Commission Holds Hearings Across State On Achievement Gap

A volunteer commission of business and non profit leaders in Connecticut have been holding public hearings across the state to discuss school performance of children from low income families.  As WNPR's Lucy Nalpathanchil reports, the goal of the privately funded commission is to find ways to close the achievement gap in Connecticut's classrooms.

Ramani Ayer, the retired Chairman and CEO of The Hartford is one of 11 members of the Connecticut Commission on Educational Achievement.  He says Governor Jodi Rell formed the commission to explore why Connecticut has such a high achievement gap between low income students and their peers from middle and high income homes. Ayer says the business community has a stake in helping eliminate the achievement gap which he calls a tragedy for families and for the state.  

"It impacts our unemployment levels, the quality of our workforce, it even impacts the tax base for the state budget, it affects our crime rate and it effects our ability to attract business to our state."

Ayer says Connecticut can look to its neighbor, Massachusetts which saw success in tackling the achievement gap in 2006.

"And Massachusetts has demonstrated that high poverty and low performance aren't necessarily a given. That you can have high poverty but yet you can have high achievement and this is the way that we need to change our mindset in this state."

The commission's fifth public hearing takes place tonight at 6 at Eastern Connecticut State University Student Center in Willimantic. Ayer says the commission will use the public input in its final report due to the Governor by October.

For WNPR, I'm Lucy Nalpathanchil.