May 14, 2021 Governor Ned Lamont Representative Jason Rojas Office of the Governor House Majority Leader 210 Capitol Avenue Legislative Office Building, Room 4100 Hartford, CT 06106 Hartford, CT 06106

Senator Martin Looney Senator Kevin Kelly President Pro Tempore Senate Minority Leader Legislative Office Building, Room 3300 Legislative Office Building, Room 3400 Hartford, CT 06106 Hartford, CT 06106

Senator Bob Duff Representative Vincent Candelora Senate Majority Leader House Minority Leader Legislative Office Building, Room 3300 Legislative Office Building, Room 4200 Hartford, CT 06106 Hartford, CT 06106

Representative Matt Ritter Speaker of the House Legislative Office Building, Room 4106 Hartford, CT 06106

Dear Governor Lamont, Senator Looney, Senator Duff, Speaker Ritter, Representative Rojas, Senator Kelly, and Representative Candelora,

We, the 104 undersigned clergy, stand in support of the Education Justice Now campaign and FaithActs for Education, which represents 6,000 committed voters and 11,000 congregants across the state. We are writing to urge you to end our state’s racist education funding system and give our children the funding they deserve. Specifically, we ask you to use your power as leaders to:

● Secure $10 million additional dollars for education across Bridgeport, Hartford, New Haven, Waterbury, and New Britain in the current biennial budget; and ● In the next legislative session, pass antiracist legislation to close Connecticut’s racial funding gap by the time federal dollars run out.

As leaders, you are called by God to “do right, seek justice, defend the oppressed” (Isaiah 1:17). But when you fund education based on property taxes, draw lines to keep Black and Brown people out of districts with the best resources, and spend $639 million more on majority white districts, we ask you: How far is Connecticut from whites-only drinking fountains and segregated lunch counters?

This racial funding gap is immoral, unjust, and unacceptable. And we can’t rely on the federal government to bail us out of an entrenched system of oppression and injustice. The funds coming to Connecticut this year are desperately needed, but they’re temporary. With $10 million more, our state’s most drastically underfunded districts can hire 150 more teachers. And with a commitment to end the racist funding system in the next legislative session, those teachers can keep their jobs when federal funds dry up.

We are people of faith building power to get our children the education they deserve. FaithActs for Education • 857 Post Road, Suite 310, Fairfield, CT 06824 • 203-868-0443 • faithacts.org 1

This year, the Education Justice Now coalition proposed a comprehensive plan to:

● Address generational underfunding by sending millions more dollars to communities that educate Black, Brown, and low-income children. ● Make funding more equitable by reflecting the learning needs of English language learners and children in communities with concentrated poverty. ● Fund all public schools through a needs-based formula that includes magnets, charters, and vocational agriculture schools without taking money away from traditional schools. ● Eliminate the phase-in and fully fund ECS. Under current law, a second-grader will be in high school before they receive their full funding.

While the governor proposed flat-funding education, more than 300 people testified in support of the Education Justice Now proposal and it passed out of the Education Committee with an overwhelming bipartisan vote of 34 to 4. The Appropriations Committee reinstated planned funding increases and made the formula more equitable. It also increased funding for schools of choice, which overwhelmingly serve students of color; but their budget simply does not go far enough. Even with its improvements, it would close our shameful racial funding gap by less than 2%.

Once again, we are being told to wait. Once again, we’re being told it’s too expensive. Once again, we’re being told we have to study the problem. We don’t need another court case, study, or task force to detail the injustice of Connecticut’s school funding system. After more than a year enduring the ravages of a pandemic, we can’t afford to wait any longer. Funding our children isn’t expensive. Prisons are expensive. Poverty is expensive. Dreams deferred are expensive. And every day, we’re paying for these delays with our lives.

Not long ago, our streets were hot with calls for justice – for George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and more victims of tragic violence. The calls for justice rang out not just on the asphalt streets of our cities, but on the tree-lined boulevards of our suburbs.

This is a historic moment in our nation, and it could be a historic moment in our state. All we have to do is agree it’s no longer acceptable to treat Black and Brown children like second-class citizens.

You are our state’s highest leaders, and all but one of you are white men. This is happening on your watch, and you have an opportunity to end Connecticut’s racist funding system once and for all.

As Desmund Tutu said, “If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.” While you didn’t create this problem, you surely asked us to elect you to solve it. And you promised before God to fight for the needs of our communities when you courted votes from our pulpits.

Before your next elections, you have a choice to make. Will you allow Connecticut to remain “the land of steady habits,” or will you use your power and privilege for good?

We’re asking you to make a down payment on justice. Commit to pass antiracist legislation next year that will close our state’s racial funding gap, and add $10 million more to education in the current budget as a good faith demonstration of that commitment.

We are people of faith building power to get our children the education they deserve. FaithActs for Education • 857 Post Road, Suite 310, Fairfield, CT 06824 • 203-868-0443 • faithacts.org 2

Thank you all for your consideration, leadership, and action on this important issue. Remember: “Let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth” (1 John 3:18).

God bless,

Pastor William McCullough Pastor Jeremy Williams FaithActs Founder and Senior Advisor FaithActs Board Chair Russell Temple CME Church Phillips Metropolitan CME Church 555 Connecticut Avenue, Bridgeport, CT 06607 2500 Main Street, Hartford, CT 06120

Reverend Cass Shaw Pastor Moses Mercedes FaithActs Board Secretary FaithActs Board Member Council of Churches Prince of Peace Church 1718 Capitol Avenue, Bridgeport, CT 06606 29 Ash Street, Bridgeport, CT 06605

Bishop John Thompson Pastor Francis Asante FaithActs Board Member Faith House Calvary Temple Christian Center 50 Norman Street, Bridgeport, CT 06605 319 Barnum Avenue, Bridgeport, CT 06608

Pastor Brenda Barnes Executive Pastor Leroy Bailey Faith Gospel Assembly Church, Inc. First Cathedral 1243 Stratford Avenue, Bridgeport, CT 06607 1151 Blue Hills Avenue, Bloomfield, CT 06002

Pastor Gabrielle Beam Reverend Y. Trevor Beauford Mary of Bethany Anglican Church Union Baptist Church Hartford 248 Fairfield Avenue, Bridgeport, CT 06604 1921 Main Street, Hartford, CT 06120

Pastor Cynthia Bellamy Reverend Aaron Best Faith Outreach Apostolic Church Saint Matthew Baptist Church 32 Bond Street, Bridgeport, CT 06610 126 Washington Avenue, Bridgeport, CT 06604

Pastor Danny Bland Bishop Charles Brewer Mount Calvary Revival Center Joshua Clergy Trinity Temple COGIC 392 Legion Avenue, New Haven, CT 06519 285 Dixwell Avenue, New Haven, CT 06511

Pastor Eugene Brunson Pastor D'Hati Burgess Wayfaring Ministries First Church of God 29 Marne Street Rear, New Haven, CT 06514 90 Harper Avenue, New Haven, CT 06515

We are people of faith building power to get our children the education they deserve. FaithActs for Education • 857 Post Road, Suite 310, Fairfield, CT 06824 • 203-868-0443 • faithacts.org 3

Pastor Luis Burgos Apostle Helen Cogdell City Wide Church, Inc. True Worship Church 857 Howard Avenue, Stratford, CT 06605 459 Greenwich Avenue, Hamden, CT 06519

Pastor James Cook Pastor John Cotten Christ the Redeemer Missionary Baptist Church New Hope Baptist Church 785 Boston Avenue, Bridgeport, CT 06610 109 Butler Street, New Haven, CT 06511

Pastor Colley Criss Pastor Lindsay Curtis Church for All Nations Grace Baptist Church 429 Asylum Street, Bridgeport, CT 06610 17 West Avenue, Norwalk, CT 06854

Pastor Charlton Daley Bishop Edwin DeBourgh Solid Rock Church of God Stratford Church of God 43 Spruce Street, Manchester, CT 06040 350 Bishop Avenue, Bridgeport, CT 06610

Pastor Larry Delong Bishop John Diamond Miracle Temple Church Cathedral of Faith Church of God 45 Broad Street, New London, CT 06320 2319 Fairfield Avenue, Bridgeport, CT 06605

Pastor Jonathan DuBose Pastor Lisa Eleck Agape House Fellowship Olivet Congregational Church 265 Colorado Avenue, Bridgeport, CT 06605 2102 Main Street, Bridgeport, CT 06606

Pastor Oswald Ellis Pastor Carolyn Evans Tabernacle of Praise Church of God Word of Faith Deliverance Center 681 Fairfield Avenue, Bridgeport, CT 06605 955 Connecticut Avenue, Bridgeport, CT 06607

Pastor Roosevelt Ewell Pastor Pyrnie Fitzgerald Canaan Institutional Baptist Church Jesus Christ Faith Deliverance Tabernacle 31 Concord Street, Norwalk, CT 06854 207 Asylum Street, Bridgeport, CT 06610

Bishop Franklin Fountain Pastor Randall Furlow Fountain of Youth Cathedral Ekklesia Global Worship Assembly 314 Madison Avenue, Bridgeport, CT 06604 19 Marne Street, Hamden, CT 06514

Reverend Dr. Herron Keyon Gaston Pastor Fred Gee Summerfield United Methodist Church Impact Church 110 Clermont Avenue, Bridgeport, CT 06610 500 Platt Street, Bridgeport, CT 06606

We are people of faith building power to get our children the education they deserve. FaithActs for Education • 857 Post Road, Suite 310, Fairfield, CT 06824 • 203-868-0443 • faithacts.org 4

Pastor Warren Godbolt Pastor Daylan Greer EnterChange Ministries, Inc. Bethel AME Church Bloomfield 240 Hamilton Street, Bridgeport, CT 06608 1154 Blue Hills Avenue, Bloomfield, CT 06002

Bishop Richardo Griffith Pastor Thomas Hayes Word of Life Ministries Ebenezer Church 707 Central Avenue, Bridgeport, CT 06607 291 Bunnell Street, Bridgeport, CT 06607

Pastor Kelsey Hopson Pastor Errol Johnson Mount Olive AME Zion Church C.H.U.R.C.H (Christ House of Unity, Restoration, Charity & 82-100 Pearl Street, Waterbury, CT 06704 Hope) 555 Connecticut Avenue, Bridgeport, CT 06610

Pastor Wesley Johnson Pastor Alfred Jones The Gathering Community Church West End Tabernacle CME Church 6 Stony Hill Road Suite 220, Bethel, CT 06801 265 Colorado Avenue, Bridgeport, CT 06605

Pastor Robert Keene Bishop Carol Lloyd Faith Power and Deliverance Center United Kingdom International Ministries 78 Plymouth Street, New Haven, CT 06519 1589 Stratford Avenue, Bridgeport, CT 06607

Pastor James Logan Bishop William Marshall Messiah Baptist Church City of Life Worship Center 210 Congress Street, Bridgeport, CT 06604 1944 Boston Avenue, Bridgeport, CT 06610

Pastor Mammy Masengo Bishop Dave McClure Mount Zion Church of God New Life Worship Center 2319 Fairfield Avenue, Bridgeport, CT 06605 207 Terminal Lane, New Haven, CT 06519

Pastor Carl McCluster Bishop Fred Mcneil Shiloh Baptist Church The New Church of Signs & Wonders Ministry 477 Broad Street, Bridgeport, CT 06604 758 Hallett Street, Bridgeport, CT 06608

Pastor Mary McPherson Lead Pastor Willie Medina New Hope Deliverance Apostolic Church Iglesia Bautista El Calvario de Bridgeport 2102 Main Street, Bridgeport, CT 06606 849 State Street, Bridgeport, CT 06605

Bishop Robert Middleton Pastor Joshua Miller New Beginnings Ministries Gospel Light Community Church 21 Pershing Street, Hamden, CT 06514 222 Charles Street, Bridgeport, CT 06606

We are people of faith building power to get our children the education they deserve. FaithActs for Education • 857 Post Road, Suite 310, Fairfield, CT 06824 • 203-868-0443 • faithacts.org 5

Pastor David Miller Overseer Kenneth Moales New Hope Missionary Baptist Church Cathedral of the Holy Spirit 1100 Park Avenue, Bridgeport, CT 06604 729 Union Avenue, Bridgeport, CT 06607

Bishop Elect Marichal Monts Reverend John Morehouse The Citadel of Love Unitarian Church 167 Barbour Street, Hartford, CT 06120 10 Lyons Plain Road, Westport, CT 06880

Reverend Sigmund Morriar Executive Director Donald Morris Kingdom Center Church Christian Community Commission 157 Leeder Hill Drive, Hamden, CT 06517 681 Dixwell Avenue, New Haven, CT 06511

Pastor Willie Moye Bishop Varrick Nelson Holy Tabernacle COGIC New Deliverance Family Worship Center 2271 North Avenue, Bridgeport, CT 06604 249 Asylum Street, Bridgeport, CT 06610

Pastor Michael Nembhard Pastor James Newman Jesus Christ the Redeemer Church of God New Freedom Missionary Baptist 1219 Howard Avenue, Bridgeport, CT 06605 280 Starr Street, New Haven, CT 06511

Pastor Walter Oliver Pastor Leroy Parker Ebenezer Chapel New Hope Baptist Church 50 Dwight Street, New Haven, CT 06511 10 Aaron B Samuels Boulevard, Danbury, CT 06810

Bishop Byron Peart Bishop Theodore Plummer Emanuel Temple of Prayer Church of God Full Gospel COGIC 31 W Beacon Street, West Hartford, CT 06119 36 Beechwood Avenue, Bridgeport, CT 06605

Bishop Maurice Porter Bishop Ashley Powell Impact Church Greater Works Church of God PO BOX 4589, Hartford, CT 06147 724 Pacific Street, Stamford, CT 06902

Pastor Joel Pullen Pastor Gerson Ramirez Rehoboth Family Center United Latin American Pentecostal Church 72 Beardsley Street, Bridgeport, CT 06607 2319 Fairfield Avenue, Bridgeport, CT 06605

Bishop Jonathan Ramsey Pastor Gasper Reyes Rehoboth Church of God Gethsemane Church AG 1170 Blue Hills Avenue, Bloomfield, CT 06002 10 Jetland Street, Bridgeport, CT 06605

We are people of faith building power to get our children the education they deserve. FaithActs for Education • 857 Post Road, Suite 310, Fairfield, CT 06824 • 203-868-0443 • faithacts.org 6

Pastor Oral Roberts Pastor Corey Saulsbury Mount Carmel / Shiloh Church of God Empowerment Christian Center 91 Tolland Street, Hartford, CT 06108 79 Lawrence Street, New Haven, CT 06511

Bishop Hopeton Scott Reverend Richard Sherman First Baptist Church Church of Christ, Inc. AG 126 Washington Avenue, Bridgeport, CT 06604 240 Hamilton Street, Bridgeport, CT 06608

Bishop Eron Simmonds Pastor Charles Simmons New Direction Ministries Temple of Latter Rain 3160 Park Avenue, Bridgeport, CT 06604 1579 State Street, New Haven, CT 06511

Pastor Ken Smith Reverend Iona Smith Nze Kingdom Builders Impact Ministries Bethel AME Church 219 James Street, Bridgeport, CT 06604 110 Grove Street, Bridgeport, CT 06605

Pastor Robert Smith Bishop Aaron Sneed Mount Calvary Deliverance Tabernacle Abundant Place 1184 Dixwell Avenue, New Haven, CT 06514 360 Colorado Avenue, Bridgeport, CT 06605

Bishop Bruno Spana Reverend David Spollett Potters House Church of God First Church UCC 500 Sandy Hollow Road, Mystic, CT 06355 148 Beach Road, Fairfield, CT 06824

Pastor Kelcy Steele Pastor Lorenzo Stewart Varick Memorial AME Zion Church Second Chance Outreach Ministry 246 Dixwell Avenue, New Haven, CT 06511 130 Dover Street, Bridgeport, CT 06610

Pastor Alfreda Stewart Pastor Alan Thorne Second Chance Outreach Ministry Shiloh Baptist Church 130 Dover Street, Bridgeport, CT 06610 99 East Avenue, Norwalk, CT 06855

Bishop Ken Trawick Lead Pastor Dexter Upshaw Promised Land Church of God New Vision International Ministries 240 Burwell Road, West Haven, CT 06516 35 Benham Avenue, Bridgeport, CT 06605

Pastor Lester Walters Bishop Benjamin Watts New Lighthouse Ministries Shiloh Baptist Church 261 Columbus Avenue, New Haven, CT 06519 1 Garvin Street, New London, CT 06320

We are people of faith building power to get our children the education they deserve. FaithActs for Education • 857 Post Road, Suite 310, Fairfield, CT 06824 • 203-868-0443 • faithacts.org 7

Pastor Jesse White Archbishop John White First Church of The Living God Cathedral of Praise COGIC International 70 Whitney Street, Hartford, CT 06105 45 Gregory Street, Bridgeport, CT 06604

Pastor Brandon Whitfield President Roger Wilkins The River Church of God Maranatha Life Changing Ministries 24 Shelter Rock Road Unit 2, Danbury, CT 06810 5 Hazel Street, New Haven, CT 06511

Bishop Courtney Williams Reverend Meg Williams Refuge Temple Church of God First Congregational Church 3050 Main Street, Bridgeport, CT 06606 2301 Main Street, Stratford, CT 06615

Pastor Doran Wright Pastor Ulysses Youngblood Grace City Church Bridgeport Abundant Life Fellowship Ministries 2470 Fairfield Avenue, Bridgeport, CT 06605 195 North Main Street, Ansonia, CT 06401

We are people of faith building power to get our children the education they deserve. FaithActs for Education • 857 Post Road, Suite 310, Fairfield, CT 06824 • 203-868-0443 • faithacts.org 8