In This Issue:
From Paddi's Desk
450 News
Municipal Roundup
Inside Scoop
This Day in CT History
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CT Colleges and Universities Continue to Try to Reduce Expenses
CT Agency Corner has been a featured part of In The Loop for about six years. We’ve continued to enjoy reporting on all the latest from the Executive Branch but figured a new title and logo was appropriate!
450 News (the address for both the main administrative building and OPM) will still highlight the latest from the executive branch and continue to offer in depth analysis on why certain decisions are being made and how they are being applied.
Whether it be through attrition or other cost cutting mechanisms, the Connecticut State College and University System (CSU) has been trying to identify the most appropriate ways to reduce costs while also not fracturing the services enjoyed by students across 17 of the system’s schools.
Here is a “by the numbers” evaluation on where the system currently stands and what could be considered next:
- CSU increased fiscal year 2022-23 tuition and mandatory fees for full-time community college students who pay out of pocket by $112 per semester and for state universities and Charter Oak students by $291 per semester. While on its face this does not seem like a big increase, keep in mind the community college system beginning in the next academic year will start to offer six credits for free for all students in the state. This was made possible by a law that passed in 2019 and was championed by outgoing State Senator Will Haskell (D-Westport).
- Overall, it’s anticipated that the CSU system is expecting a more than $250 million budget gap due in large from of benefit increases (including salary) and a dramatic decline in revenue due to the pandemic.
- CSU is in the process of working on saving money from consolidating 12 of the state’s community colleges into one network which is hoping to help with the high level of administrative costs associated with each of these schools, having a president and C-suite university officials.
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The one-time revenue solutions provided by the federal government kept the CSU systems afloat with very minimal deficits but now the close to $300M provided through ARPA will not be available in the long-term and more difficult decisions will need to be addressed by the full board.
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Municipal Spending of Federal Covid Funds for CT Schools
During the pandemic, over $1 billion in COVID funding was made available to school districts. 50% of the spent funds have gone toward staff hiring and training, while 20% is being used to address learning setbacks due to the pandemic. Surprisingly, only 11% of the funding has been spent, and it has not been clear how districts or the state are tracking the results they are getting from funds.
Certain districts are using funds to create new positions, like Bethel, who is paying for a full-time math specialist to support its middle school students. Other districts like Columbia are hiring more full-time teachers to create smaller class sizes.
Furthermore, school officials are worried about what will happen once these funds run out. Municipalities are concerned that the educational and developmental setbacks caused by the lockdowns will outlive these federal funds. According to the School and State Finance Project, it will be up to the districts to plan for when the funds run out.
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House Tour Part II
As we discussed in our blog last week, the Connecticut House of Representatives election cycle is huge this year. This weekend, volunteers and candidates head out to door knock and make phone calls to garner new supporters among their voters during our first summer heatwave. We are now officially in the dog days of Summer and while campaigns are heating up a few weeks before some interesting August 9th statewide primaries across the state, we have a focus on three more local, non-primary races. Last week we took you across the shoreline, today’s look has us on a different route and we are ready to dive in.
Let’s begin our tour up I-91 in Enfield, an interesting down due to its diversity among the voting base there. Their State Senator is John Kissel, a Republican, and their State Representative, Ton Arnone is a Democrat. In 2018, Rep Arnone won by just over 600 votes. In 2020, he extended his margin to over 1,200 votes. This year, he will face off against Robert Hendrickson to represent District 58. Just over 23,000 people live in a district that grew just a bit after the 2020 census. Given the turnout in these races and the fact that Hendrickson has been a member of various committees in town, this race could be close but Rep Arnone’s has been working hard to continue to grow his support as he did in 2020.
Moving to the other side of I-91 we head to the Canton-Avon area for a race where volunteers are already hitting a ton of doors for votes. Representative Eleni Kavros-DeGraw is up for re-election in another interesting district. In 2020, things were tight with Leslee Hill losing by under 600 votes after holding that seat in 2019. Rep Kavros-DeGraw has been a rising star these past few years as one of the vice chair’s of the legislature’s coveted Finance Committee. She also is a staple at events across the area and has a campaign apparatus that many elected officials should be envious of. Look for this race to be another one to follow!
Heading west we stop in Brookfield for another interesting election this cycle. State Representative Stephen Harding Jr will be running for State Senate as a Republican leaving this seat open. Democrat Phoebe Holmes is facing off against Republican Marty Foncello for the open seat. Rep Harding has been a popular member of the House of Representatives Republican caucus and won relatively handily in his district in the past. He is trying to take Senator Miner’s seat as he announced his retirement. With several new residents coming into the western Connecticut area, the races out this way are really engaging. Look for this one to be one of those.
State-wide campaign stops may seem less important in the months leading up to an election but these races are being enthusiastically run and volunteers are getting to work. Next week on the tour of state house races, we turn to a whistle-stop focus heading down metro north!
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July 22nd: Mohegan Minister Occom Preaches Up an Ivy League College
Samson Occom, one of the Mohegan tribe’s most famous members and a direct descendant of the great 17th-century tribal leader Uncas, was born in 1723 in southeastern Connecticut. As a teenager, he converted to Christianity after attending one of the many revivals held throughout Connecticut as part of the first Great Awakening. When he was 20, Occom moved to Columbia, Connecticut, and resided there for four years while learning English language and cultural norms, and studying theology under Reverend Eleazar Wheelock.
After completing his education under Wheelock, Occom traveled to Long Island, where he was ordained as a Presbyterian minister. Meanwhile, based on Occom’s remarkable educational attainments, Wheelock established a formal Indian School in Columbia. Its mission was to “Christianize” Native Americans by providing them a western education and teaching them how to assimilate to European-colonial culture. At Wheelock’s request, his former pupil Samson traveled to England, where he embarked on a grueling preaching tour to raise funds to support, expand relocate the Indian School closer to the tribes targeted for conversion. Over the course of the 17-month tour, Occom preached over 300 sermons and raised over £12,000 for the Indian School — an extraordinary sum at the time.
On July 22, 1767, Occom completed his tour of England and headed home to Connecticut. He was dismayed to find his wife and children in financial straits, though Wheelock had promised to provide for them while Occom was overseas. Furthermore, after receiving the funds raised by Occom’s efforts, Wheelock reneged on his promise to use them for an expanded Indian School; instead, he used the money to establish Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire — a school built to educate the sons of wealthy English colonists.
Occom, bitterly disappointed in his former mentor/teacher but determined as ever to fulfill his ministerial calling, continued preaching and published numerous religious works. Among his most lasting contributions to American history is the founding of the Brothertown Indian community in upstate New York, a community of Christian Indians that, after having migrated westward to Wisconsin, still exists today.
The original article from the CT Humanities Council can be found here.
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Sullivan & LeShane, Inc.
www.ctlobby.com | (860) 560-0000
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