My Turn
Bridging the Great Divide

Our challenge: Make sure the immigrant's daughter and CEO's son have the same opportunities.

By Mary-Beth Lang

I've been thinking a lot these days about the new education law, the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, and in no small measure because of where I live and where I work--two places with great people, but as educational opportunities go, disparate worlds apart.

Both cities are in Connecticut, and they're divided by a quaint little stream known as Rooster River. On the west side of the Rooster is Fairfield, where I've lived and raised my children for 27 years; on the east is Bridgeport, where I've taught for 32 years. Maps often show a faint dotted line to represent the Rooster, but it might as well be a big blue splotch--for the ocean-sized gap in education offered to children in those two places.

My children attended an elementary school with spacious classrooms, a well-stocked library, an all-purpose room for lunch and scout meetings, as well as a separate gym, fully-equipped play-ground, and two ball fields. They had specialists, full-time nurses, and lots of music and art. In high school, my daughter had access to a full range of Advanced Placement courses, and when she and her friends left high school, they went to some of the finest universities in the world.

I'd love to take all the credit for my children's academic achievement, but the truth is, it just would not have happened without the excellent Fairfield public schools.

How different the stories are on the other side of the Rooster River. Frankly, the Bridgeport schools face serious, though not unique, challenges. Families speak a variety of languages, the population is poorer and more transient, the educational levels of the parents are generally lower, and students enter the primary grades with less preschool experience.

You'd think in situations like this, all hands would be on deck to find the resources to help compensate for these deficits. But if you visited the Bridgeport schools, you'd be set straight. Old, crowded schools stand surrounded, not by grassy play-grounds but by asphalt parking lots. Most schools have no recreation areas and must hold gym classes in the halls or lunchrooms. The libraries are frequently stacked with warehouse overstocks.

Good education can occur in old buildings and, to be sure, we have dedicated teachers in Bridgeport providing wonderful experiences for their students. But they are fighting an uphill battle.

Many students don't have access to the specialists they need, or to full-time nurses, or to comprehensive music and art programs. Teacher turnover is high, as certified teachers can--and do--find higher-paying jobs with better working conditions in neighboring towns. Class sizes get held in line only by our union contract and then only after an annual filing of a contract grievance. There's a critical shortage of substitute teachers. When a teacher is absent, students are often scattered into other classrooms, a practice that is disruptive to their learning and to the already-overcrowded classes to which they're assigned.

And that's just the start.

As educators, we know what has to be done--and so do many lawmakers. The new education law includes requirements to close the achievement gap for low-income and minority students. But ensuring that all students and teachers meet high standards cannot come without an infusion of new resources.

In Bridgeport, we already have three schools identified as "needing improvement." Three years ago, these schools received additional funding from our state surplus. But for the last two years, this funding has been cut dramatically as our state grapples with budget shortfalls. I fear that the new federal mandates will only serve to hurt these schools more, just as it will others like it nationwide.

Strengthening teacher quality also will not be possible without increased funding either. In Connecticut, we have a statewide teacher training and mentoring program known as BEST that works wonderfully in many suburbs. But in Bridgeport, lack of funding has hampered the program, and new teachers just don't get the assistance and resources they need--and that would encourage them to stick around.

We already know where some of the gaps in funding are: Title I fully serves only 40 percent of students eligible for assistance, for example, and the federal government continues to underfund its portion of the special education budget. Now the President has proposed federal cuts for high-quality teacher training, and a freeze for after-school and bilingual educational programs.

I have urged Congress to provide the necessary resources, for without such help, our schools are simply being set up to fail.

But all of us have to get on board. We must write and call our lawmakers, locally and nationally, and make sure they know the human costs of their decisions. The reasons for disparities in areas like mine are complex, and while we can argue about whether the fault lies with the parents, society, or our public institutions--we know for sure that it doesn't lie with the children. The daughter of a newly arrived immigrant comes into the world as innocent as the son of a CEO. Our challenge is to make sure they have the same opportunities.

This is the message we must take to the city councils, to the state capitols, to Congress. If we believe our education system is really the foundation of tomorrow's society, we have no choice.

Mary-Beth Lang is the president of the Bridgeport Education Association in Connecticut.

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