Will CT Legislature Resume Efforts to Attract More Teachers of Color?
/Of Connecticut’s approximately 50,000 professional public educators (teachers, administrators, school social workers, counselors, and other certified school employees) in the 2019-2020 school year, 9.6% were racial and ethnic minorities, according to the State Department of Education’s (SDE) data website.
This is in contrast to the approximately 48% of public school students who are racial or ethnic minorities, a report issued this month by the state legislature’s Office of Legislative Research (OLR) points out.
Back in February, prior to COVID-19 abruptly ended the 2020 state legislative session, some in the legislature were intent on doing more to boost the number of teachers of color in Connecticut school classrooms.
“The research shows that all our children ... learn better when there’s a diverse teaching population,” Sen. Douglas McCrory, D-Hartford, a co-chair of the education committee, told The Hartford Courant. “One of the things we plan to do this legislative session is put some finances behind how we go out, recruit and retain minority teachers.”
It didn’t happen in 2020, and it is uncertain if 2021 will see the issue among legislative priorities, perhaps driven by renewed attention to racial justice and education issues.
The OLR Research Report indicates that “research shows minority students perform better when they have teachers who are of the same race as they are… Consequently, lawmakers have proposed and enacted legislation in recent years to attempt to recruit and retain more minority teachers in Connecticut’s workforce.”
Among the initiatives:
The FY 20-21 budget act expanded the Connecticut minority educator incentive program to include a loan reimbursement grant for minority educators of up to 10% of their student loans, not to exceed $5,000 a year.
A 2019 law requires SDE’s Minority Teacher Recruitment Policy Oversight Council to develop and implement strategies and use existing resources to ensure that local boards of education annually hire and employ at least 250 new minority teachers and administrators statewide
A 2018 law requires the State Board of Education’s (SBE) five-year education plan to include a statement that the state’s teacher workforce should reflect the state’s racial and ethnic diversity. It also requires SDE to utilize or support a number of practices and programs to boost minority teacher recruitment.
A law enacted in 2018 focuses the minority staff recruitment plan that local boards of education must create on educators, rather than all staff.
The OLR Research Report also points out that the Connecticut Housing Finance Authority administers a mortgage assistance program for, among others, certified teachers employed by a priority school district. A 2019 law expanded eligibility for the program to certified teachers who graduated from a (1) public high school in an educational reform district or (2) historically black college or university (HBCU) or historically Hispanic-serving institution (HSI).
A CT Mirror data analysis from 2018 showed that while the number of minority teachers in Connecticut schools has increased over the last decade, “the growth hasn’t kept pace with the influx of Hispanic and Latino students entering public schools. As a result, minority students are now less likely to have a teacher who looks like them."
Gov. Lamont has been supportive of legislative action to expand the number of teachers of color, saying last year “our state has overwhelming disparities and should be doing more to ensure diversity in our schools, including among faculty.“ He added, “All students should have access to positive teaching and learning experiences so they can be prepared for the global workforce that awaits them.”
Connecticut is not alone in grappling with the issue. According to the National Center of Education Statistics, 80% of America’s public school teachers during the 2015-2016 school year were white, while 7% were black, 9% were Hispanic and 2% were Asian, published reports have indicated.
