Connecticut educators aired their frustrations about teacher shortages and insufficient resources in the state’s public schools while at an education issues summit in the State Capitol Wednesday.
State Representatives James Sánchez (D-Hartford, West Hartford) and Hilda Santiago (D-Meriden) sat together in the audience, taking notes, but not without first noticing the lack of Latinos among the panelists.
“The first thing I asked Hilda as soon as I walked in is, ‘Where's the Latino representation here?’ They missed a major mark, because the Latino community is one of the largest populations in any major city… that’s going to equate to the population in the school system,” Sanchez said.
Latinos and Hispanics make up nearly 20 percent of the population in Connecticut, according to 2023 census data estimates, and most recent data from the State Department of Education dashboard shows students of color made up 54.9% of all public school enrollees.
Sánchez, who is of Puerto Rican descent, said it was sad and disappointing to not see that representation.
Santiago was born in Puerto Rico. She echoed the sentiment, saying that without the Latino perspective, there is a missed opportunity to discuss other issues in public education.
“Nothing was brought about bilingual education, and that, to me, is a big issue that we should be talking about,” Santiago said.
She said there was also no discussion about schools working with the local community, including businesses and parents. According to Santiago, those kinds of programs support Latino families with parents working multiple jobs and encourage them to get involved.
Both noted that the only Latino representation in the summit was Former Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona, who has Puerto Rican roots. Cardona called for legislators and stakeholders to step up to help protect and support teachers against the changing landscape of public education under the Trump Administration.
In an interview with CT Public following the speech, he said Latino issues are American issues, so the education system as a whole should promote what many Latinos have, which is multilingualism.
“We need to harness the strengths that our students bring in being bilingual and bicultural, because they're going to be more likely to be successful with business that is international,” Cardona said.
Joslyn DeLancey is vice president of the Connecticut Education Association (CEA), the state’s largest teacher’s union. The organization helped put on the summit alongside AFT Connecticut, CAPSS and CABE, which represent educators, public school superintendents and board of education members respectively.
“It's a fair and legitimate concern,” DeLancey said about the lack of Latino representation among the panelists. “Our Latino population is a demographic that I think that we could reach in different ways. We can be making different choices to ensure that they feel welcome to participate, that they're invited to the table.”
DeLancey said the lack of Latino representation also reflects the overall lack of diversity in the profession.
In the 2024-25 school year, educators of color made up 12.1% of the staff in Connecticut public schools, according to state educator diversity data.
Sounding the alarm
DeLancey said the summit was an opportunity for educators to voice the most pressing issues facing public education ahead of the upcoming legislative session.
“It was really important to bring critical stakeholders together to educate our legislators about the issues that are facing public education in Connecticut, and at some aspects nationwide, to make sure that they really understand the problems that we're all facing,” DeLancey said.
Diversifying educators was one of those issues. Some panelists offered solutions like investing in teacher training, diversifying hiring committees and improving exit interviews to better understand why educators of color leave their positions.
The biggest concern that seems to umbrella a lot of the issues the education system is facing, however, was teacher retention.
Several panelists voiced the need to increase teachers’ pay to incentivize people to stay in the profession, particularly the starting salary which many said they would like to see at $60,000.
“Pay shows respect,” said Hannah Spinner, a panelist who is part of the CEA Aspiring Educators Program.
Fiscal issues cover a larger bandwidth of the challenges educators are facing. Not only do teachers need better pay, but panelists shared they needed more funding to provide other services and resources, such as student counseling and special education.
Job protections for educators was also a big discussion. Educators said they want a fair termination process so they don’t get fired for what they may say in the classroom and they want their personal contact information exempted from FOIA requests for their personal safety.
As for inside the classroom, educators with the CEA said they’d like to implement a statewide policy that requires boards of education to prohibit students from using their cellphones during the school day.
Congresswoman Jahana Hayes, a former high school teacher in Waterbury, advocated strongly for DEI policies during her panel discussion, saying that it’s time for those in Congress to stand up against the Trump administration’s actions weakening the U.S. Department of Education.
“Don’t tell me kids born in the projects don’t deserve the same education,” Hayes said.
AFT President Randi Weingarten said the state of Connecticut needs to be the one that doubles down on its efforts to improve the education system in the face of the Trump administration.
Learn more
The organizations that put together the summit all released their legislative agendas for this year:
