Sheff Movement for Quality Integrated Education

Good morning world!

Those out there who know me know that I am an avid advocate for public education. So, it should come as no surprise that I am very concerned about Project 2025. Today’s message speaks to that agenda as it addresses public education.

Project 2025, a conservative policy blueprint, proposes significant changes to public education and Head Start. Here are the key points:

Public Education:
• Eliminate the U.S. Department of Education: This would phase out federal aid to public K-12 schools2.
• School Privatization: The plan advocates for expanding school privatization, diverting taxpayer funds to private and religious institutions3.
• Censorship: It calls for restricting classroom discussions on race, gender, and sexual orientation, labeling such discussions as "anti-American" and "ahistorical propaganda"4.
Head Start:
• Eliminate Head Start: The plan proposes to dismantle the Head Start program, which provides early education and other services for low-income families5.
• Impact on Communities: This elimination would disproportionately affect Black and Latinx students, widening achievement gaps and undermining economic growth6.

Although Project 2025 does not specifically mention the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) the broader context of Project 2025's proposals to eliminate federal involvement in education and dismantle programs like Head Start could indirectly impact financial aid processes, including FAFSA.

Check online for “The People’s Guide to Project 2025" and read.

Continued strength!

Do you want to register to vote? Not sure if you’re registered to vote? Want to learn more about the potential of collective voice to make change? Want to get involved in shaping destiny?

Check out the Rock the Vote website at:

https://www.rockthevote.org/

Rock The Vote is a 501 (c) (3) national, non-profit organization dedicated to “building the political power of young people.” It is non-partisan; it does not support or oppose any candidate.

Good Sunday morning - Sheff Movement Coalition friends and leadership meet with the City of Hartford Court of Common Council this past Thursday, July 18th.

View this very productive meeting here:

City of Hartford Committee of the Whole Meeting July 18th, 2024 Live Stream City of Hartford Committee of the Whole Meeting July 18th, 2024 Live Stream

Update: Sheff Movement coalition
‘24 Update Legislative Advocacy Agenda

On Wednesday, 07 February 2024 Governor Lamont presented his education budget recommendations to the General Assembly. These recommendations were drafted into legislative language in Bill 5050 - AN ACT IMPLEMENTING THE GOVERNOR’S BUDGET RECOMMENDATIONS FOR EDUCATION. Although Bill 5050 addresses points #3 and #4 of our 2024 legislative agenda, the overall impact of these changes will weaken magnet schools in the Hartford region and delay gains that should be made in student academic achievement. Additionally, there remain many outstanding questions about how Lamont’s changes will affect funding for Open Choice and magnet school tuition.

On Thursday, 15 February 2024, State Representative Jeff Currey is holding a press conference at 1:15 PM in Room 2D of the legislative office building (LOB) to address education funding and the state Appropriations Committee is holding a hearing for public comments on education beginning at 2 PM in 2C, also at the LOB.

Action: Contact your legislator to support full funding for magnet and open choice programs. Tell your legislator that you support the Sheff Movement Coalition legislative agenda below. Contact the Co-chairs of the state Appropriations Committee to let them know how attending a magnet school or an Open Choice has positively enhanced you or your child’s (ren) educational experience and to request full funding for magnet and open choice programs.

Appropriations Co-Chairpersons:
Sen. Douglas McCrory at [email protected] Rep. Antonio Felipe at [email protected]

Submit written testimony to the Appropriations Committee: Submit Testimony (ct.gov)

Sheff Movement coalition ‘24 Update Legislative Advocacy Agenda

• Ensuring that the $150 million in the state's FY 25 budget for K-12 education remains for education.
• Ensuring that the funding set aside last year to address FY 25 magnet school tuition gap faced by Sheff Magnets is allocated to Sheff Magnets.
• Restoring the ability to allow magnets to increase local tuition, if tuition deficits result from state budget appropriations occurs.
• Promoting increased state education funding so that all public-school operators have sufficient funding to keep pace with inflation.
• Granting the state Commissioner of Education the authority to identify Open Choice seats in school districts that must be made available to enroll Open Choice student applicants in order to fulfill the goals of the 2022 Sheff settlement.

For more information contact the Sheff Movement Coalition at (860) 580.6544.

Thanks & Continued strength!
Elizabeth Horton Sheff & Jim Boucher, Co-chairpersons
Sheff Movement coalition

Recognizing Martin Luther King Day and his racial justice organizing, the Sheff Movement continues to organize to assure access to quality integrated education for every child in the Hartford region.

The Sheff Movement aspires to Martin Luther King’s ‘fierce urgency of now” and the action needed to end the long term structural racism embedded in our larger society.

Twenty-five years ago, on July 9, 1996 the Connecticut State Supreme Court made a landmark decision in favor of the Sheff plaintiffs in the Sheff v. O’Neill complaint on behalf of Black, Latinx, and white students in Hartford Public Schools who were being denied an education equal to that of their counterparts in suburban school districts due to the racial segregation and the economic disparities between Hartford schools and those in the nearby suburbs.

The decision charged the state of Connecticut with providing equal educational opportunities for its students. We celebrate this historic decision with our continued efforts to ensure ALL students have access to high-quality integrated schools and are provided with equitable resources. We recognize the 25 years of significant progress with a commitment to continue to fight with urgency so that all students have access to quality integrated education. For more information on the Sheff v. O’Neill case and decision please visit the links below.

What is Sheff v. O’Neill:
https://www.naacpldf.org/case-issue/sheff-v-oneill/

History of the Decision:
https://connecticuthistory.org/sheff-v-oneill-today-in-history/

Court Rulings and Stipulation Agreements:
https://ctschoolfinance.org/resources/sheff-v-oneill-supreme-court-ruling-and-subsequent-stipulation-agreements

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y0eEULHlv5w

Sheff v. O’Neill AGREEMENT On January 10 2020, the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF), the Center for Children’s Advocacy, the American Civil Liberties Union, the National Center for Law and Economic Justice, and Horton, Dowd, Bartschi & Levesque, PC reached a new landmark agreement in Sheff v. O...