by Donald Eng
HARTFORD, CT — Considering many teachers got into the profession “for the children” Connecticut Education Association President Kate Dias finds it ironic that the same rationale is used to keep a system in place that discourages potential teachers from entering the profession.
Dias and a few dozen educators gathered at the State Capitol Wednesday for the CEA’s lobby day. Among the handful of legislative changes the group seeks is an end to what Dias called a strange martyrdom system, where aspiring teachers are required to spend 10 weeks as unpaid student teachers as part of their pre-certification requirement.
“For too long we have believed that the training ground of education was teaching our young people that unpaid service was necessary in order to be able to be an educator,” Dias said. “I think it’s an unreasonable expectation. And … we’ve been taught to do it ‘for the children.’ And I believe that we all go into this for the children 100%. But I don’t believe that any educator thought that would mean they’d have to sacrifice their own family, their own ability to feed their children, or their own ability to live and own a home in the state of Connecticut.”
This expectation of sacrifice results in many potential teachers looking elsewhere for a career, she said.
Another lobbying point was the exemption of teachers’ home address and telephone numbers from Freedom of Information rules. Dias said teachers are increasingly coming under threat.
“Right now, anyone off the street can access the personal, home address and phone number of an educator and weaponize that,” she said. “It is not an acceptable use of that information.”
State Rep. Matt Blumenthal, D-Stamford, said anyone in the world could use FOI to get the home address of any public employee.
“We all know how toxic our public discourse and our public life has become. We, public officials, signed up for it. Our teachers did not,” he said. “It’s inexcusable that people are treating them this way. Parents and others should have a right to engage with their teachers at parent-teacher conferences, through the school administration, through the Board of Education have their concerns heard. These discussions should not be happening at teachers’ front doorsteps. Teachers should not be fearing for themselves or their families. It’s not what they signed up for and it’s frankly inexcusable.”
State Sen. Sujata Gadkar-Wilcox, D-Trumbull, said teachers face pressure to resign even when not found to be in violation of the rules.
“I’m very afraid of what this will lead to years from now,” she said. “I see it as a faculty member at Quinnipiac University. Students are afraid to speak. They certainly don’t want to say anything controversial. And we’re not building a culture where we’re learning how to speak through dialog. We have to try to understand each other through our differences.”
Other topics the CEA sought legislative action on include protections from firing for teachers who speak on public policy, Educational Cost Sharing funding and more.