School Resource Officers Gain Attention in Aftermath of School Shootings

School resource officers (SROs) are sworn police officers who typically perform a number of community policing roles to make schools safer for students and staff, including community liaison, mentor, role model, and law enforcement officer.  A new report from the Connecticut Office of Legislative Research (OLR), looked at nearly 70 Connecticut school districts with at least one SRO. With the assistance of the Connecticut Association of Public School Superintendents, OLR, the legislature’s non-partisan research arm, surveyed and researched 113 public school districts in Connecticut to learn whether SROs are utilized in their elementary, middle, or high schools.

Of the 113 districts, 70 were found to be utilizing SROs in some manner. SROs in Connecticut are primarily assigned to middle and high schools but often visit elementary schools in their district. They also may assist in the development of school policies that concern criminal activity and school safety, as well as teach classes in substance abuse awareness, gang resistance, and crime prevention, according to OLR.

Financial cost per SRO varies between municipalities and is sometimes unknown to the district, the report indicated.  Generally SROs are funded by the board of education or provided by local police departments through memoranda of understanding (MOU) with the school district.

Last month, the Wallingford Board of Education called for funding for four police officers to serve as SRO’s, one at each middle school and high school in town, along with other safety items, the Meriden Record-Journal reported.

Plymouth is considering bringing a school resource officer back to the school, in the wake of the Parkland, Florida school shooting.  The school resource officer position was eliminated two years ago due to budget cuts, NBC Connecticut reported.  And Westport Now has reported that Westport’s Board of Education voted 5 to 2 in March to approve the concept of having an armed school resource officer in its schools.

Communities with the highest number of School Resource Officers in their local school district, among the towns surveyed, are New Haven (12), West Hartford (6), Bethel (5), Manchester (5), Meriden (5), and West Haven (5). Communities with four School Resource Officers include East Harford, Milford, and Monroe.  The remaining school districts surveyed have three or fewer.

Numerous districts have SRO’s in place, but the range of responsibilities – as well as the numbers - vary.

In Newington, for example, the SRO was initially funded by a grant; currently the Board of Education and the Police Department share the annual cost of the program.  The SRO at the local high school works full-time in conjunction with the education system to address a myriad of issues facing the high school population.

Manchester’s SRO’s are trained to fulfill three primary roles, according to the town police website. “First and foremost they are Law Enforcement Officers, whose main purpose is to keep the peace in their schools. Second, they are law related mentors who provide guidance and information to students, their families, and school staff. Thirdly, they are law related ‘teachers’, who can provide the schools with additional resources by sharing their expertise in the classroom (when requested and available).”

In Darien, the SRO's days are spent meeting with students, administration, support staff, and parents in regards to various issues or concerns, according to the police department website. The SRO also “visits classrooms to give guest lessons on alcohol and drugs, search and seizure, and other law-related topics. The SRO often attends extra-curricular events, in an effort to further immerse himself into the community and increase familiarity.”

New Haven’s SRO program, which was established in 1994, consists of 12 uniformed officers that are assigned to middle and high schools.  The program, according to the city website, “allows both home and school to be aware of any situation that may impact the health and safety of students, as well as the monitoring of those who show signs of at-risk or delinquent behavior. This interaction provides a valuable resource to keep our children out of trouble during their school years and keeping their focus on education and commitment to family and community.”

Women’s Economic Status in Connecticut Among Best in Nation, But Still Insufficient

Women are faring better in Connecticut than in most states in the nation, according to a new analysis that focused on data in two central areas of everyday life – Employment & Earnings and Poverty & Opportunity. Connecticut ranked 4^th in the Employment and Earnings category, earning a B+, and 4^th in the Poverty and Opportunity category, with a B- grade.

Status of Women in the States is a project of the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, a comprehensive project that presents and analyzes data for all 50 states and the District of Columbia. The Institute suggests that the data can be used “to raise awareness, improve policies, and promote women’s equality.”

Connecticut’s grade for women’s Employment & Earnings, B+, has improved since the 2004 Status of Women in the States report.  Its grade for women’s Poverty & Opportunity, B-, has dropped since 2004.

In the subcategories of Employment and Earnings, Connecticut ranked Connecticut ranked 2nd in median annual earnings for women employed full-time, 5^th in the percent of all employed women in managerial or professional occupations, 13^th in the percent of women in the labor force, and 38^th in the earnings ratio between women and men employed full-time, year-round.

The Employment & Earnings Index measures states on women’s earnings, the gender wage gap, women’s labor force participation, and women’s representation in professional and managerial occupations. The top states were District of Columbia, Maryland, Massachusetts, Connecticut and New York.

Women working full-time, year-round have the highest earnings in the District of Columbia, where women’s median annual earnings are $65,000. Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts, and New Jersey are tied for second, with women in those states earning $50,000 at the median.

In the Poverty and Opportunity subcategories, Connecticut ranked 2^nd in the percent of women age 18 and older above poverty, 5^th in the percent of women age 25 and older with a Bachelor’s degree or higher, 10^th in the percent of women age 18-64 with health insurance, and 29^th in the percent of businesses owned by women.

New Hampshire, Connecticut, Maryland, and New Jersey have the highest rates of women living above poverty in the country at 89.2 percent, 88.4 percent, 88.1 percent, and 88.1 percent, respectively.

The report noted that women in Connecticut aged 16 and older who work full-time, year-round have median annual earnings of $50,000, which is 76.9 cents on the dollar compared with men who work full-time, year-round. Hispanic women earn just 47 cents for every dollar earned by White men, according to the report. According to the report’s analysis, if employed women in Connecticut were paid the same as comparable men, their poverty rate would be reduced by more than half and poverty among employed single mothers would be cut in half.

In Connecticut, 32.7 percent of businesses in 2012 were owned by women, up from 28.1 percent in 2007.  The report also indicates that 94.2 percent of Connecticut’s women aged 18 to 64 have health insurance coverage, which is above the national average for women of 89.4 percent.

The report, published in March 2018, concludes that “Women in Connecticut have made considerable advances in recent years but still face inequities that often prevent them from reaching their full potential.”

Small Business Administration to Honor CT’s Leading Small Business Owners

April M. Lukasik, President & CEO of Bright & Early Children’s Learning Centers, has been named the U.S. Small Business Administration’s 2018 Connecticut Small Business Person of the Year, SBA’s top award, Anne Hunt, SBA’s District Director, has announced. “We are extremely excited to honor a truly amazing line up of small business owners and champions this year, said Anne Hunt, SBA’s Connecticut District Director.  It is important to recognize these outstanding small businesses in the state as they are the job creators, innovators and the fabric of our local communities!” 

The slate of leading small business owners in Connecticut will be honored at the Annual Small Business Week Awards Luncheon at Anthony’s Ocean View in New Haven on May 3.  National Small Business Week is obsered April 29-May 5.

Bright & Early Children’s Learning Centers have four locations in Connecticut.  The business was founded in Middletown 2012 by Lukasik.  The mission statement describes the Center as “a child care and early education solution in a nurturing and scholastic environment where dedicated teachers are awakening young minds when it matters most.”  Old Saybrook, Branford locations followed, with West Hartford soon to open.

“We hope the small business community will join the SBA and our host, SCORE for an inspiring awards luncheon on May 3rd in New Haven,” Hunt added.

The 2018 Connecticut SBA Honorees are:

• Region 1 & Connecticut Manufacturer of the Year  Brian Weinstein, CHAPCO, Chester
• Region 1 & Connecticut Family-Owned Small Business   Charles Buck Jr., Buck’s Spumoni Company, Inc., Milford
• Exporter of the Year  Dennis Nash, Control Station Inc., Manchester
• Woman-Owned Small Business  Erin Emmons, Lucky Taco Cantina and Tap Room, Manchester
• Minority-Owned Small Business  Marilyn Ortiz, Borinquen Bakery, New Britain
• Veteran Owned Business of the Year Nicholas W. Wright, Unlimited Fun LLC., Prospect
• Home-Based Business of the Year Linda Longboardi, ReGift the Wrap, LLC., Glastonbury
• Young Entrepreneur of the Year  Alyssa DeMatteo, Wildflour Confections, Seymour
• CT Microenterprise Award  Stefanie Toise, At Once LLC., Vernon
• Financial Services Champion  Aaron M. Bohigan- Webster Bank, Hartford

Lukasik, founder of Bright & Early Children's Learning Centers, finds her roots in a family of entrepreneurs. Her grandmother owned and operated a nursing home that her parents later grew into a successful entity. She started off working in the family business, gathering experience and cultivating her passion of caring for others. After obtaining her Bachelors Degree in Marketing, she jumpstarted her entrepreneurial career, creating and operating multiple companies while gaining experience and insight into what it takes to build and grow a successful organization.

When her children were toddlers, she found herself searching for child care options that suited her needs and standards as a discerning parent… a safe, secure, nurturing, warm, home-like, educational, organized, and clean child care center. Not finding what she was looking for, she tapped into her entrepreneurial spirit to start her own child care center that met all of these standards.

The Young Entreprenuer of the Year, Alyssa DeMatteo, is a 26 year old Seymour resident who quickly gained popularity in southern Connecticut's cake and cupcake scene when she launched Wildflour Cupcakes & Sweets as a Facebook page in 2013.

Control Station was founded in 1988 and headquartered near the University of Connecticut. Control Station harnesses the creative energies of its surrounding, solving difficult plant monitoring and controller challenges facing process manufacturers with a broad portfolio of software-based solutions. Exporter of the Year Dennis Nash is President and Chief Executive Officer of Control Station, Inc.

PERSPECTIVE: Don’t Undermine the 2020 Decennial Census and Jeopardize Federal Funding

by Michelle Riordan-Nold The Connecticut Data Collaborative, on its monthly open data calls, has provided updates on data in the news. The biggest newsmaker by far has been Census 2020. Besides the challenges the Census Bureau has faced in maintaining their federal funding and finding new leadership, a recent ruling has put the accuracy of the Census 2020 count in jeopardy.

Several months ago, the Justice Department made a request that a question on citizenship be included in the Census 2020 count. Advocates raised concerns immediately about the possibility that a question on citizenship could impact whether people respond to the Census survey, but that question has been approved for inclusion in the upcoming count by Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, despite grave concerns expressed by career civil servants working at the Census Bureau.

The Justice Department argues that the citizenship question would allow the agency to better enforce Section 2 of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, which bars the dilution of minority voting power through redistricting. The letter states, "to fully enforce those requirements, the department needs a reliable calculation of the citizen voting-age population in localities where voting rights violation are alleged or suspected." However, these data are collected every year in the American Community Survey and therefore are not necessary to fulfill the requirements of Section 2. The last time the immigration question was asked in a decennial census was in 1950.

Advocates are rightly concerned about the impact on the count that a citizenship question could exert.  In a November presentation by the Census Bureau, an official cited numerous examples of respondents expressing concern about the confidentiality of the data related to immigration.

The question on citizenship will not be field tested, which means there is no way to know in advance whether people will choose not respond. The Census Bureau has been finalizing and field testing questions for over a year and the only end-to-end field test is already underway in Rhode Island. Not knowing whether the citizenship question will impact response rates has two important consequences: the non-response follow-up and the undercount.

The most costly piece of the Census work is in non-response follow-up work--this is the work that Census field employees do when they go out to meet with residents and work with them to complete their census surveys. The Census budget is insufficient to conduct extensive non-response follow-up work and will result in lower funding for other Census programs such as the American Community Survey, which provides town level data for Connecticut.

The undercount has serious consequences for our country and our state.

Our immigrant residents are concentrated in major metropolitan areas--these areas are typically dependent on the federal government for crucial funding for health and human services. A question about citizenship in the current political climate could be seen as a threat in many communities. If residents choose not to respond to the survey, we could see an undercount. The decennial census population counts are used to determine legislative redistricting as well as federal funding for health and human services programs, and thus will remain in place for ten years.

Based on decennial Census counts, in Federal Fiscal year 2015, Connecticut received $8 billion in federal funds for the top 16 programs. The five largest funds that distribute aid based on decennial-census derived estimates are:

• Medicaid
• Medicare Part B - (Supplemental Medical Insurance) Physicians Fee Schedule Services
• Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)
• Highway planning and construction
• Section 8 Housing Choice Vouchers  (source: The George Washington Institute of Public Policy)

An undercount could have serious fiscal implications to our state, which is already in a fiscal crisis.

However, states are joining forces to oppose this decision. At the beginning of the month, Connecticut joined a coalition of attorneys general, cities and the bipartisan U.S. Conference of Mayors in filing a lawsuit seeking to block the Trump Administration from demanding citizenship information in the 2020 decennial Census, according to an announcement by Attorney General George Jepsen and Secretary of the State Denise Merrill.

Good, reliable data are needed for fair provision of federal resources. Proceeding with a citizenship question without fully understanding the impact and implications it would have on the count – and the program funding that flows from it – puts the integrity of the census count, and the fair and accurate distribution of millions of dollars in doubt.

__________________________________

Michelle Riordan-Nold is Executive Director of the Connecticut Data Collaborative. She is responsible for executing the vision and strategy of the Collaborative which seeks to democratize access to public data, facilitate data-driven decision making, and build data literacy. In leading the Collaborative, she seeks to increase the use of public open data and grow the community of users across the state. The organization’s monthly open data calls  updates data users and provides opportunities to collectively impact change in the use of and access to public data.

Advancing Racial Equity in Nonprofits to be Among Themes for National Conference in Hartford

When members of the Alliance for Nonprofit Management, a national association based in St. Louis, hold their 20^th anniversary conference this fall, they will be gathering in Hartford.  The conference, “Re-envisioning Our Field:  Advancing Racial Equity & Leading Innovation in Capacity Building,” will be held October 10-12 at the Hartford Hilton. The organization’s Board Chair is Anne Yurasek, Principal of Fio Partners, which is based in Chester, CT.  Yurasek has been an organizational development consultant and trainer for over twenty years in the nonprofit and private sector.

The Alliance is the “national voice and catalyst for the field of capacity building.”  The organization’s mission is to “increase the effectiveness of the individuals, groups and organizations that help nonprofits and communities achieve positive social change.”  The Alliance seeks to “create spaces for professional dialogue and learning by amplifying research in the field and promoting its implications for effective practice.”

More than 250 attendees will include consultants, coaches, funders, academics, and executives from across the country. The conference intends to “convene the diverse perspectives that shape and advance our field.”

The conference provides participants with the chance to “convene, dialogue, learn, shape and advance our field for the good of the nonprofits and communities we serve,” official explained.  The theme was selected because now “is a critical time for our field to reflect, to learn together, and to consider how our work should evolve to address racial inequities in our society. From amplifying emerging approaches to reflecting on research and exploring its implications for practice,” participants are urged to “bring your perspectives, experiences, and energy” to the annual conference.

The three-day event includes presentation opportunities with local nonprofits, work-sessions for Affinity & Interest Groups, twenty-plus workshop sessions “curated for capacity builders by capacity builders, and thought provoking plenary sessions.”

The Alliance for Nonprofit Management is the result of the 1997 merger of the Nonprofit Management Association and Support Centers of America. The organization is described as unique as a cross-sector professional association of individuals and organizations that are devoted to increasing the effectiveness of the individuals, groups and organizations that help nonprofits and communities achieve positive social change.

The 2017 conference was held in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Advocates Urge End to CT's Statute of Limitations for Sexual Assault Crimes; Legislation Awaits Action

The statistics were stark and unsettling, featured in an informational display in the corridor connecting the State Capitol and the Legislative Office Building, in the midst of Sexual Assault Awareness Month:

• 77% of victims in Connecticut know their perpetrators
• In 2016, the estimated cost of sexual violence in Connecticut was $5,762,944.30, including lost wages and medical costs based on emergency department visits.
• Connecticut students who experienced sexual violence were 3 times more likely to miss school because they felt unsafe
• 8% of CT students in grades 9-12 reported being forced to have sexual intercourse.
• 1 in 2 women and 1 in 5 men have experienced sexual violence other than rape in their lifetimes.

Less prominent, but described as equally significant, was advocacy information that explained Connecticut has the third shortest statute of limitation in the country in cases of sexual assault, and the shortest in New England – five years.

The Connecticut Alliance to End Sexual Violence is calling for that to change, but it is unclear if a legislative proposal (House Bill 5246) to eliminate the criminal statute of limitations will be approved in the final three weeks of the state legislative session. Another proposal would extend the period to ten years (Senate Bill 238), an improvement over the current 5-year window, but still shorter than it should be, advocates say.

The "elimination" bill was approved by the legislature's Judiciary Committee, 26-14, earlier this month.

The organization points out that Connecticut’s short reporting window does not account for new crimes that involve online victimization.  And it does not recognize the multiple barriers to reporting immediately after an assault, or that five years has not always been enough time to investigate and bring a case against a perpetrator, “allowing some likely offenders to go free.”

Stating that “justice should not have an expiration date,” the organization points out that eight states have no statute of limitations for felony sexual assault crimes, and 28 states have a statute of limitations of 21 years or more.  Only 10 states, including Connecticut, have a statute of limitation of 10 years or less.

According to the National Institutes of Health, sexual violence is the leading cause of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) in women.  Testifying in support of the bill last month, Madeline Granato of the Connecticut Women's Education and Legal Fund (CWEALF) said a survivor of sexual assault may face multiple barriers that prevent timely reporting, and "the elimination of the statute of limitations will remove at least one barrier:  time."

The bill has been opposed by the State Office of Chief Public Defender, which told legislators in March that "Without any finite period of time within which a prosecution can be brought, it may be impossible for an innocent person to fairly defend himself, 10, 20 or more years beyond the date of the offense."

The Connecticut Alliance to End Sexual Violence partnered with the Connecticut Department of Public Health in showcasing materials and information to help the public identify sexual violence, offer support to survivors, and prevent sexual violence.  Throughout the month of April, The Alliance its member programs, are raising awareness about sexual violence through hosting events across the state.

Connecticut Alliance to End Sexual Violence is a statewide coalition of individual sexual assault crisis programs. The Alliance works to end sexual violence through victim assistance, community education, and public policy advocacy.

Cantor Colburn Ranked #4 in U.S. for Utility Patents in 2017

Hartford-based Cantor Colburn LLP is the nation’s fourth largest patent firm, as ranked by issued patents, according to IP Watchdog, a leading intellectual property blog.  IP Watchdog compiled the list of about 800 U.S. patent firms based on the total U.S. utility patents that issued in 2017.  The ranking places Cantor Colburn in better than the top 1% of all U.S. law firms for productivity. Cantor Colburn has been a staple in the top ten rankings for utility patents, design patents, and trademarks for many years. The firm is one of the largest full-service intellectual property law firms in the country, with more than 100 attorneys and agents and offices in Hartford, Washington, D.C., Atlanta, Houston, and Detroit.

In 2016, Juristat reviewed law firm growth over the last decade and found that Cantor Colburn was the fastest growing U.S. patent law firm “by a significant margin.” In addition to being a patent powerhouse, Cantor Colburn assists clients with litigation, trademarks, copyrights, trade secrets, post grant review, including inter partesreview, and agreements of all kinds. Cantor Colburn’s strategic expansion has successfully seen it grow from a ten-lawyer firm in the 1990s.

“Cantor Colburn is able to sustain a high level of productivity and quality work because of the talent, experience, and dedication of many professionals at all levels,” said Philmore H. Colburn II, Co-Managing Partner of Cantor Colburn.  “Our clients depend on us to acquire quality patent rights quickly, and we are focused on getting those results.”

“Over the last 25 years at Cantor Colburn, we have focused on three things: high quality work, responsiveness, and value,” said Co-Managing Partner Michael A. Cantor. “It seems as though while much of the world is changing, these things remain constant.”

Cantor Colburn’s clients are among the leading companies in the country and around the world, including Fortune 100 companies, privately-held companies, select high tech start-ups, and universities.

Co-Managing Partner Michael Cantor also serves as Board Chair of Connecticut Innovations, the state’s strategic venture capital arm and the leading source of financing and ongoing support for innovative, growing companies.

The firm recently played a role, along with other key CEO’s in the region, in attracting InfoSys to Hartford.  The state Bond Commission last Friday approved $14 million in funding to bring the information technology and consulting firm to Hartford. Infosys has committed to hire 1,000 employees over the next four years in Hartford and establish a $21 million center to develop digital and other technologies for the insurance and health care industries and manufacturing.

Cantor Colburn has a thriving international practice, working closely with companies in Israel, Europe, Asia and the Americas. Michael Cantor has been teaching Patent Law and Procedure at University of Connecticut School of Law as an Adjunct Professor for more than 20 years.

PERSPECTIVE: The Social Responsibility of Business is Changing

by Sarah Eisele-Dyrli In 1970, Milton Freedman wrote in The New York Times Magazine that the responsibility of a corporate executive is “to conduct the business in accordance with their desires, which generally will be to make as much money as possible while conforming to the basic rules of the society, both those embodied in law and those embodied in ethical custom.”

It turns out that the basic rules of society are changing.

In 1993, 66 percent of consumers were “likely to switch brands to one that is associated with a good cause, given similar price and quality” according to the 2017 Cone Communications CSR Study.

In 2017, that number rose to 89 percent.

This changing consumer behavior, an indicator of changing basic rules of society, results in businesses making more money.

Take Unilever.

In May, 2017, Unilever announced that their Sustainable Living brands grew “over 50 percent faster than the rest of the business” and that those brands “delivered more than 60 percent of Unilever’s growth in 2016.”

Paul Polman, Unilever CEO, commented on the results:

“There is no doubt that the Unilever Sustainable Living Plan is making us more competitive by helping us to build our brands and spur innovation, strengthen our supply chain and reduce our risks, lower our costs, and build trust in our business. It is helping Unilever to serve society and our many consumers, and in doing so, create value for shareholders.” [emphasis mine]

Unilever is benefiting financially today from the trends highlighted in the Cone study - they are making a lot of money, and are also setting themselves up to benefit over the long-term by ensuring the resources they need (human, environmental, financial, and otherwise) will still be around for years to come.

What can this example possibly mean for the 96 percent of Connecticut business owners like myself who employ fewer than 20 employees*? (*calculated from the Connecticut Small Business Profile, 2017)

Those of us who own small businesses, including individual proprietorships, can also take advantage of these changing rules of society - and profit.

Enter the Benefit Corporation (known as B Corp). There are two types of B Corps. One is a certification through B Lab, an NGO that codified the structure. The other is a type of business incorporation, and is obtained by application through the Secretary of the State. Both give legal protection to leaders who consider the interests of all stakeholders - not just shareholders or a board of directors - when making business decisions.

There are certainly businesses in Connecticut that seek to “make as much money as possible” while conforming to these new basic rules of society.

But in Connecticut, these businesses can be hard to find.

In my own search to connect with businesses here in Connecticut that are having a positive social and/or environmental impact, I continue to be met with chuckles from other business owners when I talk about what I do.

They know that these kinds of businesses are growing nationally, but they also know that there aren’t many in Connecticut yet.

Of the 1,100 B Corps in the US certified by B Lab, currently only .27 percent (3 in total) are located in Connecticut. According to the Benefit Corporation website, which tries to track the number of businesses that are actively incorporated as B Corps at the state level, there are 43 incorporated Benefit Corps listed in Connecticut, but some of these are no longer in business. The state’s B Corp law took effect in 2014.

Businesses seeking to have a positive environmental and social impact do exist in Connecticut, but may fear losing customers or clients by waving the triple bottom line flag of people, profit, planet.

Yet the findings from the Cone report suggest that by conforming to these developing basic rules of society, Connecticut businesses may actually benefit - not be harmed - by putting these values up front.

One way to signal this priority is by certifying as a B Corp through B Lab (and being able to use the recognizable B Corp seal) or incorporating as a B Corp through the state of Connecticut. The fees may be lower than you might expect, depending on your current size of operation.

Another signal we can make to consumers or customers is through communicating these values more effectively in our marketing. The Cone report found that 39 percent of consumers researched the environmental and social practices of businesses in 2016. By making it easy for consumers to identify the values they share with our businesses, we make it easier for them to make the decision to buy our products or services when they are comparable to others.

As consumers, we can benefit from the new “basic rules of society” by knowing that our hard-earned dollars are going to help address issues we care about. And as business-owners we get the added benefit of making “as much money as possible” while having the confidence that the resources we need will be available to us and our families for generations to come.

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Sarah Eisele-Dyrli, MSW, is the founder of Social Impact Compass, based in Connecticut.  She works with business owners and social enterprises so they can have the social and environmental impact they want. She can be reached at sarah@socialimpactcompass.com or @SEiseleDyrli.

CT Ranks 15th Among Best States for Millennials, Analysis Reveals

The only state in the nation with a higher percentage of millennials living with their parents than Connecticut is New Jersey.  That is just one finding in a study of the best and worst states for millennials, in which Connecticut ranked fifteenth overall.  Why do so many millennials in Connecticut live with mom and dad in Connecticut?  Analysts say that high housing costs are to blame. Pushing Connecticut toward the top is the state’s third place ranking in the Education & Health category.  Pulling the state down are rankings of 41^st in Affordability, 29^th in Economic Health and 23^rd in Quality of Life.  The state ranked 17^th in Civic Engagement among the 50 states and the District of Columbia.

The best states for millennials, according to the analysis by the website WalletHub, are the District of Columbia, North Dakota, Minnesota, Massachusetts, Iowa, Wisconsin, Utah, Nebraska and Colorado.  Among the other New England states, New Hampshire came in at #12, Vermont at #14, Rhode Island at #26 and Maine at #28.

Connecticut's #15 ranking is filled with plusses and minuses in the component elements of the study.  The state, for example, has the 7th highest average annual cost of early childcare as a share of average earnings for millennials, at 23.85 percent. In housing cost for millennials, Connecticut ranks 38th, the average two-bedroom rent being 36.99 percent of this age group's average earnings, WalletHub analyst Jill Gonzalez points out.

The state has the second highest percentage of millennials who visited a dentist in the past year at 74.60 percent; the 8th highest percentage of millennials who had a routine checkup in the past year at 66.37 percent; and the 7th smallest percentage of millennials with no doctor visits in the past year due to cost, at 11.70 percent.

According to the Pew Research Center, millennials are expected to overtake Boomers in population in 2019 as their numbers swell to 73 million and Boomers decline to 72 million. Generation X (ages 36 to 51 in 2016) is projected to pass the Boomers in population by 2028.

The five dimensions, mentioned above, were weighted to determine an overall score on a 100 point scale using thirty relevant metrics including the cost of living, rate of home ownership and insurance, average student loan debt, voter turnout rate, unemployment rate, percentage diagnosed with depression and the average price of a latte at Starbucks.

Data used to create the rankings were collected from the U.S. Census Bureau, Department of Housing and Urban Development, Council for Community and Economic Research, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, United Health Foundation, TransUnion, Corporation for National and Community Service, Indeed, Child Care Aware of America and WalletHub research.

Museums Have Significant Impact on State, National Economy, Report Concludes

Museums in Connecticut had a one-year total financial impact on Connecticut’s economy of $834 million, providing $556 million in income via wages and other income to state residents, generating $223.5 million in taxes (including $77.5 million in state and local taxes), and supporting just over 10,200 jobs – including 5,400 direct jobs, 1,877 indirect jobs and nearly 3,000 induced jobs. The data was compiled as part of a national report, Museums as Economic Engines, compiled the Alliance of American Museums. The report indicates that nationwide, museums support 726,000 jobs in the United States, and directly employ 372,100 people, more than double that of the professional sports industry, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Alliance points out.

The study, conducted by Oxford Economics with the support of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, shows that for every $100 of economic activity created by museums, an additional $220 is created in other sectors of the US economy as a result of supply chain and employee expenditure impacts, according to the report.  The data analyzed was from calendar year 2016, the most recent full year of data available.

These impacts mean that museums contribute approximately $50 billion to the US economy each year, a number that’s more than twice previous estimates, according to the Alliance.  The report is also the first to show that US museums generate more than $12 billion per year in tax revenue to federal, state, and local governments.

The report estimated that there are 372,100 museum workers employed in the US along with 3 million volunteers.  It also indicated that 89 percent of Americans believe that museums provide important economic impacts back to their communities, according to a public opinion survey conducted in 2017.

Nationally, the museum field’s largest economic impact is on the leisure and hospitality industry (approximately $17 billion), but it also generates approximately $12 billion in the financial activities sector and approximately $3 billion each in the education/health services and manufacturing sectors.

The top 10 states driving this impact are geographically diverse and account for 57 percent of the gross value added to the national economy. States with the highest economic impact from the museum sector included California ($6.6 billion), New York ($5.4 billion), and Texas ($3.9 billion). However, those that rely most heavily on museums due to their relatively higher concentration, the report indicated, include the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Wyoming, and Alaska.

In breaking down the jobs impact of museums, direct impact refers to direct employment and spending by the industry’s business operations; indirect impact includes supply-chain effects, stemming from industry’s operations (e.g. legal services, utilities, etc.) and induced impact describes the impact resulting from employees spending their incomes in the economy.

The American Alliance of Museums (AAM), founded in 1906, now represents more than 35,000 professionals and volunteers, institutions, and corporate partners in the sector.