CABE President Commentary

A Post-LegislativeSession Thank You!

President, CABEAnother legislative session has come and gone and I want to take a minute to thank all the people who diligently worked on behalf of CABE to see that public schools were well represented at the Connecticut General Assembly this year. This work is often unsung. The contributions of CABE and its volunteer board members and staff alike, have a significant impact on what happens legislatively, frequently without recognition.

Frankly, as a board member and a board chair, I am glad that CABE is there to represent the interests of boards of education and public education in general. There are lobbyists who represent many organizations and interests. Our legislators have to listen to many voices as they make decisions they feel will be in the best interests of the public.

Connecticut’s school children were well represented this year at the Connecticut General Assembly. With continued state budget issues, it looked like the state legislature was going to try harder than ever to have local municipalities fund public education at an increased level. Or worse, cause cuts so egregious that education would be harmed.

Let’s start with the volunteers. School board members from across the state, already busy doing the work of their local district, stepped up to do what had to be done in Hartford.

Members and officers of the CABE Board of Directors really stepped up and reached out to their local legislators and testified when they could. Testifying before legislative committees is not for the faint-hearted. There are long lines and long waits. CABE staff helped, as they always do, to make it easier for those willing to go to Hartford and have their say, but it still can be an exhausting day. Those who couldn’t make a physical presence

wrote e-mails and made phone calls when an important bill was up for discussion. Members of the CABE Government Relations and State Relations Committees did all they could to help ensure bills positively impacting public education passed and ones that did not have a positive impact did not pass.

Particular thanks to the chairs of these committees;

• Liz Brown, Vice President for Government Relations, Chair, Waterbury Board of Education;

• Jennifer Dayton, Chair of the State Relations Committee, Board member, Greenwich Board of Education; and,

• Bryan Hall, Chair of the CABE Resolutions Committee, Chair, East Hartford Board of Education.

Numerous school boards took the time to write resolutions for the CABE Delegate Assembly, passed position statements on legislation before the Connecticut General Assembly and submitted written testimony to make sure their local legislators understood the impact of their decisions on their local constituents. Several boards hosted their local State Representatives and Senators at meetings or invited them to local events to help them understand what is going on in their districts and the challenges they face. Other boards hosted legislative breakfasts.

Finally, I want to recognize the CABE staff, who make all of this look easy, (hint – it’s not!).

CABE’s Deputy Director and General Counsel, Patrice McCarthy, Senior Staff Associate for Government Relations Sheila McKay, Administrative Associate for Government Relations, Gail Heath, Executive Director, Bob Rader and the rest of the CABE staff who worked tirelessly to make this legislative session a success.

After the CABE Delegate Assembly set CABE’s positions for the year, they were passed on to the State Relations Committee to identify CABE’s

legislative priorities.

This was followed by organizing legislative breakfasts in each CABE area – finding locations, inviting board members, superintendents and local legislators to each event and presenting information at each to help inform our members and reps, alike.

As the session started, the Government Relations staff made sure that CABE members understood each bill’s impact on their local district. Staff tracked every bill as they worked their way through the General Assembly and ensured that testimony (verbal and written) was presented and coordinated efforts to help board of education members testify. Patrice and Sheila were up at the Capitol to talk to leadership and rank and file legislators. They also reported out the results of the session in writing, through webinars, and in a Legislative Update workshop right after the session ended.

It does not end there, however, because there are numerous policy issues in the aftermath of the session. Vin Mustaro, Senior Staff Associate for Policy Services, and the rest of the Policy Department, have to go through every piece of legislation and identify what superintendents and boards need to know to be compliant with changes in the law.

I think this session was a very good one for public schools. There were numerous bills that could have helped districts, which mostly passed; and some rather odious bills that could have wreaked havoc on us all, that were rejected. I think CABE’s Government Relations activities were very successful, and that work helped all of our membership, from the smallest district to the largest.

While sometimes the hardest to quantify in actual value to districts, these activities are a most important aspect of our CABE membership.