Thumbs up, thumbs down

Thumbs up

to Fairfield and Sacred Heart universities gearing up for what is potentially their largest freshmen classes at a time when enrollment has been slipping across the United States. Spring figures indicated a 1.7 percent dip from a year earlier. During that same period, enrollment was down about 1 percent in Connecticut. But when the doors open at the Catholic colleges in about a month, Fairfield expects about 1,175 freshmen and Sacred Heart is preparing for nearly 1,700. Though administrators acknowledge that Connecticut is not growing in population, they two schools are recruiting new students from outside the state.

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to suspensions of children in preschool through second grade being documented at an alarming rate. Though Connecticut figures dropped from 5,000 in 201415 to just short of 2,000 in 201718, we’re not quite ready to celebrate the shift as a success. Children in distress can be a profound challenge in classrooms, even at age 3, but educators need to continue to seek the right resources to educate themselves rather to push the panic button that results in suspensions. When children and their families get the services they need, everyone in the classroom benefits.

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to Stop & Shop stores, which will stop offering plastic bags for grocery takeout on Thursday. At that point Stop & Shop customers that bring in a plastic bag to be recycled can receive a free reusable bag in exchange, the company said Monday. Paper bags will be available for free until the start of September, after which they will cost 10 cents each. This is just part of the phaseout of plastic grocery bags in the state, which will be banned as of July 1, 2021. Until then, starting this week, a 10cent tax will be assessed on each plastic bag.

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to a storage leak of nearly 50,000 gallons of foam used to fight fires. The toxic foam leaked from a tank at Bradley International Airport last months and contaminated Farmington River. While warnings have been posted not to eat fish from the river, officials are now trying to discern how much of the foam is stored at Sikorsky Airport in Stratford, Tweed New Haven Airport and the Groton New London Airport as well as other sites, many of which are near Long Island Sound. It should not have taken a spill for experts to address a potential environmental disaster. It’s a federal problem as well, as the Environmental Protection Administration does not list it as a hazardous substance despite evidence that it threatens humans as well as wildlife.

Thumbs down

— two of them — to the phenomenon of Connecticut residents saving a few bucks by registering their vehicles in Maine. The drivers deserve a thumbs down for paying $35 instead of $100, but State of Connecticut officials earn one as well for failing to have a method for documenting the illegal activity. In addition to shortchanging the state, drivers are dodging local taxes. For many people, it’s irresistible to cheat the system when there are no checks and balances. If Connecticut wants the money, it needs to develop a better tracking system.

Thumbs up

to Connecticut achieving at least one form of parity. New data on the state’s executive branch employees reveals that 51.7 percent of the top administrators are female, which is considerably higher than the 44 percent of fulltime female staffers in other states. There is still work to be done, however, regarding pay equality. Minority men and minority women continue to earn considerably less than their white counterparts. There’s a difference of about $10,000 for men and $8,000 for women. .