New Ventures Impress, Receive Funds to Advance Entrepreneurial Efforts

reSET, the Social Enterprise Trust (www.reSETCo.org), whose mission is advancing the social enterprise sector and supporting entrepreneurs of all stripes, revealed the winners of its 2017 Venture Showcase last night at The Mark Twain House and Museum to a sellout crowd of 200. The annual event recognizes the talented entrepreneurs and innovative businesses that have just graduated from reSET’s nationally recognized accelerator. 17 early stage enterprises graduated from the recent cohort, and last night, seven finalists competed for $30,000 in unrestricted funding.

The entrepreneurs pitched their business models to an audience of founders, investors, and community and corporate stakeholders. An esteemed panel of judges, including Tony Vengrove of Miles Finch Innovation, Michael Nicastro of Continuity, and Lalitha Shivaswamy of Helios Management Corporation, selected the ultimate winners.

Recipients of the competition’s three “reSET Impact Awards” are listed below, as is the winner of the “Tech Impact Award,” which was given by reSET’s Founding Partner and the evening’s Presenting Platinum Sponsor The Walker Group.

reSET Impact Awards:

$10,000 - Career Path  http://www.careerpathmobile.com

$6,000- Pelletric  http://www.pelletric.com

$4,000 - Phood  http://phoodsolutions.com

The Walker Group’s Tech Impact Award:

$10,000 - Phood http://phoodsolutions.com

Other finalists included:  Almasuite http://www.almasuite.com, Eureeka BI http://www.eureekabi.com, Optima Sports System http://optimasports.es,

and Sweetflexx http://sweetflexx.com/en.

The Showcase’s prize purse was made possible by a handful of reSET’s community partners: The Walker Group (Presenting Platinum Sponsor), The Hartford (Platinum Sponsor), Eversource (Gold Sponsor), AT&T (Gold Sponsor), Accounting Resources, Inc. (Silver Sponsor), Qualidigm (Silver Sponsor), CT by the Numbers (Silver Sponsor), and Aeton Law Partners (Silver Sponsor). The David Alan Hospitality Group and Capture provided in-kind services.

CareerPath is a platform that enables career planning teams to "effectively connect and communicate with students." Using a series of milestones, tasks, and events as drivers, CareerPath allows students to "tackle their career planning objectives in an organized and manageable way."

reSET also receives generous support from its Strategic Partners: The Walker Group, Connecticut Innovations, MetroHartford Alliance, and the Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development.  reSET, the Social Enterprise Trust is a non-profit organization whose mission is to advance the social enterprise sector. Its strategic goals are threefold: to be the “go-to” place for impact entrepreneurs, to make Hartford the Impact City, and Connecticut the social enterprise state.  Since its inception, reSET has awarded more than a quarter of a million dollars to scaling ventures. Graduates of the organization’s accelerator have generated $4.4 million in revenue and have taken on $5.5 million in investment.

https://youtu.be/EAC6W3Dn_k8

Flexer Sees Bad Choices Ahead if State Doesn't "Do Something Dramatically Different"

“Connecticut’s got to do something dramatically different,” implored State Sen. Mae Flexer.  Her impassioned comments came as part of a panel discussion at the unveiling of the 2017 Kids Count Policy Report at the State Capitol.  With budget negotiations proceeding in earnest amidst a worsening state fiscal situation, Flexer expressed her concern about the forces driving the conversation at the Capitol, and the long-term implications for residents in the state’s rural and urban communities. “As I think about the days and the weeks ahead, I’m frustrated, because frankly, this building as far as I can tell right now, is being ruled by the voices of the people of the wealthy and suburban communities, and not by the voices of people (in these districts),” she said, following concerns raised by colleagues Rep. Brandon McGee (Hartford, Windsor) and Rep. Susan Johnson (Windham), who had focused on the significant disparities outlined in the report, and the adverse impact on children and families in Connecticut.   

“We’re not winning the battle,” said Flexer, who represents Killingly, Brooklyn, Canterbury, Mansfield, Putnam, Scotland, Thompson and Windham.  “And as I sit here and think about what this data should be leading us to do, and the reality of the choices that we are going to be making in the next couple weeks, we’re going to be making bad choices,” Flexer continued.

The 37-page report, “Race Equity in the Five Connecticuts: A Kids Count Special Report“ provided detailed analysis on the disparities in the state’s differing communities, described based on demographic data as being in one of five categories:  wealth, suburban, rural, urban periphery or urban core.   The report was published by the Connecticut Association for Human Services.

The stark differences, according to Chief Executive Officer Jim Horan, “are reflected not only in disparities in economic well-being, but in education, health, and family and community indicators.” The report found “there are persistent inequities in outcomes along racial and ethnic lines. Poverty rates differ starkly by race and ethnicity, as do other economic indicators, academic achievement (including graduation rates), and health outcomes.”

“We need to do things differently,” Flexer told those attending the May 15 panel discussion, one of two held back-to-back as part of the release of the report  that began with a detailed presentation of the report’s findings.  “The workforce training program (that you’re talking about) – it’s not going to exist in four or five years on the path that we’re taking right now in Connecticut of thinking that we have to do things the same way but not bringing anymore resources into the picture and not thinking of creative ways to allocate those resources is just going to make these statistics worse.  It’s going to make the outcomes for the communities that the three of us represent, worse.  It’s going to drive up rates of poverty, it’s going to make a study like this when it’s done again in five years even more stark of a contrast between the different regions.”

Noting that the towns of Chaplin, Hampton, Windham, Scotland, and Mansfield were one town early in the state’s history, Flexer asked “how much money would that save if that were still the case?  Is looking at our past the solution to what we need to do in the future, in a system with limited resources?”

Reflecting on the budget choices being discussed at the Capitol to reign in the multi-billion dollar deficit, Flexer expressed apprehension at some of the options under consideration.

“There are people who think that the Office of Early Childhood should no longer exist, that your commission [Commission on Children, Women and Seniors] should no longer exist, as a solution to Connecticut’s budget situation.  That throwing more families off of HUSKY insurance coverage is the answer to the problem we’re in the State of Connecticut,” Flexer said.

Flexer’s frustration and apprehension, however, was tinged with optimism.

“I’m so grateful to have this report and to have this conversation. I’m hopeful that people will look at what you’ve put together here and understand that we’ve got to do things differently and we can’t fail folks in … these communities.”

CT-N coverage

Five Connecticuts: Disparities Persist, Continue to Adversely Impact State's Children

Connecticut is among the wealthiest states in the country, and aggregated statewide economic, health, and education indicators suggest that children and families fare better here than in much of the United States. According to a new report developed by the Connecticut Association of Human Services, the reality on the ground is not what it appears to be. “Race Equity in the Five Connecticuts:  A Kids Count Special Report,” found that Blacks’ and Hispanics’ poverty rates are lower in Connecticut than nationally, and Blacks’ median incomes are higher. However, “as we have seen when looking within communities, historic patterns of inequality observed nationally do indeed persist here.”

The report indicates that as is the case nationally, Blacks and Hispanics in Connecticut are “disproportionately impoverished, and have the highest rates of negative outcomes for most of our indicators. Merely being a resident of one of the most affluent states in the U.S. is not a sufficient buffer against the intransigent inequality that affects our children and families along racial and ethnic lines,” the report explains.

"Not all children in our wealthy state are doing well," summed up Jim Horan, Chief Executive Officer of the Connecticut Association of Human Services, in releasing the report at a State Capitol complex conference. "All children, regardless of the color of their skin or their zip code, should have the opportunity to succeed. Connecticut can do much more to provide opportunity for all and address the huge inequities we see today, so that all children will prosper and contribute to and share in Connecticut’s growth," he said in the report's Foreword.

“Five Connecticut’s” refers to a breakdown developed by the Connecticut Data Center based upon each town’s median income, population density, and population below 100% of the poverty threshold (Levy, et al, 2004).

• Wealthy Connecticut towns have “exceptionally high-income, low poverty, and moderate population density.”
• Suburban towns have “above average income, low poverty, and moderate population density.”
• Rural towns are those with “average income, below average poverty, and the lowest population density.”
• Urban Periphery towns are marked by “below average income, average poverty, and high population density.”
• Urban Core towns have “the lowest income, highest poverty, and the highest population density.”

The report used data from communities representing each of the five Connecticuts:  Wealthy (New Canaan, W3ilton, Weston, Easton, Fairfield); Urban Periphery (East Hartford and Manchester); Urban core (Hartford); Suburban (Branford, East haven, North Branford, Guilford and Madison); and Rural (Ashford, Brooklyn, Canterbury, Chaplin, Eastford, Hampton, Killingly, Plainfield, Pomfret, Putnam, Scotland, Sterling, Thompson, Woodstock, and Windham).

“Blacks are more segregated in Connecticut than in Arkansas and Hispanics are more segregated than in Texas,” pointed out Orlando Rodriquez, research associate at the UConn Health Disparities Institute, speaking at a forum on the report at the Legislative Office Building, noting that Connecticut is among the nation’s most segregated states.

Demographically, Connecticut, like the nation, is becoming more racially and ethnically diverse. It is estimated that by 2055, America will not have a single racial or ethnic majority.  From 2000 to 2015, as the total population grew by 5%, Connecticut’s Black, Hispanic, Asian, and Native American populations combined grew by 42.3%. In 2000, Connecticut’s population was 22.5% Non-White; in 2015, it was 30.8%.

The research also found that “place can correlate somewhat with the degree of the differences observed across these indicators, with outcomes either ameliorated or exacerbated depending on one’s ‘Connecticut’ of residence.”

The general trend, the analysis indicated, “is that White and Asian children and families experience positive outcomes, while their Hispanic and Black counterparts are almost invariably worse off. Even in those areas where Hispanic and Black households have relatively higher median incomes, they often still have worse outcomes than White and Asian households for many non-economic indicators.”

“Place remains tightly intertwined with opportunity, compounding the effects we observe along racial lines,” the report indicated.

“While more affluent suburban towns offer safer neighborhoods and greater social and economic opportunity to residents,67 these neighborhoods and towns tend to have less affordable housing and perhaps less economic opportunity for employees of limited credentials. Finances tie less affluent families to areas of low opportunity, contributing to a cycle of poor outcomes.”

Officials said the report is intended to be the beginning of a “more nuanced and continuous conversation about the role of place in social and economic equity in the State of Connecticut,” to assist in the development of “policies that work earnestly to close the racial and ethnic gaps among our families and children.”

In 2000, Connecticut’s population totaled 3,405,565, with 2,638,845 non-Hispanic Whites, 309,843 Blacks, 320,323 Hispanics, 9,639 Native Americans, and 82,313 Asians. In 2015, the estimated total population was 3,593,222, with 2,478,119 non-Hispanic Whites, 346,206 non-Hispanic Blacks, 526,508 Hispanics, 8,908 Native Americans of any ethnicity, and 149,368 non-Hispanic Asians.

Minorities, Children with Autism at Greater Risk of Drowning; Legislative Response Launched

“I understand all too well the dangers that water can represent,” said Karen Cohn, founder of the Zac Foundation, pointing out that drowning is the second leading cause of death for children under age 14.  “Many of these deaths could have been prevented.” Cohn’s 6-year-old son drowned in 2007 after his arm became stuck in the suction of the drain in their backyard pool.  Although he was a strong swimmer, “swimming skills are not enough to combat an entrapment,” she said.  The foundation named for her son is dedicated to educating parents about water safety, which goes beyond swimming skills.  The ZAC Foundation held its first water safety awareness camp, called ZAC Camp in Greenwich in April 2011. “We can save lives,” Cohn stressed.

Cohn was among advocates and legislators who held a State Capitol news conference to announce the creation of a legislative task force to bring awareness to the issue of childhood drownings.  Steven Hernández,, Executive Director of the Commission on Women, Children and Seniors, said the goal of the effort was “to prevent tragedies like these,” adding that “we need a multi-pronged response to a multi-pronged problem.”

The initiative was launched during National Water Safety Month, held each year in May, driven by statistics including:

• Almost 800 children die the U.S. every year from accidental drowning;
• 54% of these deaths are among children ages 0-4;
• African-American and Latino children are more than twice as likely to die from drowning, compared to Caucasian children; and
• According to the National Autism Association, accidental drowning led to 90% of the deaths of children with autism ages 14 and younger.

The statistics about children’s drowning deaths have not changed over time, implying that current strategies for prevention are not enough, officials said. Increasing children’s access to swim lessons, encouraging schools to teach water safety skills to students and giving parents easy-to-use and engaging tools to talk to their children about how to be safe around water are just a few actions that can have a big effect in reducing drowning rates, officials stressed.

An issue brief on the subject, prepared by Jennifer L. Masone of the Institute for Educational Leaders, and Principal, Wolfpit Elementary School in Norwalk, indicated that “from 2004-2014, 62 children from birth to 19 died from unintentional drowning. Of those, 35% were white and 34% were minority while the general population averaged 75% white and 25% minority. These data do not include children who experienced other short or long term effects.

The State Department of Public Health corroborates this information with its summation that for 2000-2004, “The Non-Hispanic Black population experienced a drowning rate twice that of the Non-Hispanic White population, and 33% higher than the Hispanic population.”

Senate Majority Leader Bob Duff said the issue needs to be “seen as a community solution through education.”   He said “this is an issue we can solve,” saluting the effort to bring interested parties together to work collectively.

In addition to establishing the task force, proponents of the initiative highlighted their support for HB 6260, which would require police officers to be trained to handle incidents involving juveniles with autism.  The measure has passed the House and is awaiting Senate action. Rep. Liz Linehan, who introduced that bill, said, “Children with autism are at an increased risk of drowning because they have a tendency to wander away from adult supervision and to seek out bodies of water.”

Rep. Cathy Abercrombie said “accidental drownings in Connecticut are a serious problem that deserves our full attention and one thing we can stress is the need for more education for parents and people overseeing children, especially now as we approach summer.”

https://youtu.be/CULPxBSa_10

https://youtu.be/hkmY3oZWxyU

Fake News More Believable Than Real News; Researchers Cite Familiarity As Reason

New research from Yale University indicates that fake news flourishes in large measure from its repetition – and can be more convincing than real news. The believably of fake news, according to the just-concluded study, is familiarity. Last year’s Presidential election brought considerable attention to the phenomenon of “fake news,” described as entirely fabricated and often highly partisan content that is presented as factual news. Disinformation of this sort poses a major threat to democracy, the researchers point out, after examining the success of fake news, particularly on social media.

Prior work has shown that familiarity increases perceived accuracy of entirely plausible and innocuous (but not necessarily true) statements. The Yale researchers investigated whether this effect extends to highly implausible and partisan statements.  Alarmingly, they found that it does.

Using actual fake news headlines presented as they are seen on Facebook, their 46-page research paper shows that even a single exposure increases perceptions of accuracy.  The researchers found that “increased perceptions of accuracy for familiar fake news headlines occurs even when the stories are labeled as contested by fact checkers, or are inconsistent with the reader’s political ideology. The effect is also evident when there is no conscious awareness of having previously seen the headline.”

“Collectively, our results indicate familiarity is used heuristically to infer accuracy. Thus, the spread of fake news is supported by persistent low-level cognitive processes that make even highly implausible and partisan claims more believable with repetition. Our results suggest that political echo chambers not only isolate one from opposing views, but also help to create incubation chambers for blatantly false (but highly salient and politicized) fake news stories.”

Three Yale University researchers - Gordon Pennycook a postdoctural fellow in the Department of Psychology, Tyrone D. Cannon, Professor of Psychology and Psychiatry and Director of the Clinical Neuroscience Lab, and David G. Rand, Associate Professor of Psychology, Economics & Management in the School of Management – are raising alarms about the effectiveness of so-called “fake news.”  Their paper, "Prior Exposure Increases Perceived Accuracy of Fake News," appears on SSSN, a site "devoted to the rapid worldwide dissemination of research."

“News stories … were fabricated and promoted on social media in order to deceive the public for ideological and/or financial gain. An analysis of the top performing news articles in the months leading up to the election revealed that the top fake news articles actually outperformed the top real news articles on Facebook (in terms of shares, likes, and comments). Although it is unclear to what extent fake news influenced the outcome of the Presidential Election, there is no question that many people were deceived by entirely fabricated (and often quite fanciful) fake news stories,” the researchers explained.

“These findings have important implications for our society, and the functioning of democracy which relies on an informed electorate. For example, the familiarity effect we demonstrate suggests a potential self-reinforcing cycle of online falsehoods: the sharing of fake news on social media leads to increased familiarity, which leads to increased perceptions of accuracy, which presumably leads to more sharing, which necessarily leads to increased familiarity, which leads to further increases in perceptions of accuracy, and so on.”

They further point out that the “feedback cycle is likely to be particular pernicious when coupled with so-called ‘echo chambers’ in which people mostly interact online with others who share the same political opinions.”  Their results suggest that echo chambers not only isolate one from opposing views, but also help to create “incubation chambers for blatantly false (but highly salient and politicized) fake news stories.”

These findings have implications beyond just fake news on social media, according to the researchers. They suggest that "politicians who continuously repeat false statements will be successful, at least to some extent, in convincing people those statements are in fact true.”

PHOTO: David G. Rand, Tyrone Cannon, Gordon Pennycook

CT Ranked #4 in US in Education, Economic, Civic Opportunity

Including Connecticut, ranked #4 nationally, the New England states grabbed five of the top 10 slots in the Opportunity Index, an analysis of “how opportunities measure up” in communities across the country.  The Opportunity Index is an annual composite measure at the state and county levels of economic, educational and civic factors that expand opportunity. Leading the opportunity rankings are Vermont, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Connecticut, New Jersey, Maryland, North Dakota, Nebraska, Maine and Minnesota.  Connecticut exceeded the national average in all three components – Jobs and Local Economy, Education, and Community Health and Civic Life.

In the Education component of the Opportunity Index, Connecticut ranked second.  The state ranked sixth in the Community aspect of the index, but 20^th in the Economy scorecard.  The Economy rankings included data on jobs, wages, poverty, inequality, access to banking, affordable housing and internet access.

Connecticut’s overall score was 62.8, compared with the national average of 54.0.  Among Connecticut’s eight counties, the best overall opportunities are in Middlesex County, which earned a 63.1 score.  Next were Tolland County, 62.3; Fairfield County,62.1; Litchfield County, 60.6; Hartford County 59.5; New Haven County, 56.8; New London County, 54.3; and Windham County 51.2.

The index was jointly developed by Measure of America and Opportunity Nation.

Nationally, overall opportunity has increased by 8.9 percent since 2011, as unemployment has dropped and violent crime has been reduced, the data indicated.  In addition, the rate of young adults from age 16 to 24 who are neither working nor in school has fallen 9.1% since 2011, but remains above pre-recession levels. This number has decreased slightly since 2015.

Opportunity Nation is a bipartisan, national coalition of more than 350 businesses, nonprofits, educational institutions and community leaders working to expand economic opportunity. Opportunity Nation seeks to close the opportunity gap by amplifying the work of its coalition members, advocating policy and private sector actions and releasing the annual Opportunity Index.  Measure of America provides easy-to-use yet methodologically sound tools for understanding well-being and opportunity in America.

The data, according to survey sponsors, comes from the U.S. Census Bureau, the Bureau of Labor and Statistics, the Federal Communications Commission, the National Center for Education Statistics, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention and the U.S. Department of Justice.

Waterbury, Hartford, Simsbury Receive National Recognition for Main Street Initiatives; Eight Local Efforts to Receive Awards

Three Connecticut communities in the Connecticut Main Street network have achieved accreditation for meeting the commercial district revitalization performance standards set by Main Street America, a subsidiary of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. The Connecticut Main Street programs that earned accreditation for their 2016 performance are Simsbury Main Street Partnership, Upper Albany Main Street (Hartford), and Main Street Waterbury.

The accreditation was announced at the 2017 Main Street Now Conference in Pittsburgh. Each year, Main Street America and its partners announce the list of accredited Main Street programs, which have demonstrated exemplary commitment to historic preservation and community revitalization through the Main Street Four Point Approach.

"Connecticut's Main Street America Accredited programs, Simsbury Main Street Partnership, Upper Albany Main Street (Hartford), and Main Street Waterbury, are well-established Main Street management organizations with histories of strong and dynamic leadership. Each has developed and maintained outstanding programs that increase the economic value of their districts while improving the quality of life for area residents," said Kimberley Parsons-Whitaker, Associate Director of Connecticut Main Street Center.

"Main Street revitalization is sustainable when the professional management organization is committed to engaging local stakeholders (business and property owners, anchor institutions, local government, and local residents) in envisioning a vibrant Main Street, and developing strong partnerships that result in action-oriented steps that bring the Main Street neighborhood back to life."

Working in partnership with Main Street America, Connecticut Main Street Center evaluates each of the state's Designated Main Street Programs annually to identify those programs that meet ten performance standards. Evaluation criteria determine the communities that are building comprehensive and sustainable revitalization efforts and include standards such as fostering strong public-private partnerships, securing an operating budget, tracking programmatic progress and actively preserving historic buildings.

The recognition doesn’t stop there.  Connecticut Main Street Center will be presenting its annual Awards of Excellence on Thursday, May 18 at the Legislative Office Building in Hartford.

Among the recipients: a downtown management organization engaging the community in envisioning two underutilized parks as places that downtown residents, visitors, workers and families can mingle with artists and creatives, and a regional planning organization that created a program focused on supporting local businesses, creating jobs and filling vacant spaces in eight village.

In total, eight recipients have been selected to receive the prestigious awards, including organizations and initiatives from Bridgeport, Unionville Village in Farmington, Hartford, Meriden, New Britain, New Haven, and the Northwest Corner.

Among the winning entries: a 14-acre flood control project that created a public park and mixed-use economic development in downtown Meriden; a comprehensive and complete overhaul of the City of Hartford’s zoning language and process; an interpretive wayfinding/signage program that connects Walnut Hill Park, Little Poland and Downtown New Britain; the restoration of a historic ball bearing mill on the banks of the Farmington River into a mixed-use campus in the heart of Unionville Village; a Twilight Bike Race & Street Festival that celebrates biking, food, culture and entertainment in Downtown New Haven; and the redevelopment of a 1903 factory building into 72 units of market rate housing within easy walking distance of jobs and transit in downtown Hartford.

Created in 2003 to recognize outstanding projects, individuals and community efforts to bring traditional downtowns and neighborhood commercial districts back to life, socially and economically, the Awards of Excellence are presented annually. CMSC’s mission is to be the catalyst that ignites Connecticut’s Main Streets as the cornerstone of thriving communities. CMSC is dedicated to community and economic development within the context of historic preservation, and is committed to bringing Connecticut’s commercial districts back to life socially and economically. CMSC is supported by its Founding Sponsors, the CT Department of Economic & Community Development (DECD) and Eversource Energy. CMSC is also supported by its Growth Sponsors, UIL Holdings Corp. and the State Historic Preservation Office.

In New England, Most Believe At Least Half of High School Grads Not Ready for College, Career

New Englanders overwhelmingly believe that at least half of high school students across the region graduate unprepared for college and a career, and that student-centered learning environments are part of the solution to this readiness problem. That’s according to the results of a poll that reflects growing concerns that children are not fully equipped for life after high school.  It is seen by some as a tipping point in public opinion that positions student-centered learning—which tailors education to the interests and needs of each student—as an answer to providing young people with the skills and knowledge they need to succeed upon entering post-secondary education and the workforce.

That’s according to the Nellie Mae Education Foundation (Nellie Mae) which released the poll that was conducted by the Rennie Center for Education Research & Policy, which surveyed 2,400 individuals across the region from August 5-31, 2016.

“Although graduation rates are at an all-time high, New Englanders are well aware that a diploma alone is no longer sufficient to ensure success for our students after high school,” said Nick Donohue, president & CEO of the Nellie Mae Education Foundation.

Among Connecticut residents, 33% said most graduates are prepared for college and a career, 48% said about half of graduates are ready, and 18% believe that “few graduates” are prepared for college and career.  Connecticut and New Hampshire had the highest percentage indicating that “most graduates” are prepared, with one-third of respondents (33%) expressing that view.

“Too frequently students arrive at college requiring developmental or remedial classes to strengthen basic skills just to move on to college-level material, or they begin careers without the tools and skills necessary to help them early on in their professional lives. The situation is more severe for people in traditionally marginalized communities – places that we need to prosper so our society can advance. The good news is that student-centered approaches to learning represent a path forward in which all students can succeed.”

There were some differences among the states.  In Connecticut, 48 percent said “some changes are needed, but basically schools should be kept the same.”  Only 14 percent said “public schools work well as they are now,” while 30 percent said “major changes are needed” and 8 percent said “a complete overhaul is needed” (the smallest percentage among the New England states).

A significantly greater proportion in Rhode Island believe “a complete overhaul is needed” than in Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Vermont.   A significantly greater proportion in Maine believe “a complete overhaul is needed” than in Connecticut.

Nearly two-thirds of those surveyed in Connecticut (64%) called for “using technology to enhance the way students learn in the classroom” – the highest percentage among the six New England states.  A majority called for “more significant efforts to close achievement gaps” (59%), more effective teachers (62%) and changes to the ways schools are funded (57%).  The state legislature in Connecticut is currently considering changes in the school funding formula proposed by Gov. Malloy in the wake of a state court decision.

According to Nellie Mae, across New England, only 50 percent of high school students are graduating with the skills and knowledge necessary to succeed after high school. These poll results show that New Englanders not only agree this is unacceptable, but that 90 percent believe that student-centered learning environments are part of the solution toward ensuring high school graduates are college and career ready.

Nellie Mae defines student-centered learning as personalized and happening anywhere, anytime. In student-centered environments, students move ahead based on mastery of content rather than class-seat time and they exert ownership over their own learning.

New Englanders found teachers to be among the most trusted group when it comes to educational decision-making and showed confidence in their ability to improve public education. Respondents also reported having confidence in parents and school and district leaders for improving education.

The poll comes amidst efforts by Nellie Mae to reshape public education in New England to reach an aggressive benchmark of 80 percent college and career readiness among our high school graduates by 2030. The Foundation is investing $200 million in grantmaking efforts toward advancing student-centered learning in schools and districts across the region in order to achieve this goal.

The Nellie Mae Education Foundation is the largest philanthropic organization in New England that focuses exclusively on education.

To read the poll report in its entirety, please visit http://bit.ly/2k4Dvv5

Carolina Attendance Plummets; Proposal for Hartford Region to Buy Back Whalers, Bring 'Em Home

In a press conference on May 6, 1997, team owner Peter Karmanos Jr. said he was moving his hockey team, the Hartford Whalers, to Raleigh and renaming it the Carolina Hurricanes. It has been 20 years, and now there is an effort – voiced by Hartford City Councilman John Gale – to go back to the future, and bring the franchise to Hartford's XL Center.  It is a long-shot, wistful effort that has yet to capture the public imagination in Connecticut, or any apparent interest from Karmanos, despite near constant rumors, and some intimation, that the franchise could be bought, for the right price.  There has been consistent resistance from the NHL to moving the franchise from Raleigh, but no new comment since the latest idea became public.

“This is a market where the people have a good feeling about themselves, have a good feeling about the future,” Karmanos said two decades ago of the Carolina market to which he was redirecting the soon-to-be former Whalers. “I think they want a sports team here as a quality-of-life issue, something they can identify with.”

Now, Gale suggests in an op-ed published by the Hartford Courant, the team ought to return for much the same reason. “What if we could provide the region with an identity, a rallying point; what if there were a way to bring back the Whale and give it a built-in metro area base of support; and we did it all by regionally cooperating,” Gale wrote.

It has been two decades of highs and lows as the Carolina Hurricanes – two Stanley Cup appearances, and one win of the Cup in the early years, and the worst attendance in the National Hockey League, or near the bottom, more recently.  In Hartford, the Whalers remain very much a part of the city's consciousness.

The Hurricanes have had the NHL’s worst home attendance in each of the past two years, and attendance at home games has dropped for five consecutive years, averaging 11,776 this season for 41 home games.

In January, NBC Sports reported that team President Don Waddell said Karmanos was not actively looking to sell the team, but that “If someone came along and wanted to buy it, I’m sure we’d talk about it but we’re not actively out there trying to find investors. If someone calls and says, ‘Hey, I want to buy the team,’ we’re taking that call.”  A year ago, there were rumors of a sale and move to Quebec City.

Today, the Hurricanes Executive Vice President and General Manager is Hall of Famer Ron Francis.  The former standout – in Hartford and Carolina – was the first player to have his number retired by the Hurricanes, on Jan. 28, 2006. Francis, captain dubbed “Ronnie Franchise,” saw his No. 10 – the jersey number in Connecticut and Carolina – raised high above the arena.

Earlier this year, NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman was quoted by USA Today as saying "Peter may sell, he may not sell.  He may sell all of it. He may sell some of it. He may sell none of it. There's no formal sale process going on. There's no imperative for the franchise to be sold on any immediate basis, and the franchise is not moving.”

Within weeks of those comments, Gov. Malloy and Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin made a play for the Brooklyn-based New York Islanders, rumored to be seeking a new home due to spotty attendance at the home they share with the Brooklyn Nets.  Those hopes were dashed last month when the team announced they planned to stay in New York, and are considering plans for a new hockey arena on Long Island or in Queens near Shea Stadium.

That effort caught the interest of data-guru Nate Silver, founder and editor of FiveThirtyEight.com, who revived his 2013 study that noted the Hartford-New Haven media market is the largest in the U.S. without a “big four” sports franchise.  He estimated that about 175,000 avid NHL fans live in the Hartford-New Haven metro area. “That sounds bad, though it’s comparable to or slightly better than some of the lower-tier American NHL markets, including Columbus, Raleigh-Durham, Miami and Nashville (and better than Las Vegas, where the NHL is expanding). Furthermore, there’s potentially room for growth. According to our estimates, 7 percent of adults in the Hartford metro area were avid NHL fans in 2013. But the percentage is 13 percent in the New York metro area and 17 percent in the Boston metro area.”  Sliver added that “If the Islanders or another team were to relocate to Hartford, the numbers would probably improve.”

Gale’s proposal: “What if all 38 towns in the Capitol Region Council of Governments banded together to buy the franchise and brought it back to Hartford? Grand lists are representative of the respective wealth of each town. So, the 38 towns would each pay a portion of the purchase price of the Whalers hockey team based on their percentage of the total grand list of all 38 towns. The average per capita cost for all 38 towns is $274 per person.”

In the Whalers’ final season in Hartford, 1996-97, attendance at the Hartford Civic Center had grown to 87 percent of capacity, with an average attendance of 13,680 per game.  Published reports suggest that the average attendance was, in reality, higher than 14,000 per game by 1996-97, but Whalers ownership did not count the skyboxes and coliseum club seating because the revenue streams went to the state, rather than the team.  Attendance increased for four consecutive years before management moved the team from Hartford. (To 10,407 in 1993-94, 11,835 in 1994-95, 11,983 in 1995-96 and 13,680 in 1996-97.)

Carolina’s average home attendance during the just-concluded 2016-17 season was 11,776– the worst in the 30 team league. That was a drop from the 2015-16 average of 12,203, which was lowest in the NHL that year as well.

ESPN reported last year that the Whalers Booster Club remains visible, and Whalers gear continues to sell briskly, in and beyond the Hartford region.

"We always march in Hartford's St. Patrick's Day parade," said Joanne Cortesa, the club's president.  "And every time we hear people chanting, 'Bring 'em back, bring 'em back!' Every place we go, it's 'Bring 'em back!'"

"It's probably not going to happen next week or next month," Bronin told ESPN. "But we'd certainly welcome having the NHL return to Hartford."

CT Communities Among Safest Places to Live; Weston and Madison Lead the Way

Two Connecticut communities – Weston and Madison – are among the top 15 safest cities in America, according to a newly released analysis. SafeWise has compiled their 4th annual 100 Safest Cities in America Report, which also ranked three other Connecticut towns in the top 100 - Wilton, Ridgefield, and Canton.

To compile this report, SafeWise analysts considered the most recent complete FBI crime data from 2015 to rank these communities, which all have a minimum population of 10,000 people. SafeWise is a home security and safety brand committed to increasing safety education, awareness, and preparedness in American communities.

Weston was ranked at #6, Madison at #14, Wilton at #49, Ridgefield at #57, and Canton at #85.

“There is a lot that the nation can learn about community policing, the walkability of safe streets and collaboration between police and neighborhood watch programs to help improve the safety of our cities,” SafeWise Security Analyst Olga Papadimitriou said.

Last year, the top five in Connecticut were Ridgefield, Wilton, Weston, Easton and Redding. 

Based on the most recent FBI Crime Report, according to SafeWise, the violent crime rate in Connecticut is nearly 40 percent lower than the national average and the property crime rate is over 25 percent lower. Among the state’s 20 safest cities, however, only about three crimes were reported for every 1,000 citizens.

Weston, with a population of 10,150 residents, according to the town’s website, features “two acre zoning, a lack of commercial development, a focus on open space, and an outstanding educational system.”  Twenty percent of town residents commute to jobs in Manhattan daily. 

Last month, the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies, Inc. (CALEA®) awarded the Madison Police Department their second Advanced Law Enforcement Accreditation. This award was presented to the Madison Police Department at the organization’s annual conference.