Thumbs up, thumbs down
Thumbs down to an ongoing burnout crisis among Connecticut teachers. Amid a nationwide shortage of teachers made worse by the COVID-19 pandemic, schools across the state are reporting larger classes, bigger workloads and a lack of needed help as teachers struggle through what was supposed to be the first regular school year since the coronavirus hit in 2020. There’s no easy fix, but some of it comes down to money. It’s not tenable to ask teachers to work in a district for less money than they could be making elsewhere simply out of the goodness of their hearts, and the same applies for non-teaching jobs they might be equally qualified for. If we want to hold onto teachers and do right by our kids, it’s going to cost some money.
Thumbs up to UConn women’s associate head coach Chris Dailey, who collapsed on the sidelines shortly before the Huskies’ 91-69 victory over NC State
Sunday at the XL Center in Hartford, but was reportedly feeling better soon afterward. Dailey has been by the side of head coach Geno Auriemma for decades, and her influence on the best college program in America can’t be overstated. After the game, Auriemma said Dailey was not feeling well before tipoff but that she recovered quickly. “Everything tested out pretty good,” Auriemma said. “Nothing serious. Nothing threatening. She’s alert. She’s awake.” The state knows well the Huskies would not be the same without her.
Thumbs down to the return of that perennial November littering issue — the abandoned campaign sign. While many candidates, win or lose, did the
right thing by ensuring their signs were gone within days of polls closing, there are also signs representing all parties that remained in the soil throughout Connecticut even after a second weekend passed. That soil is hardening in the cold temperatures, so the work to remove them will only get harder.
Thumbs up to mattress recycling. For years when Connecticut residents were done with a mattress, it would go into a landfill, where it takes up a lot of space.
Since the advent of a statewide recycling program in 2015, more than 1.2 million mattresses have been recycled with more than 21,000 tons of steel, foam, wood and other materials being diverted from incinerators and landfills. There’s some understandable trepidation about come recycling programs, as other countries that once took our plastics in for recycling has in recent years stopped doing so. But mattress recycling works. It’s the kind of program the state needs to see more of.
Thumbs down to campaign spending. Connecticut has a famously robust system of public financing for political campaigns, enacted in the wake of the
John Rowland scandals, which has allowed many people to run for office who would otherwise need to spend all their time fundraising. But it’s an opt-in system, which means no one has to take part, putting personally wealthy candidates at an advantage. That scenario has played out in the last two gubernatorial elections, and this year’s race between winner Ned Lamont and challenger Bob Stefanowski saw more than $30 million spent on the race. That’s prohibitive for non-wealthy candidates, and limits the ability of other people to participate in state politics. The General Assembly may look into further reforms, but it is never easy to take the money out of politics.