Politics & Government
Callahan says Connecticut faces a potential teacher shortage
State representative supports public colleges having site-based management
By Scott Benjamin
NEW FAIRFIELD -- Patrick Callahan says he fears Connecticut will soon not have enough teachers, nurses or police officers.
The Republican state representative from the 108th District explained that professionals in those fields tell him that they can’t attract enough qualified candidates.
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Regarding the “stress” that teachers ae experiencing, Callahan of New Fairfield said he doesn’t even have to confer with his colleagues on the General Assembly’s Education Committee.
“I hear about it at dinner each night,” he commented in an interview with Patch.com.
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His wife, Andrea, is a kindergarten teacher.
Callahan said teachers encountered obstacles with hybrid classes during the pandemic as they had “to teach in front of a classroom and online at the same time.”
He added that with students only learning online in the spring of 2020 during the height of the pandemic, “they are now behind where they need to be academically and they weren’t with their friends, which has impacted them socially.”
Besides, teaching “doesn’t pay enough for the requirements that go with the job,” said Callahan, who represents New Fairfield, Danbury, New Milford and Sherman.
He said: How can a teacher afford to pay for a home, a car, electric bills that are soaring and retire their college student loans?
Callahan also said the current shortage partly stems from some of the longer-serving teachers opting to retire after the schools were closed to conventional learning in March 2020 during the pandemic.
The state Education Enhancement Act was approved in 1986 with bipartisan support when Connecticut had a Democratic governor, Bill O’Neill, and the Republicans ruled both chambers of the General Assembly.
In part, the legislation was a reaction to “A Nation At Risk,” the report from the United States National Commission on Experience in Education.
It increased teacher salaries, required prospective teachers to maintain a higher college grade point average to enter their student teaching program and mandated that all teachers do professional development. The state also established an alternate route program for prospective teachers who already had at least a bachelor’s degree but had not previously majored in Education.
Callahan, who annexed a second term on November 8 with 57.8 percent of the vote, said there may be similar efforts to boost salaries and recruit applicants in the near future if the teacher shortage becomes more pronounced.
He and his wife both graduated from Western Connecticut State University (WCSU) in Danbury. Callahan proceeded to serve for 10 years as an adult probation officer and 17 years as a chief probation officer.
WCSU opened a second, larger west side campus in 1982 and embarked on an ambitious upgrade to its older, smaller midtown campus in the 1990s and early 2000s. However, the school has been beset with an enrollment decline over the last decade.
Josh Moody of Inside Higher Ed reported in June that under former WCSU President John Clark, “99 percent of university reserves” had been “depleted in recent years.”
More recently, Paul Beran, the recently-appointed interim president at WCSU, told Moody of Inside Higher Ed that “this institution can’t keep doing business as usual and maintain viability. System leadership and the Board [of Regents] understand that.”
Callahan said he has met with Beran, and described him “as a wonderful guy” who has “some good plans” to increase enrollment.
Callahan added that he was not at liberty to disclose the details of those plans.
Callahan did say that WCSU might be able to increase enrollment if it featured more of its more successful graduates in its publications.
He commented that he agrees with state Rep. Bob Godfrey (D-110) of Danbury, who told Patch.com last June that WCSU and the other four-year schools in the Board of Regents system are now “priced beyond what working families can afford.”
To try to reduce costs and increase efficiency, Callahan said he supports former Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton’s call to abolish the Board of Regents (BOR), which oversees 17 schools, and instead install a site-based management plan for each campus.
“Having our Connecticut public universities go to the BOR, rather than state Department of Administrative Services seems to be a layer of bureaucracy that may be a hindrance to getting repairs and projects done in a timely manner,” Callahan said. “If our schools could get these improvements done sooner, our schools would be more desirable to prospective students.”
During a February 2013 talk at WCSU, Boughton, who earned his master’s degree at the school, said that the presidents at the four-year schools are heavily recruited, get paid well, and therefore do not need to be reporting to someone above them. He called some of the functions of the BOR to be “redundant.”
WCSU, Central Connecticut in New Britain, Eastern Connecticut in Windham and Southern Connecticut in New Haven had been part of the Connecticut State University from 1967 to 2011 and were overseen by a chancellor and Board of Trustees.
State Sen. Eric Berthel (R-32) of Watertown, who also serves on the Education Committee and is an administrator at Post University in Waterbury, told Patch.com in September that at his campus online learning has grown in demand.
He said, “By far, the largest percentage of our students study that way,” including students in Asia and at military bases. “It is the future.”
Callahan said that “online learning certainly has benefits, and for our state university system online learning for graduate students who are usually working professionals, it is certainly a benefit. However, undergrad students benefit more from in-person learning and the collaborative learning atmosphere of a physical campus”
He said that he supports recent statements in a recent Wall Street Journal column by Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, a Republican, that “employers should stop requiring college degrees for jobs that don’t need them.”
Hogan also wrote that, “In Maryland, we’ve led the charge by announcing that thousands of state jobs will no longer have such requirements. If more states follow our lead, the trend could spread to the private sector.”
As for the regular session that will open on January 4, Callahan said “affordability” in Connecticut should be the General Assembly’s top priority.
He said that with the highest inflation since the early 1980s, Connecticut residents “can’t afford” to pay more for electricity or consumer goods that travel by truck into the state.
WTNH Channel 8 in New Haven reported that the increases requested by Eversource and United Illuminating on November 17 could increase electricity costs for some customers by up to $84.85 per month.
Patch.com reported on November 28 that following negotiations with Gov. Ned Lamont (D-Greenwich), Eversource will contribute $10 million at shareholder expense to Operation Fuel, which is a non-profit organization that helps low-income customers with home heating costs, Lamont said. UI will contribute at least $3 million.
However, Callahan said those programs won’t do much to help working-class customers.
He recommended that, among other things, that the General Assembly “revise its regulations” so the state could itself generate more energy.
Callahan said that consumer prices also will rise from the highway usage tax that will take effect on January 1.
Under the legislation, the cost will be 2.5 cents per mile for the trucks weighing 26,000 to 28,000 pounds up to 17.5 cents per mile for those weighing more than 80,000 pounds, according to NBC 30 News in Connecticut.
Callahan said some trucking companies have said they will need to even hire a fiscal official to keep track of their costs
However, David Stockman, a former federal budget director and Wall Street executive, stated in his recent book, “The Great Money Bubble,” that it is not just consumer prices but also assets that are on an inflationary spiral. Stockman wrote that one of them is real estate values.
Callahan said there was a steep increase in real estate values in Connecticut as the state began to reopen in 2020 following the height of the pandemic and residents from New York City and Westchester County were eager to move to suburbia. He added that since then prices have declined from that peak due to higher interest rates.
After recently being appointed as the ranking Republican House member on the Environment Committee, Callahan said he hopes to, among other things, secure funds to replicate more plant life in Candlewood Lake, the largest lake in Connecticut. He served as chairman of the Candlewood Lake Authority for 10 years before his election to the state House.
On another topic, Callahan said that he hopes that Connecticut residents can continue to testify at public hearings not only in person at the State Capitol but also via Zoom, since it is more convenient for many of them.
What elected official does he admire the most?
“Ronald Reagan,” said Callahan.
“He had great economic policies,” Callahan explained. “He was a trusted leader. He took away the malaise of the Carter presidency.”
Resources:
https://www.cthousegop.com/callahan/about/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Nation_at_Risk
https://www.amazon.com/Great-Money-Bubble-Yourself-Inflation/dp/1630062197
Patrick Callahan interview, Patch.com, Sunday, December 3, 2022.
https://patch.com/connecticut/brookfield/berthel-insists-connecticut-needs-become-more-affordable
