Connecticut — dead-end or opportunity?
State Education Commissioner Dianna Wentzell had the right idea when she gave more than 100 school superintendents from around the state a pep talk Wednesday. Look at what’s going right, she told the education leaders at the annual Back to School forum. We could all use that lesson. Let’s pause from the rampant Connecticut bashing, everyone-is-leavingour-state-or-wants-to-leave diss, and consider what is going right in our state.
It’s hard to see the picture when you’re in the frame. Take a bird’s-eye view: Connecticut appears as a verdant tapestry of rolling hills, rivers, mountains and valleys.
Not to sound like the tourism bureau, but we are the gateway to New England, the Yellow Brick Road from the most famous city in the world to farmland, hiking trails and shorelines.
With four distinct seasons, Connecticut offers everything from sailing to skiing. We remain the world’s destination during leaf-peeping season, and are a classroom for top-tier architects.
Our library systems are cited as among the best in the world, and our education systems and exceptional public and private universities belie nonsense excuses offered by corporations shopping around for tax breaks.
We also have access to some of the finest medical care, something to think about before fleeing Connecticut.
This is home, with a capital H, for those with deep Yankee roots as well as relative newcomers. Our cities offer a diversity that should be embraced. The percentage of people in Fairfield County who are speakers of non-English languages is higher than the national average (27 percent compared to 21.6 percent).
Jobs can be found (though we do need more with higher pay), and the crime rate is steadily declining. We are an educated state (as Wentzell noted, high school graduation rates keep improving).
Cultural opportunities abound, from art galleries to free outdoor concerts, community theater to open-air festivals, symphonies to cutting-edge museums to just-off-Broadway plays. The arts form an integral part of who we are.
Connecticut is a state of leadership. We showed the way to practical gun laws; we were among the first to approve marriage for all who love regardless of gender; we displayed compassion in opening arms to refugees at a time when other states, like Indiana, were slamming the door.
Leadership includes tackling problems others would rather ignore. Credit Gov. Dannel Malloy for sounding the alarm on inadequately funded pensions, a decidedly complicated topic that couldn’t be reduced to a sound bite. But now the hard recognition is there with all seven candidates for governor talking before this week’s primary of the imperative need to deal with it.
Could, and should, taxes be lower and highways less congested? Of course. With the ingenuity Connecticut is known for, these areas, like pension reform, can be tackled. It won’t be easy, but we can face them head on. Our current reputation is unfair. It can be overcome; our natural offerings can never be duplicated.
The Nutmeg State could become known as the Opportunity State.