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It’s that time of year. Snow is melting, taxes are due… and we’re learning what our elected officials’ real priorities are.

There are lots of different ways we can learn this lesson. We can listen to what they say. And then we can watch what they do. Especially this time of year, when the legislative session and budget development process are in full swing.

And then we can notice the difference between what they say and what they do.

Now, I get that the Governor, his team, the news media, and the legislature care deeply about tolls, marijuana legalization, losing Connecticut residents and municipal aid allocations. And I get that these things are important.

But what about our kids? The priorities that matter to our state’s vulnerable children once again are conspicuously absent from any vibrant discussions and sadly under the radar from any public attention.

If we really wanted to have an honest discussion about what matters most to our silent generation, I have seven areas to focus our attention on.

Fix the achievement gap.

Connecticut has one of the worst achievement gaps in the country between students from low-income families and their more affluent peers. To make matters worse, the needle has been virtually and shamefully stagnant in the last 4 years. At least two-thirds of Black and Latino students in Connecticut are behind in math or English. Why isn’t this at the top of anyone’s agenda? How can we allow what our leaders are calling a “crisis” of chronic absenteeism in some of our cities, to remain with three more months still remaining in the school year?

Incentivize regionalization of schools and programs.

A few recent bills have been raised in the legislature to regionalize small rural districts, and they are receiving a lot of push-back. Yes, an interesting discussion… but what really matters is that we end the inequality for our Black and Brown kids who suffer in silence in substandard urban schools. Regionalization may be one of the best and only viable options to deconcentrate the poverty. Fixing the funding scheme for our schools may be another. What shouldn’t be an option is to do nothing.

23 years ago, the Connecticut Supreme Court decided in Sheff v. O’Neill that we have segregated and unequal school systems – and it urgently needed to be fixed. Over two decades later, we still do – and it still does. Just as the phrase in Brown v. Board of Education “all deliberate speed” never came to fruition, so too have we made a mockery of Justice Peters’ admonition in Sheff that “every passing day deprives these children of an equal educational opportunity.” Every. Passing. Day. How is this ok?

Stop gun violence.

A year and a half ago, my client Keon Huff was gunned down and made headline news. This year it was Karlonzo Taylor and Clinton Howell who reached the front pages. Attention focused on these young men for a day, maybe even two. But what about the many other youth who were shot, many of whom were killed. When was the last time you even saw what this number was? Where is the outcry for them? Where are the changes in policies as a result of their deaths? Why is violence against urban youth not at the top of the state’s agenda?

Provide health care access to immigrant youth.

This area reminds me of the two water fountains that were so prolific in the American South… If you were born in the U.S., live in CT, and need crucial health care, your health care needs can be addressed (what that care will cost you is another blog post). But if you‘re a kid who wasn’t born here, if you came from another country, and cry out for medical care or suffered from trauma just to get here… you go to the fountain that is dry. SB1053 just got introduced in the CT legislature. Talk about it, support it.

Address the race discrimination in our child welfare and juvenile justice systems.

Kids of color are still disproportionately being stopped by police.

Kids of color are still disproportionately entering the DCF system and staying longer in out-of-home care.

Kids of color are still incarcerated at higher rates than their white counterparts for the same crimes.

Why isn’t eliminating race discrimination, intentional or not, at the top of anyone’s agenda?

Commit to ending youth homelessness.

In the last few years in Connecticut, there has been a big push to end homelessness for resident veterans. This push has been tremendously successful. We know how to fix this problem. Why is it acceptable that we still have kids couch-surfing with no place to go? Or kids who are homeless and wonder where their next meal will come from? Don’t our vulnerable young ones deserve that same laser focus?

Meet the last few outcome measures in the DCF Consent Decree.

28 years ago, the Juan F. consent decree placed Connecticut’s Department of Children and Families under federal court jurisdiction. Why is it ok that we still have kids removed from their homes sitting in DCF offices waiting for a place to go? Why is it ok that kids who need substance abuse or mental health treatment are placed on waiting lists for treatment or have case plans that are deficient in addressing their needs?

So to our Governor, executives, legislators, news media, and to all of us who say “what can I do?… I write, I say, I shout:

These kids can’t wait.

There has been professed optimism and collaboration in the last few weeks. Let’s translate that energy into action for our children and youth. These young people have no lobby and their voices are hard to hear – but they are asking all the same.

Martha is Executive Director of the Center for Children’s Advocacy

To contact Martha directly: Mstone@cca-ct.org

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