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Education: Tale of the Tape
Rowland, Curry square off in special BNH forum on public education in Connecticut
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Business New Haven
8/5/2002
By: BNH
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In 2002, no one doubts that public education is a key - if not the key - ingredient to successful economic development.
But as Connecticut comes to rely increasingly on higher-technology companies to fire its economic engine, worker skills - especially at the entry level - have failed to keep pace. Moreover, the academic performance gap between urban and suburban school districts in the state continues to widen - bad news for the state's distressed urban centers.
As the 2002 gubernatorial race moves center-stage, Business New Haven queried incumbent Republican Gov. John G. Rowland and his Democratic challenger, former state Comptroller William Curry Jr., on the education issues of greatest import to the state's business community. What follows is an edited transcript of what each had to say.
1. Please explain your view of the relationship between education and economic development.
Curry: I know from my own experiences as an employer that a well educated, quality workforce is absolutely essential for business success. I also know as a policy maker that the last 30 years of economic data indicate that education is the most important input into modern economic growth.
The connection between education and economic development is clear around the globe. “Asian Tiger” economies such as Taiwan, Korea, Malaysia and Singapore grew faster than the rest of the world during the '70s, 80s and '90s not because of their natural resources, but because of the improvement in the skills of their workforce. In the U.S., many of our most innovative high-tech companies and much of the strongest regional development activity “cluster” around education-strong communities - Route 128 in Boston, Silicon Valley in California, and the Research Triangle in North Carolina.
The title of a Bureau of Labor Statistics report summarizes my point clearly: “More Education: Higher Earnings, Lower Unemployment.” Today, more jobs depend on well-educated workers than ever before.
In the late 1950s, only 20 percent of American's needed post-secondary education for their jobs. Now, nearly 60 percent of new jobs require some form of advanced learning - including more than two-thirds of the jobs in the fast growing health care, education and service sector[s], to say nothing of the high-tech sector, where more than 80 percent of jobs require higher education. Clearly, education is critical to economic development.
Rowland: Students of today are the workforce and leaders of tomorrow. From pre-school to college, the state has and will continue to invest in the best possible education for them.
2. Are public-school teachers paid enough in Connecticut?
Rowland: The state's teachers are among the highest paid in the nation. And our students are leading the nation in reading, writing and math, are No. 1 in SAT participation and are scoring their highest in 20 years. Teacher training opportunities are also essential to ensure continued success.
Curry: Three weeks ago a new study reported that Connecticut's public teachers on average are the highest paid in the nation. Some interpret this to mean there are no salary issues for teachers in Connecticut. This is a misinterpretation.
First we must place this average salary level in context. Our teachers' salaries are higher than those in other states. So is our cost of living. Even with their high average wages, teachers in Connecticut still make tens of thousands of dollars less, on average, than other white-collar workers, such as computer system analysts, engineers and attorneys.
Second, while teacher salaries have increased in constant dollars across the nation for the past ten years, the National Education Association reported last year that Connecticut teacher salaries have actually declined in real terms by three percent. So after a big boost in the 1980s teachers - just like the rest of the middle class in Connecticut - suffered an erosion in their standard of living.
Third, the average salary is just that: an average. The figure masks great discrepancies in compensation among individual towns. Talk to school administrators almost anywhere in eastern Connecticut and throughout the state and learn the challenges they face in attracting sufficient numbers of teachers to fill the rosters even of reduced staffs.
Of particular concern are salaries for new teachers. Connecticut's starting salary for new teachers remains thousands of dollars below the starting wages for entry-level jobs in sales and marketing, accounting and computer science fields, for example. We have not provided incentives to attract and retain the next generation of quality teachers into our classrooms. With 40 percent of Connecticut's teaching force expected to retire over the next few years, it is critical that we address this issue before it becomes a crisis.
3. Should New Haven's Gateway Community College receive state dollars to expand or relocate in a location other than downtown New Haven?
Curry: I strongly favor locating Gateway in downtown New Haven. Its location there will reinforce and complement the existing strengths of the downtown, including: the presence of a large residential population; its function as a major retail and restaurant destination; its proximity to hospitals and other job sources; and its accessibility by bus, car and train. No doubt Gateway's 4,000 students will add to and profit from downtown's diverse mix of business and educational resources.
Rowland: Experience has shown that downtown college campuses are a great way to bring more people downtown and invigorate cities. In Stamford, Hartford, Bridgeport and Waterbury campuses have or will soon be opening in the downtown areas. Each community technical college serves a regional community and location decisions should be based on how they can best serve their students and communities.
4. Are you satisfied with the progress of the state's community-college system generally, and what can be done to improve its impact on wage growth?
Rowland: The state's community-technical college system has an important place in our economy. [My administration] has invested in their growth and development, with funding to upgrade facilities and improve the educational environment.
$146 million has already been invested in upgrading the state's community technical college system to provide students with an improved learning environment. The system serves almost half of all Connecticut undergraduates and is playing a key role in our state's workforce competitiveness.
Three new campuses have been built - at Manchester Community College, Housatonic Community College in Bridgeport, and a new facility for Capitol Community College in Hartford. [An additional $20 million worth of expansions are underway at Northwestern Community College [Winsted] and at Norwalk Community College.
Curry: No, in fact I'm discouraged by our progress in this area. Just last [month] the board of trustees for the state's community and technical colleges announced that they have been forced to raise tuition and fees by 12 percent [over the next several years] to meet cuts to their budget.
Connecticut's community colleges serve as the gateway to better lives for nearly 43,000 full- and part-time students, many of them from the hardest-working, least-affluent families in the state. Increasing tuition and fees so dramatically and consistently effectively 'padlocks' this gate to opportunity. Ironically, Gov. Rowland's solution to this situation has been to cut the community colleges' budgets, while simultaneously issuing hundreds of millions of dollars of public debt to 'rebuild' their campuses. Classrooms and facilities are important, but they won't be much good to students who can't afford access or who can't find the course offerings they need to prepare themselves for better and more productive lives.
Our community and technical colleges have real, measurable impact on the state's local economies. This year, for example, a study was released that estimates that [Bridgeport's] Housatonic Community College has pumped more than $60 million into the regional economy and saves Connecticut more than $1.4 million annually in reduced health care, welfare, unemployment and crime costs. Common sense tells us that the supply of short term-degree programs(associate degrees and certificate programs) are more wage-sensitive than longer degree programs. Strengthening and expanding community and technical colleges will tend to increase this wage sensitivity. This would be an advantage to local employers, who could recruit more skilled labor without driving up wages past the point of profitability.
5. Vocational education has been to a large extent neglected over the past 15 years in favor of greater emphasis on college-directed education. Is that a direction you agree with? Why or why not?
Curry: I strongly disagree with the course we have chosen and as governor I will chart a new course. It makes enormous sense to strengthen and expand our associate degree pathway to technical careers. Unfortunately, this is not the message being sent by the recent state budget-imposed increases in technical and community-college tuition. However, we shouldn't be looking at this simply as an 'either/or choice. Vocational and college-directed programs serve important but different markets and student populations. Both forms of higher education deserve state emphasis and commitment.
Rowland: [My administration has invested in the state's vocational technical high schools. Improvements are being made to offer students choosing vocational education better facilities and opportunity.
6. Do you favor legislation supporting the creation of more charter schools in Connecticut? Why or why not?
Rowland: Charter schools have been opened over the past several years throughout the state. The creation of these schools is an important step toward encouraging innovation in learning and bringing students from a wide variety of backgrounds together. Future expansions of the program will depend on the degree of success of these schools.
Curry: There's no question that charter schools and magnet schools can provide students with first-rate, quality education. Their flexible structures provide opportunities for innovation and experimentation in classrooms. And their community-driven nature often energizes local leadership, increases parent involvement and catalyzes teacher creativity.
I support charter schools in general, but believe they should be established only where they receive strong community support and have a high likelihood of improving the quality of local education.
It is also essential that our charter schools be held to high levels of educational and public accountability and that they, like magnet schools, foster open, inclusive student bodies.
In the end most students will continue to be enrolled in schools in their own neighborhoods. Our commitment must be to lifting up every school.
7. Do you believe state education aid ought to be tied in some fashion to district performance on statewide standardized tests such as the CMT or CAPT? Why or why not?
Curry: Testing is essential for tracking student and school performance, but it shouldn't be the only indicator we use to judge our children's and education system's success. Standardized tests are far from perfect in their ability to capture student progress. While test scores can help us understand what children are learning, scores provide little data to improve school operations. I believe in a more nuanced approach that uses testing as part of a comprehensive range of accountability measures to gauge and promote real achievement. We should be looking at key indicators in schools such as dropout rates, absenteeism, parent involvement and the number of students taking advanced placement courses.
The state shouldn't be looking for ways to make quick, easy decisions about our schools. It should be committed to effectively improving our schools by every reasonable means available.
Rowland: Providing incentives for progress and improvement are valuable tools and are currently in place. The state is also reviewing the impact of a new federal education law concerning school performance.
8. As a state that hopes to grow its technology-based industries, how can state education policy encourage more students to concentrate on and be successful in mathematics and science curricula?
Rowland: The state must continue to encourage innovations and improved curriculum offerings in this area.
Curry: Hire and retain the best teachers. Good science and math teachers will do more to excite and engage students in their subjects than any state-driven policy. We [must] do more to creatively attract and retain the highest quality educators in our classrooms. Once we have our teachers, the state should be committed to maintaining their expertise through targeted professional development opportunities. This is especially important in science and math, where subject matters develop and advance so quickly.
9. Do you support the use of vouchers to give parents in failing districts a choice of schools? Why or why not?
Curry: No. Vouchers take too much money out of the public school system. Rather than further penalizing under-performing schools, the state should be working with students, teachers and schools that are struggling.
While the record on existing voucher programs is still emerging, three facts are increasingly clear: 1) Because public school systems lose money and state administrative and transportation burdens increase, voucher programs tend to cost taxpayers more; 2) Voucher initiatives fail to significantly expand choice for most families and frequently consign the poorest children and those who lack involved parents to the weakest schools; and 3) Voucher programs fail to improve participating students' achievement consistently or substantially. The state should focus its efforts on creating A-plus schools by raising expectations for students through higher standards, giving students the help they need to meet those standards, reducing class size, providing adequate facilities and ensuring world-class teachers.
Rowland: While the state legislature has not supported school voucher proposals in the past, [the Rowland administration has] worked with the legislature to implement a limited open-choice program allowing students to choose schools within their school districts. The program has been successful, offering students choice and opportunity. An estimated 2,000 children are being served through the open-choice program.
10. Beyond vouchers and charter schools, what initiatives might the state undertake to reduce the disparity in academic performance between urban and suburban school districts? Also, why has it been so difficult to achieve meaningful school integration even years after the Sheff v. O'Neill decision, and what will you do to accelerate integration?
Rowland: Attacking the achievement gap and reducing racial isolation is one of our greatest challenges.
In 2001 alone, $157 million was spent to improve urban education, reduce racial isolation and increase opportunity. More than 100,000 students are now participating in programs with children of other backgrounds.
For example, this [academic] year, an estimated 10,800 students will be in 33 magnet schools throughout the state - more than double the [number] since 2000 alone. New schools opened in Meriden, New Haven and Hartford over the past year and these schools draw students from city and suburb alike. Enrollment in charter schools also continues to grow.
A focus on making urban school better must include support services for students. Priority school grants in the state's 14 most academically and economically disadvantaged communities are being used for dropout prevention, after-school programs, extended kindergarten and early reading intervention. In addition, Lighthouse School funding - allowing for a specialized curriculum in an existing school - has been provided in Hartford, New Haven and Bridgeport.
Curry: First, we must reform our property tax structure. Connecticut's over-reliance on the property tax has eroded its ability to adequately fund elementary and high schools. Because most public funding comes from local property taxes, children in less wealthy towns benefit from fewer resources. In 2000, per-pupil spending in the state's highest-spending town was 75-percent more than the resources provided in the lowest-spending town, and 36 percent more than the resources provided in the state's average town. Not only will property tax reform help all our communities adequately fund schools, it will lead to a reduction in sprawl, a revitalization of our cities and better integrated and communities and classrooms.
Second, the state must meet its constitutional responsibility, established by the Connecticut Supreme Court in Horton v. Meskill, to pay 50 percent of the cost of local education. Unfortunately, under Gov. Rowland - during the greatest period of economic expansion of our lifetime - the state has actually reduced its commitment to funding local education. Since 1990, per-pupil spending in constant dollars has declined six percent. Rather than cut vital education budgets, we must invest in our schools to help them modernize and improve.
[With regard to integration], Connecticut must provide equal education opportunity to every child, and it must reduce racial and economic isolation. First, the state must have leadership actively focused on this issue and committed to making it a priority. Today we don't. Second, we need to build on the success of our magnet schools program. Third, we must continue efforts to strengthen existing public schools and we must be committed to establishing A-plus schools in our urban centers. Fourth, we should support more innovative programs that bring city and suburban youth together for activities and educational opportunities.
Lastly, we must work long-term to make our cities more livable. The ultimate solution to the issue of integration is the establishment of strong, vibrant communities that offer opportunity and quality life to all residents.
11. As companies pare costs and more employees are working for smaller companies, worker-training programs have been said to languish. What role - if any - should the state play in worker training or funding of worker-training programs?
Curry: States around the nation are taking creative steps to establish and strengthen public-private partnerships linking the education community with the business sector. We should be doing it here - and we can. State government can play a leadership role in coordinating, centralizing and funding efforts that foster a deeper, better skilled workforce.
For example, Connecticut should be helping businesses work with local education institutions to identify the types of job-specific skills they need, and then design associate and certificate programs that complement on-the-job training. We should also explore ways to target economic-development assistance on, and perhaps provide incentives such as tax credits to, companies that invest in employee skills training.
Rowland: The state must support training opportunities for workers and help individuals and businesses take advantage of them. Many successful initiatives are in place, such as the Connecticut Business Training Network, a state-funded program to help companies take advantage of the training and education programs the state already offers. In addition, the state's Department of Labor offers programs that provide low-rate loans to finance training programs, customize job training resources and other resources. For more information about these, [readers may] visit www.ctdol.state.ct.us.
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