Why isn’t state investing in community college students?
In the aftermath of Gov. Ned Lamont’s forced budget restrictions for public higher education, I am part of a skeletal staff of tutors at Connecticut State Community College Naugatuck Valley. On any given day, I do my best to keep up with the many students who need help with research papers and essays and wait patiently for a writing tutor. In the math department, a lone tutor arrives to find seven students already in line. Most of them are people of color, low-income students who are often working two or even three minimum-wage jobs but are razor-focused on lifting themselves out of poverty and obtaining a career — through the proven path of a community college education.
The tutoring center, or the Academic Center for Excellence (the ACE), serves as a safe haven for English as a second language students struggling with the notorious irregularities of the English language, veterans, older students — those who need extra support for various reasons. Yet now there are even more roadblocks in their way, thanks to Lamont and the Connecticut state legislature, which voted for his draconian budget cuts to student services.
During previous semesters, three or four tutors in each department were usually on duty, but now it is mostly just one at a time. Not only have staff been reduced, but so have our hours, with fewer night and weekend hours, limiting access for many students who work during the day. Course offerings have also been cut, along with library hours, disability services, IT support and mental health counseling — even some cafeterias are now closed.
One student, a young woman who works at Walmart while studying radiology, and now finds it difficult to use the library and tutoring center, asked me, “Why are they doing this to us?”
Why, indeed? The fiscal austerity we are facing comes at a time when Lamont is touting prosperity in Connecticut, citing his million-dollar surplus, which led to a tax cut for the middle class. For a governor who loves to cite his economic achievements, why is he unable to see the benefits of public higher education?
Community colleges support the businesses in our state by providing a steady flow of trained, qualified workers, which expands the economy and increases consumer spending. According to Rob Sheftel, the director of the ACE, “Our students are the future workforce needed in the state. We need to invest in Connecticut’s future, not disinvest.” Added Sheftel, “Our pass rate at the ACE is 77 percent. Students who visit the ACE on a regular basis earn a full letter grade higher than students who do not visit the ACE.”
To our north, Gov. Maura Healey of Massachusetts has become an advocate for community colleges, adding $20 million in new funding for them in the 2024 budget, along with a host of other new public higher education investments. Several other states have followed suit.
The innumerable success stories at the ACE underscore the value of our tutoring services. I worked with one student for several sessions on her essays for a transfer application to Uconn. Her hard work was rewarded with a full scholarship, and she is now happily enrolled there. Another student who frequented the ACE for tutoring in various subjects had struggled in high school so much that his principal wondered if he would even graduate.
After gaining his footing at the ACE with encouragement and extra help, he was admitted to the Alpha Beta Gamma Honor Society, and had poetry published in “Fresh Ink,” the student literary magazine. A student from Peru worked to overcome her language barrier and got a job as a pre-k teacher. Currently, she is an administrator in the Waterbury school system. “I shudder to think what would have happened to me without the tutors at the ACE,” she said.
Now that time and hours are curtailed at the ACE, I fear that we won’t achieve these kinds of life-changing results — and how much is that worth? Lamont and the state legislators do not see these students, but I see them, and so do my colleagues at the ACE.