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