’t see the importance of showing up to school buildings that are poorly maintained. 

All of this came as the mayors of Connecticut’s largest cities have made a concerted push this legislative session for the state to increase funding for municipal school districts; earlier this month, the state legislature approved and Gov. Ned Lamont signed a bill boosting special education funding by $40 million.

Branford State Rep. Robin Comey, whose son goes to New Haven’s Cooperative Arts and Humanities High School, heard directly from Co-Op student Payton Goodwin during Wednesday hearing. Goodwin said that the downtown arts high school has 200 more student’s than the building’s intended capacity. She added that some classroom doors don’t have working locks, textbooks are falling apart, and there are several holes in walls throughout the building. 

Windham State Rep. Susan Johnson reminded the student speakers that school buildings are typically owned and operated by municipalities, not by the state. Those municipalities, like New Haven, are therefore responsible for addressing the neglect that several students spoke about. 

Wilbur Cross senior and New Haven Board of Education student representative John Carlos Serana Musser informed the state lawmakers that students and New Haven advocates have already gone to city government with these concerns. He said he and his peers know the city owns its school buildings, but decided to travel to Hartford Wednesday because of just how much of the city school district’s budget comes from the state and federal governments. 

He questioned where the equity is when Greenwich and Westport school districts spend thousands of dollars more per pupil than New Haven. ​“It’s hard for me and my fellow students to reconcile the fact that for the fourth year we have broken a surplus record and sit on billions of dollars, and yet we have leaky roofs and we have no teachers in our classrooms and we are struggling with rats while a district 30 minutes away is living a completely different reality.”

New London students expressed concern over crowded school buses that result in students having to squeeze three people to a two-person seat, sit in the aisle, or walk to school. New London student Kymiah said she worries about cuts to her school’s basketball program which helps her to de-stress when she can’t verbally express herself. 

Hillhouse’s Badu Smart told the committee about his excitement three years ago when he thought he would be joining an honors biology course. He said he was told halfway through the year that, with no teacher available, the course wouldn’t continue and he’d have to transfer to a general biology class. He cited that experience as an example of the lost opportunities he and his peers face due to circumstances out of their control. 

Bloomfield State Sen. and Education Committee Chair Doug McCrory thanked Smart for his testimony. He said that ​“it’s not that you don’t have the ability. You don’t have the resources.” 

It wasn’t until Smart’s junior year that he was able to take an advanced biology course through a partnership with Southern Connecticut State University. 

“We can have the rigor and talent to take a hard class but not be given the opportunity,” Smart reflected. ​“We need opportunity and access to succeed, and it feels like the system is against us. … What’s the point in trying if we can’t compete even when we’re doing what we’re suppose to do?”

A student from Metropolitan Business Academy, meanwhile, spoke about the school’s broken heating system and about having to travel to different floors of the school building in search of a working bathroom. 

The students pleaded for the legislative leaders to ​“push for equitable education funding” because all students deserve it. 

Metro junior Brandon Martinez said that, as an athlete, he has seen that New Haven schools do not adequately invest in new sports equipment. That is a safety concern, he said, citing the worn-down padding he wears when he plays football for Wilbur Cross. 

Students declared that pursuit of increased funding for public education statewide will help not just themselves, but also students for generations to come. They said they want to see school building walls that aren’t moldy, and working bathrooms that aren’t posted with signage saying ​“waiting for a plumber” 

Martinez said that, walking into the Hartford legislative building Wednesday, he got a first-hand look at what building investments can look like. 

After speaking up at Wednesday’s hearing, students said they were thankful for the opportunity to learn outside the classroom — about everything from riding public transportation to Hartford, to how to write testimony for a public hearing, to seeing how the state lawmaking process works. Martinez said it gave him hope that ​“I can make a change.” 

Before students walked back to the train station to get home around 2 p.m., they were asked what they enjoyed about the day. One students called out, ​“We came together!”