Connecticut Lawmakers; 304

That if you belong to the legislative agenda in the main hallway educating the force. Floyd Landis reports on a plan to open up a private high school. From Washington the state's congressional delegation lobbies for federal dollars for more cops in Connecticut. And the ongoing debate over gun and gun control. I'm Bob Douglas and welcome to this week's edition of Connecticut lawmakers. Members of the Connecticut General Assembly and various education interests are gearing up for a major debate in this session over education reform. But lawmakers are fighting a tough timetable. The State Board of Education is pleased to endorse in principle the final report of the commission and its recommendations. Over the past 18 months the commission has looked at our state's public education system and it has found the system seriously wanting and we agree wholeheartedly. Despite pockets of excellence and a generally talented and committed teacher an administrator workforce.

Connecticut's education system as a whole is in need of major systemic reform. We are not adequately serving our students needs our society's needs nor our economy's needs and there is no quick fix that will help us meet these needs. The State Board of Education agrees that the focus of education reform in Connecticut should be results. What a student knows and what a student can do. The State Board of Education this week passed a resolution endorsing recommendations of an Education Excellence Commission to overhaul the state's public school system. The board agrees that results should be at the core of all other recommendations. And these results must be tied to high standards for all students and for the entire system. The interconnectedness of this reform package is one of its most valuable qualities. This set of proposals

is not just about funding formulas or certification written regulations or assessments but offers fundamental change in what we mean by education and how we do it. We respect the comprehensiveness of the recommendations. Affective reform cannot be piecemeal. And so we urge the General Assembly to consider the proposals as a package. First we'd like to emphasize that Connecticut needs state wide content standards performance standards and assessments developed by broad based groups throughout the state. Secondly the board believes that this will emancipate local school districts in developing their own methods in pursuing these results. We believe that there are that there is a major role for the State Board of

Education in narrowing the gap between the advantaged and disadvantaged students in our state and we think that that is one of the greatest challenges that faces Connecticut education. We'd like to make an addition in regard to governance. We endorse school based decision making with broad participation by professionals parents and students. We think that at the school site there should be even more flexibility. Recently a bipartisan group of lawmakers came out with their own education alternatives including support for choice and school vouchers. We are here today as a bipartisan group a diverse group. And a group of legislators that recognize that you know our two greatest challenges in formulating a public policy. Inertia. Of government and the complexity of the challenges we face.

We all stand here with a sense of great urgency however that those two enemies of all of us must be overcome and we must make progress this year. If you were able to read the recent reports of the mastery test scores. In Connecticut this year you will see that only 2 percent of our urban area students have managed to achieve the mastery level or above. You'll also see that only half. Of our suburban students have achieved that same level. Because we know that Connecticut's education is the most important element in assuring an economic future we know that more must be done to guarantee our children full educational opportunity and assurance that our children do in fact learn.

It is the Republicans position that we have a good education system in the state of Connecticut that needs improvement. We welcome the opportunity to work together to move the school choice proposals forward in the state of Connecticut. We think that is one of the proposals that should be built into our school system as an incentive to continue the improvement of our education system. I'm in support of the legislation because it finally orf as the end of city. Some options. As pointed out in the early parts of the bill this is an option an option it's could be available to boards of education and localities if in fact it's something that they wish to put into place. Charter schools and this is a particularly interest to areas like you know a city in that it often is people an opportunity to decide on the kinds of things that should be taught in their different communities. People should be given options. Some people obviously the education system as it's designed is not very effective. This is

not a deterrent as some people would think to what's going on around the diversity issues that came out of the legislature last year. As far as I can see this is another option that will take us further in educating our students. The Senate chair of the Education Committee says there is much to be done during this session and warns lawmakers could miss an opportunity to make more needed changes. The report of the Excellence Commission lays out a good blueprint. I hope in terms of early childhood in terms of more school accountability local school councils higher standards that we can accomplish that. The work has been done it's up to us to enact it and we can do that in the time that's available to us as well as I think coming up with a fairer funding scheme for schools in Connecticut. What do you expect is going to happen in the funding arena. Well I think what we're looking at is trying to do two things in particular one do what we've always said we know works and that's put more money into early childhood education. It's it works perfectly We know that those programs have a great deal of success in reducing

later costs and improving school performance we do precious little of it in the state. Second a fairer look at general education aid in general we've labored under the wrong assumption that there are only two types of communities in Connecticut rich and poor. That's not so in between there's a whole range of communities and we need to be much more sensitive in the way we give out assistance to those schools in those towns. If we're going to keep education good in Connecticut there's something different going on there this year why so much more to why does it appear to be so much on the education agenda. This this particular year this session. I think there are two reasons it is an election year so that's always an issue that's on people's minds too as we talk about the economic future of the state. You cannot talk about the future without talking about improving school performance and outcomes. And I think three we've laid the groundwork over the last few years by putting the Excellence Commission in place that inevitably those recommendations have to come sometime they come now and they're on our plate and I hope will step up to the task.

Your general views reaction to the committee and on excellence. A good job. How would you characterize that report. Not a perfect score not an A-plus but I think the Commission on balance did a good job. It hit the right message. It's made the right kinds of proposals. I think it took a long time getting there and didn't do the kind of job it should have to tell people about what it's working on. We'll do that now but I give it high marks and I think it's stuck to the main themes our task is going to be not getting diverted on that. And there are some diversionary and divisive issues also in education that we're going to have to tackle and deal with this session. I just hope we don't get taken off course. You're holding hearings this week as school choice school vouchers of various educational turnitin we can see any of that getting through the legislature this year how do you feel about some of those issues at least in general terms. Well the commission itself has come down very strongly in support of public school choice and removing whatever impediments there are to having school districts have the ability to make

that choice themselves. Second this informational hearing and that's what it is it's somewhat unusual for that it's not really a bill hearing it's a topical hearing has really two thrust to it one those who are advocating the cure all of vouchers which I do not think my committee is going to support and I don't think this legislature is going to act on it simply because we don't have the resources to divert in that manner. But some other good ideas something called charters schools basically charter public schools that would allow teachers and others to innovate and come together and create their own school with especially in a special focus and in exchange for that get out from underneath some of the requirements and of the state of Connecticut at least some of the ones that make it tough to be as flexible and responsive. I've pushed for that for three years. If it takes some other people getting on board with that argument this year to accomplish that I'll be happy to see that be part of the reform package with the short session. It's an election year we've got some philosophical and ideological debates

going on in this building. Is it possible that nothing significant will be done in education this year. It's very possible that that could happen I think if we. Fall apart in the debate and begin to get hung up on some of these side issues and the politics of some of these side issues. There is every probability that we will lose this opportunity to act for education. If we lose this opportunity I'm not sure that it just comes around again in another year. There's a lot of other things pressing on the state of Connecticut right now and if you look back over the last few decades education kind of gets it shot once every 10 years you either seize the ring and score already or you lose it and cousin come back around for a while again. If we do that and we missed this opportunity in large measure the only people who suffer immediately are the kids in the future the whole state. This is part of Connecticut's economic recovery every bit as much as part of it as anything else. So I hope we will not fail but there's a lot of other

business in this building a lot of other conflict and a lot of other people looking for money and time and if we let them take over then we lose. Now a sign of the Times about education parents and community leaders in Hartford frustrated over what they perceived as a school system in trouble are now trying to open their own new high school. Lloyd has details. Education reform will receive serious consideration during the current legislative session. But some leaders of the West Indian community in Greater Hartford concerned that urban schools are not meeting the needs of minority students have decided not to wait. And this building that once housed the same Justin's Catholic school in Blue Hill section of Hartford could be the site of a private high school. We're here because the parents with kids in the Hartford area are unhappy dissatisfied with the education their kids are presently receiving and then want to have something done about it.

They recognize that education is a priority one. They recognize that with the technology technological aids. That we are in and the 21st century coming up unless the kids are educationally qualified they're going to be the last ones out there to get a job if ever. So something has to be done. No not next year. The former superintendent of schools in Cromwell Dr. Kay Alexander Patty Ford will serve as director of the Metropolitan Academy of Greater Hartford. He says the old saying just in school bill. It was one of the sides being considered in the academy will be designed to help meet the educational needs of the growing West Indian community in the Hartford area. But Patti Foote says it will be open to all students. A school is going to be open for every student. Westin obviously because I'm always seen in people people now calling us go to different school is not how different school but it's a neighborhood school for all kids. We expect to draw kids not only from Hartford but from West Hartford from Farmington. Any parent who has a child

who wants that child to have a better education than he or she is having now and want that kid to be integrated into a system that caters not just a black or white but for everybody. This will be the place the Academy is making plans to open next fall for ninth and tenth grade students to ition will be $6000 a year a private high school in Hartford could have an impact on Weaver high school. Nearly 50 percent of the students here are West Indians. Patti Foote says the Academy will feature strong discipline and the kind of rigorous academic standards that are found in the best suburban high. School is well disciplined. Obviously it will be a number one thing for us. Structure Number two we're going to stress values morality 24 credits every kid has to have. We are kids when they graduate who will speak a foreign language fluently. And if you receive a diploma from this school you will be able to compete with any kid

any student anywhere in the world. I applaud them for really taking on this kind of initiative because I think this is very important for our overall community. The next thing is that they're talking about putting an independent high school you know in Hartford. I think that's an additional plus in that regard. So I applaud the initiative I think that this is what community education is all about in a community. What the principal at Weaver says starting and operating a private high school will be difficult. It's going to be a major undertaking. They're going into high school has awful lot of different dimensions the elementary school middle school. The types of dedicated classrooms that you have to have from science labs you've got to have a substantial library. You've got to have the type of technology that maybe

you would need in the lower grades but would have to be demanded in the upper grades. One of the major education reform measures being considered by the General Assembly would benefit the planet private high school school choice. It would provide vouchers for low income parents to send their children to private schools vouchers. It's an opportunity for parents to take advantage of some options that they'd like to have in regards to public schooling. And I kind of leave it at that I think the issue before we talk about charter schools. The real issue is quality of education. And if you start a voucher program school vouchers or charter schools it's got to demonstrate some quality. It would definitely help but when we started this project we didn't have that in mind. And whether it comes through or not we have going forward. And if it comes through

obviously we will be happy to accept but we're not going to ask the state for help. So in essence we're saying we're going to go forward no matter what happens with the legislature. But I think something has to be done and if the vote is what it is we stand ready and capable and able and will take as much as we can get. No matter what the General Assembly does on education reform the supporters of the academy say it will open next fall and they hope to raise half a million dollars before that happens. You know Hartford Lloyd Wimbish for Connecticut lawmakers. From Washington members of the state's congressional delegation are trying to get more federal money to put more cops on the streets here in Connecticut. Catherine Koch has this report. Congress allocated the one hundred fifty million dollars last year to help expand community policing in high crime areas across the country. Connecticut has the highest crime rate of any New England state but so far only one of its cities Manchester

has received a grant. So the congressional delegation has sent a letter to Attorney General Janet Reno. They want to make sure that in the third and final round of Grant awarding Connecticut gets the money to put more police on the beat. So we have two rounds of funding 75 million dollars have been dispersed in Connecticut. Has only received one grant for one of its towns despite the fact that we ranked twenty seventh in the nation in violent crime as a state. So we want to let the Justice Department know the attorney general specifically know that we think some sense of balance here is appropriate. We have one round left. ANNOUNCER made in the middle of March. We got a whole host of communities in Connecticut have applied and need the additional policing. One of our suburban communities the smaller towns where we have probably greater challenges than the large cities often because of the limited resources the limited personnel in trying to deal with these problems and I think that while the big cities across the country are clearly important and are in very tough shape. That doesn't mean we should ignore the smaller communities in our country.

I'm hopeful but it's a very tough budget. Well Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro is surprise that New Haven hasn't gotten a grant despite the fact that it's you know community policing program is a national model. This is the active involvement a place on the beach. This is not a new concept this is a concept that we had 30 years ago we just need to get back to it because it kind of builds the trust level. The community and the police and a preventive effort and that's what we really need to gear our attention toward So it's important that we do get some of this federal money because we have the need and we also have demonstrated innovation and moving forward. Other cities may have missed out because they haven't gotten community policing programs going yet. There's been a little slower in other communities setting up these community policing stations. And Janet Reno wants to see the station. So what we're doing really at this point is educating her about Connecticut telling her about our needs our particular problems particularly in our urban areas and finding out where there is additional money and of course we know where it is. It's

in the budget that we're doing right now. They'll be a hundred thousand new police officers and we will be very much in the running for those dollars. Congressman Chris Shays points out this isn't the first time Connecticut has been slighted when it comes to federal funds to fight crime. We had this problem earlier as well with the drug elimination Grant 14 communities in Massachusetts received money for drug limitation and housing authorities in only two in Connecticut. We spent a year basically a year but close to it a contest in how they allocated funds and they found that the system was flawed and had given three more grants Bristol New Haven and Greenwich for drug elimination so it's important that we sometimes stand up to what the executive branch is doing and let them know that we need to have a better procedure. Others say that federal dollars for more community leasing is just a start. It isn't just police on the street that we need. We need help

in developing the computer capability to early identify and track what needs to change its policies so that our police know who can legitimately be in that housing project and get and go right after those who are not legitimately there and they can't get HUD to cooperate with them even on that simple issue. So absolutely the federal government must give more grants to Connecticut and has got to get in there and cooperate with us on dealing with the crime issues. Nugget won't know until mid-March whether the delegations efforts will help it win its fair share of funds to get more police on the streets in Washington Kathleen Koch for Connecticut lawmakers. The debate over guns and more gun control is far from over in this session of the Connecticut General Assembly with a key legislative hearing on the subject scheduled for next week. Guns and gun control issues are back on the legislative agenda this session and that

lawmakers have heard appointee from children's advocates for more action. United States children and adolescents are caught in a tightening web of deadly violence. There are many factors that contribute to this violence including poverty racism violence in the media and the breakdown of families and neighborhoods. But there is really only one factor that turns the violence into an epidemic of death and disability that is unique in both American history and contemporary world. And that is the handgun. Some facts which illustrate the dimensions of this problem. In 1990 handguns killed 22 people in Great Britain 13 in Sweden 91 in Switzerland 87 in Japan 10 in Australia sixty eight in Canada and ten thousand five hundred sixty seven in the United States. During the 1980s. Nearly five times as many Americans died from

firearm related injuries as died during the Vietnam conflict. From 1933 to one thousand eighty nine more Americans died in this country from the nonmilitary use of firearms than died in all U.S. wars including the American Revolutionary War. And how is this affected children. In 1988 firearm violence was the fifth leading cause of unintentional injury death among children under 14 years of age in the United States. Homicide usually with a firearm is the leading cause of death of black males. The disease that kills most children and youth in Connecticut today is the firearm 11 years earlier than the CDC's projection. The mission of Connecticut's pediatricians must now be to immunize our children against this scourge by addressing the factors that play so many of Connecticut's children at risk. Many of these risk factors we can change many we cannot. Our purpose

today is to enlist all of Connecticut to help us rid our children of the threat of handguns. One factor we cannot change is our children's developmental limitations. Although by age 1 a child is physically capable of firing a handgun. No child or adolescent has the judgment or the impulse control to handle a weapon safely and are often unaware of which guns terrible potential to kill or injure. Children also imitate what they say such as what they see on television. We are here today to voice our support for the gun legislation proposals to be considered by the 1994 Connecticut General Assembly. I am a pediatric emergency department physician at yellow Haven Hospital and with me is our trauma program coordinator. We will speak together on behalf of those children wounded by firearms. You've just heard staggering figures of gun injuries and deaths of Connecticut children national figures are also alarming. In 1990 a total of almost

5000 children under 19 years were killed by guns in the U.S.. This number nearly doubled from 1985. Recent reports indicate that almost 15 children are killed daily by guns in the U.S.. Studies demonstrate that an increasing number of younger teens and children are being killed with guns. Many are nowhere near crime. Drugs or inner city areas. However many are in homes where guns are present. Nearly half of U.S. homes have some type of gun. One in four have a handgun. Nearly half of guns are often kept for protection but more often end up killing a child or other household member. These deaths are preventable. When I started this job in 1902 it was fairly uncommon to see a patient who had been shot. The staff often reacted with shock and concern. Today it is no longer a rare event to see someone who has been shot. And our staff is no longer surprised by gunshot victims of all

ages. We had a bipartisan group of legislators who worked in the late hall quoting Kevin Rennie. We worked in the late fall with representatives of the chiefs of police. The state police the governor's office to devise a comprehensive gun package that it focuses on concealed weapons which essentially means handguns and the guiding principle of the legislation was to delineate with great clarity. A line between those who use a gun in an illegal or irresponsible manner from those who do not and to come down very hard on those where they use a gun illegally or use it irresponsibly. We're not going after legitimate sportsmen we're not going after people who target shoot or who need a gun for home defense or feel a need a gun for home defense or defense of a business and that's been the guiding principle so ever there are already laws against everything that Senator Jepson already outlined. Senator Jefferson has made a reputation for himself on this issue of being unreliable and untrustworthy.

Last year he proposed a bill that had over 100 guns that semiautomatic assault weapon ban. And because he couldn't get the votes in the Senate he said Well all right all right we'll take some of the guns off they took off a third of the guns or went down to 67. And he talked his fellow legislators into passing that bill and they did pass the bill. And then on October 5th. He came out with a press conference that says oh by the way we meant to include all those other guns too and we're going to arrest people and prosecute people for guns that aren't even on the list. Now this kind of deception is what Senator Jefferson brings to the gun control debate. Gun control is wrong. Gun control doesn't work. It's anti freedom it anti civil rights it's anti liberty it's just wrong. Every study that's been done funded by the federal government even the Justice Department has shown that gun control has no effect on crime no effect on accidents no effect on suicides. And yet all it does is infringe people's legal rights. The legislature's Public Safety Committee will hold a public hearing on various gun bills

Tuesday at the legislative office building. The battle over gun legislation is expected to intensify before this session ends in May. And that's this week's edition of Connecticut lawmakers. I'm Bob Douglas. We do thank you for joining. Us.