Education Leaders Call for Increased Funding to Hire and Pay Teachers

On Tuesday, parents expressed their frustrations and concerns over a teacher shortage.

“They need to give these teachers more support, more support financially, whatever it takes to get the job done,” parent Ian Laurencin said.

Kristen Basiaga’s son attends A.I. Prince Technical High School in Hartford. During the school year, the family received several notifications that there weren’t enough teachers.

“In September and October, they were routinely closing schools because they just didn’t have the staff,” parent Kristen Basiaga said. 

There are currently more than 1,300 teacher vacancies in Connecticut, an increase of about 100 open positions since the beginning of the school year.

“Those are teachers that are not there when your students go to school every day,” Connecticut Education Association President Kate Dias said.  

Education leaders and parents are calling for action from state lawmakers before the legislative session ends next week. Advocates say more funding is needed to recruit and retain teachers.

“They are always screaming that the children are the future, the teachers are the ones helping them pave the way, let’s take care of the teachers,” Laurencin said. 

“Most specifically we are looking for some pandemic acknowledgement, hero pay, something of that nature, as well as directing funds specifically toward salary enhancements,” Dias said. “We know those are two areas that our teachers are really stressed out about, quite frankly, that nobody seems to want to acknowledge the efforts it took to keep schools open during the pandemic.” 

Gov. Lamont’s office said in a statement: 

"The administration is working with legislative leaders to finalize a budget proposal we expect will be voted on by the General Assembly by June 7, which will include significant investments in our K-12 students, teachers, and paraprofessionals."