Daily Archives: August 11, 2021

The 2021 Regular Session of the Connecticut General Assembly concluded on June 9, 2021, but the primary source of action on education law issues was a special session of the General Assembly and ensuing budget implementer Act. The following is a brief description of acts that were passed by the General Assembly that may be of interest to Connecticut K-12 schools. In addition to the legislation that directly relates to schools and school districts, this summary provides an overview of labor and employment legislation affecting public-sector employers as well as a discussion of some temporary, yet significant, changes to the Connecticut Freedom of Information Act related to remote and hybrid meetings.

EDUCATION LAW

IMMUNIZATIONS AND HEALTH ISSUES

Public Act 21-6: An Act Concerning Immunizations. This Act largely eliminates the religious exemption to the requirement that public and private schools condition a students entry into school upon providing proof of certain immunizations (including but not limited to immunizations against diphtheria, pertussis, tetanus, measles, mumps, rubella, and polio), but only for those students whose initial enrollment in school is subsequent to the bills April 28, 2021 effective date. The Act provides that the immunization requirement still does not apply to students enrolled in kindergarten through twelfth grade who, on or before the Acts April 28, 2021 effective date, had already submitted the statement required under the prior law for the religious exemption. Such students remain exempt from the immunization requirement even if they transfer to another school in the state.

Students enrolled in pre-school or pre-kindergarten on or before April 28, 2021 who had already submitted the statement necessary for the religious exemption have until September 1, 2022 to comply with the immunization requirement, or within 14 days after transferring to a different public or private school program, whichever is later. The deadline for such pre-school/pre-K students complying with the immunization requirement can be altered if the school is presented with a written declaration from the childs physician, physician assistant, or advanced practice registered nurse recommending a different immunization schedule for the child.

The Act retains the medical exemption to the immunization requirement, albeit with the medical professional now using a form prescribed by the Department of Public Health [DPH]. The Act also retains the prior requirement that where a parent or guardian is unable to pay for such immunizations, the expense (upon the recommendation of the childs schools board of education, or similar body governing a nonpublic school) shall be paid by the town. The Act requires the DPH to release annual immunization rates for each public and private K-12 school in the state.

IMPACT: School districts should update their immunization policies to conform with the Act as soon as possible to comply with the provisions of the new law which is now in effect.

ASTHMA CASE REPORTING

Public Act 21-121: An Act Concerning The Department Of Public Health's Recommendations Regarding Various Revisions To The Public Health Statutes. Among other things, this Act requires that (effective July 1, 2021) each regional or local regional board of education report on a triennial basis the total number of students in their schools having a diagnosis of asthma 1) at the time in enrollment, 2) in grades six or seven, or 3) and grades nine or ten. The only change is that grade nine has replaced grade eleven.

EXERTIONAL HEAT ILLNESS TRAINING AND PREVENTION

Public Act 21-87: An Act Concerning Education And Training In Exertional Heat Illness For Coaches, Parents, Guardians And Students. This Act requires persons with a State Board of Education [SBE] issued coaching permit who coach either intramural or interscholastic athletics to complete an exertional heat illness awareness education program before beginning their coaching assignment for the season and subsequently must annually review the program before the start of each coaching season. This requirement commences in the 2022-23 school year. The education program must be developed or approved by January 1, 2022, by the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference [CIAC], in consultation with certain specified organizations. The program content must include: 1) recognizing the symptoms of an exertional heat illness; 2) how to obtain proper medical treatment for a person suspected of having the illness; 3) the nature and risk of exertional heat illness, including the danger of continuing to engage in athletic activity after sustaining such an illness; and 4) the proper method of allowing a student athlete who has sustained the illness to return to athletic activity. An exertional heat illness is defined as an illness resulting from engaging in physical activity in the heat, including heat cramps, heat syncope, heat exhaustion, and heat stroke.

In addition, CIAC must also develop for use by school districts: 1) annual review materials on current and relevant exertional heat illness information, and 2) a model exertional heat illness awareness plan, including best practices in preventing and treating exertional heat illness. The Act requires school districts to implement the model plan using written materials, videos, or online or in-person training. Commencing with the 2022-23 school year, the Act requires school districts to prohibit a student from participating in intramural or interscholastic athletics unless the student and his or her parent or guardian reads or views the training materials or attends an in-person training. The parent or guardian must sign an athletic participation informed consent form issued by the school district that acknowledges compliance with the requirement.

IMPACT: As evident from the wording of the Act, school districts are now required to implement an exertional heat illness awareness plan, by January 1, 2022.

EMERGENCY ACTION PLANS FOR INTERSCHOLASTIC AND INTRAMURAL ATHLETIC EVENTS

Public Act 21-92: An Act Concerning Emergency Action Plans For Interscholastic and Intramural Athletic Events. This Act, which was signed by the Governor on June 30, 2021, will require each local and regional school district and private school to create (commencing in the 2022-2023 school year) an emergency action plan for responding to serious and life-threatening sports-related injuries that occur during interscholastic or intramural athletic events. Each plan must include, among other things, a listing of the staff responsible for implementing the plan and the procedures to follow when a student sustains a serious sports-related injury (or suffers a cardiac or respiratory emergency). The plan would have to be distributed, posted, reviewed annually, updated as necessary, and rehearsed annually by the staff responsible for its implementation.

IMPACT: Commencing in the 2022-23 school year, public and private schools must develop, implement and circulate written plans to address serious sports related injuries.

SPECIAL EDUCATION

Public Act 21-168: An Act Implementing The Recommendations Of The Task Force To Analyze The Implementation Of Laws Governing Dyslexia Instruction And Training. This Act largely addresses those laws governing teacher preparation programs, teacher certification, and elementary student reading proficiency assessments via the following revisions:

IMPACT: While mainly addressing teacher training regarding dyslexia and literacy matters, the Act will require action by school districts with respect to reading assessments and utilization of the voluntary family history questionnaire.

Public Act 21-46: An Act Concerning Social Equity And The Health, Safety And Education Of Children. This Act, which takes effect on July 1, 2021, requires that local and regional boards of education allow students enrolled in grades kindergarten through twelve to take up to two mental health wellness days during the school year, on which a student is not required to attend school. These days cannot be taken consecutively.

Additionally, the Act requires the SBE to change its definition of the terms excused absence and unexcused absence to exclude a students engagement in 1) virtual classes or meetings, 2) activities on time-logged electronic systems, and 3) completion and submission of assignments, if the engagement accounts for at least one-half of the school day in which virtual learning is authorized.

The Act requires the SDE via its Commissioner to develop, and update as necessary, standards for virtual or remote learning. The Act also allows local and regional boards of education (commencing with the 2022-2023 school year) to authorize virtual learning to students in grades nine to twelve, inclusive, if the applicable board of education:

The Act provides that such virtual or remote learning shall be considered an actual school session (for purposes of statutory 180-day and 900-hour requirements), provided virtual learning is conducted in compliance with the SDE standards.

Similar to Public Act 21-95, the Act requires that each local and regional board of education: 1) integrate the principles and practices of social-emotional learning throughout the components of its professional development programs; and 2) include goals for integrating principles and practices of social-emotional learning in its professional development programs in its statement of goals. In addition, the Act requires each boards professional development and evaluation committee to consider student priorities and needs related to student social-emotional learning and student academic outcomes when developing, evaluating, and annually updating a school districts professional development program.

Also, the Act requires each school district in their policies and procedures encouraging parent teacher cooperation, to:

If after three attempts, a teacher is unable to contact a students parent in order to schedule a parent-teacher conference, he or she must report this inability to the school principal, school counselor, or other school administrator designated by the local or regional board of education. The principal, counselor, or administrator must contact the students emergency contact to determine the student and familys health and safety.

Finally, the Act requires local or regional boards of education to include the following in policies or procedures for collecting unpaid school meal charges applicable to employees and third-party vendors who provide school meals:

If a childs unpaid meal charges are equal to or exceed the cost of thirty meals, the Act requires the local or regional board of education to refer the childs parent or guardian to the boards local homeless education liaison. The Act also allows local or regional boards of education to accept gifts, donations, or grants from any public or private source to pay off unpaid meal charges.

IMPACT: School districts will have to amend their excused absence policies and be ready to address the remote learning provisions in 2022-2023. Commencing with the 2021-22 school year, references to parent-teacher conference procedures should be updated in board policies and any communications to parents and districts should also amend any existing unpaid school lunch balance policies and/or procedures to comply with the Act. Districts should also educate staff on the changes set forth in this new law.

DRIVERS EDUCATION

Public Act 21-106: An Act Concerning Recommendations By The Department Of Motor Vehicles, Revisions To The Motor Vehicle Statutes And Peer-To-Peer Car Sharing. Among other things, this Act affects drivers education programs by defining "classroom instruction" as inclusive of training or instruction offered in person in a congregate setting, through distance learning or through a combination of both in-person and distance learning, provided such distance learning has interactive components such as mandatory interactions, participation or testing.

STUDENT RESIDENCY AND MILITARY FAMILIES

Public Act 21-86: An Act Concerning The Enrollment Of Children Of Members Of The Armed Forces In Public Schools And The Establishment Of A Purple Star School Program. This Act (which took effect on July 1, 2021) amended the student residency statutes by providing that when a child of a member of the armed forces seeks enrollment in a public school in a town in which such child is not yet a resident, the local or regional board of education shall accept the military orders directing such member to the state or any other documents from the armed forces indicating the transfer of such member to the state as proof of residency. The Act also requires the SBE (within available appropriations) to establish a Purple Star School Program to designate schools that provide specific support services, assistance, and initiatives for military-connected students and their families. A military-connected student is defined as a public-school student who 1) is a dependent of a current or former armed forces member or 2) was a dependent of a member killed in the line of duty.

IMPACT: Board residency and non-resident enrollment policies should be reviewed and amended as necessary to comply with the laws provisions regarding the children of military family members.

MISCELLANEOUS/OMNIBUS BILLS

Public Act 21-144:An Act Implementing The Recommendations Of The Department Of Education. This Act is an omnibus bill that would, among other things:

IMPACT: School districts should ensure that their special education practices are up to date in order to address transition services at an earlier date and should be aware of the limitations on CTECS ability to decline enrollment to certain special education students.

Public Act 21-95:An Act Concerning Assorted Revisions And Additions To The Education Statutes. This Act, which was signed by the Governor on June 28, 2021, covers a wide range of issues. First, the Act would provide that the ability of citizens to petition for a public hearing of a local board of education be limited to any question related to the provision of education by that board. This Act would also revise the vision screening conducted in the public schools to permit the use of an automated vision screening device that is not equivalent to a Snellen chart. The Act also requires the addition of the following new members to each schools safe school climate committee beginning with the 2021-2022 school year: 1) at least one teacher, appointed by the teachers union; 2) medical and mental health staff assigned to the school; and 3) in the case of a committee at a high school, at least one student from the high school who is selected by the students from the school in a manner the school principal determines.

The Act changes the name of the School Paraprofessional Advisory Council to the School Paraeducator Advisory Council. It also requires the Council to conduct a study addressing issues related to this field and to develop paraeducator career development pathway proposals. The Council must submit the study and proposals, along with any recommendations for legislation, to the General Assemblys Education Committee by January 1, 2022.

The Act additionally requires the SDE to develop a plan to create and implement a statewide virtual school to provide virtual learning instruction for grades kindergarten to twelve through one or more internet-based software platforms. The SDE must submit the plan, along with any recommendations for related legislation, to the General Assemblys Education Committee by February 1, 2022. The Act also establishes a new task force to study the provision of special education services (including the role of regional educational service centers [RESCs], private providers of special education and inter-district cooperative arrangements) and special education funding. The task force must submit a report with findings and recommendations to the General Assemblys Education Committee by January 1, 2022.

Also, the Act permits the Commissioner of Education to grant a one-time extension to any acting superintendents probationary period if, during the 2019-20 and 2020-21 school years, he or she was unable to 1) become properly certified or 2) successfully complete a State Board of Education-approved school leadership program.

In addition, the Act has significant provisions addressing issues of social and emotional learning that were originally contained within House Bill No. 6557 (An Act Concerning Social And Emotional Learning). The Act would require each local and regional board of education to administer a universal mental health and resiliency screening to all students for the purpose of identifying students in need of interventions and support, with such screening provided over the next two school years to include a stress and trauma assessment related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Act requires the SDE to establish a state-wide social-emotional support program that provides support and assistance to school districts for mental health, social-emotional, behavioral support, trauma support and special education programs and services. The Act also requires the SDE to develop student social-emotional learning standards for grades four through twelve. Additionally, the Act requires the Social Emotional Learning and School Climate Advisory Collaborative to convene a working group to review and make recommendations regarding the state bullying/school climates statutes and the inclusion of restorative practices in safe school climate plans, along with providing technical assistance and support to school districts in adopting and implementing the Connecticut Model School Climate Policy.

The Act requires that mandatory memoranda of understanding for school districts with school resource officer [SRO] programs include a provision that requires SROs to complete the same social-emotional learning and restorative practices training provided to the teachers and administrators of the school. Finally, the Act additionally requires that the principles and practices of social-emotional learning and restorative practices be integrated throughout the components of teacher professional development plans and programs, and the statement of educational goals of school districts would need to include goals for such integration of principles and practices of social-emotional learning and restorative practices.

IMPACT: Board policies regarding citizen complaints should be reviewed for consistency with the new law. Safe school climate committee membership should be expanded starting in the 2021-22 school year. The universal mental health and resiliency screening and SRO memoranda requirements should be studied by superintendents to ensure proper implementation.

Public Act 21-199:An Act Concerning Various Revisions To The Statutes Related To Education and Workforce Development. This Act makes the following revisions to various education statutes that relate to gifted and talented curricula, the Free Application for Federal Student Aid [FAFSA] and other issues related to affordability and school attendance/withdrawal:

IMPACT: School districts will have to adopt and/or update policies governing challenging curriculum, placement in advanced academic courses, identification of gifted and talented students, improvement of completion rates for FAFSA students, weighted grading and school attendance/withdrawal.

Public Act 21-111: An Act Authorizing And Adjusting Bonds Of The State For Capital Improvements, Transportation And Other Purposes, Establishing The Community Investment Fund 2030 Board, Authorizing State Grant Commitments For School Building Projects And Making Revisions To The School Building Project Statutes. This Act authorizes a variety of new bond issuances for state and municipal projects and cancels, reduces and/or amends certain existing bond authorizations. Of particular relevance to educational institutions, the Act also authorizes fifteen school construction grant commitments and imposes a new requirement that water filling stations be included in all new school building projects seeking state reimbursement. Additionally, the Act also requires that starting on January 1, 2023 the State Department of Administrative Services [DAS] provide biannual status reports on all current and pending school building projects of CTECS. Such status reports must include the: (1) costs associated with each CTECS school building project, (2) anticipated date of the next project application for each CTECS school, (3) projected start date of pending projects, and (4) date of completion of current school building projects.

CANNABIS LEGALIZATION

Public Act 21-1 (June Special Session): An Act Concerning Responsible And Equitable Regulation Of Adult-Use Cannabis. Buried in the much-vaunted recreational marijuana legalization bill is a provision that provides that on or after January 1, 2022, local and regional board of education policies governing student discipline and the use, sale or possession of alcohol or controlled drugs cannot result in a student facing greater discipline, punishment or sanction for use, sale or possession of cannabis than a student would face for the use, sale or possession of alcohol.

IMPACT: School districts should review and amend their student discipline and suspension/expulsion policies to comply with the above provision.

THE BUDGET IMPLEMENTER

Public Act 21-2 (June Special Session): An Act Concerning Provisions Related To Revenue And Other Items To Implement The State Budget For The Biennium Ending June 30, 2023. The 790-page budget implementer bill that was passed during the special session contained numerous education related provisions and other changes effecting Connecticut Schools (some of which are not actually related to the budget), including the following:

NATIVE AMERICAN TEAM NAMES AND MASCOTS: Commencing in fiscal year 2022-23, the Act will render certain municipalities with schools that use Native American team names, mascots or imagery ineligible for grants from the Mashantucket Pequot and Mohegan Fund. In particular, the Acts grant exclusion is targeted at municipalities that have a school or associated intramural or interscholastic athletic team under its board of educations jurisdiction that use a name, symbol or image that depicts, refers to or is associated with a Native American individual, custom, tradition, or state or federally recognized tribe. However, an exception to the grant exclusion applies if the Native American tribe depicted, or referred to, in a name, symbol or image provides its written consent for such usage. Additionally, this section of the Act also provides a one-year grace period from grant exclusion through fiscal year 2023-24 for municipalities that provide written notice to OPM of the intent of the school or team under its board of educations jurisdiction to change any Native American team name, symbol or image or obtain written consent from the applicable Native American tribe for its continued use.

DISTRIBUTING VOTER ELIGIBILITY INFORMATION AT HIGH SCHOOLS: The Implementer requires municipal registrars of voters to annually distribute information regarding voting eligibility on the fourth Tuesday of September at each public high school within a municipality. The Act requires that the local registrar of voters and high school principal jointly determine the best means of distributing such information at the high school.

IMPACT: High school principals should be made aware of this new provision.

WARNINGS OF MUNICIPAL ELECTIONS: Portions of the Implementer Act addressing this issue, which became effective upon the Acts June 17, 2001 passage, require town clerks to publish the warning (i.e. the notice) of municipal elections on the on the towns web-site in addition to publishing the warning in a newspaper of general circulation within the town. Additionally, the Act also specifies that the warning of municipal elections must include notice of the time and the location of sites designated for election day voter registration within the town along with the location of each polling place within the town.

MUNICIPAL ELECTION DATES: On or after January 1, 2022, municipal elections shall be held biennially on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November in odd-numbered years, unless the legislative body of the municipality votes by a three-fourths vote to hold municipal elections on the first Monday of May in odd-numbered years. If a municipality elects to hold municipal elections in May pursuant to a three-fourths vote of its legislative body, it may subsequently elect to change the date for its municipal elections from May to the first Tuesday after the first Monday.

MBR MODIFICATIONS: Effective July 1, 2021, the Act makes several amendments to existing law with respect to the minimum budget requirement [MBR] for town appropriations for education. First, the Act effectively makes the MBRs provisions permanent by removing individual fiscal year references within the MBR statute Conn. Gen. Stat. 10-262j -- in favor of general language mandating that in each year a towns budgeted appropriation for education cannot be less than the prior year, subject to limited exceptions such as declining enrollment. Second, the Act provides that fiscal year 2020-21 cannot be used for purposes of reduction to a towns MBR due to declining enrollment. Similarly, the Act also provides that in 2021-22 school districts that do not maintain a high school must use student enrollment counts from October 1, 2019 for purposes of determining reductions to MBR due to declining enrollment. Presumably, these provisions were included in the law to prevent reductions to a towns MBR stemming from reduced 2020-21 enrollment that resulted from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Third, the Act clarifies and expands upon existing MBR exclusions. The Act extends until fiscal year 2023-24 a recently added MBR exemption for local supplemental COVID-19 school expenditures along with federal COVID-19 relief funds and clarifies that funds from the federal Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act and from the federal American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 are included within the federal COVID-19 relief funds MBR exclusion. In addition, the Act provides that school infrastructure improvement grant funds shall not be included for purposes of MBR calculations. Lastly, the Act also provides that notwithstanding any charter, ordinance, or special act to the contrary for fiscal year 2021-22 a town may appropriate additional funds to its education budget to satisfy its MBR obligation if the towns educational cost sharing [ECS] grant is greater than what the town anticipated it would be when it originally adopted its fiscal year 2021-22 education budget.

ECS GRANT FUNDING AND FORMULA CHANGES: The Implementer Act also suspends previously scheduled decreases to Educational Cost Sharing [ECS] grants for fiscal years 2021-22 and 2022-23 for towns that are overfunded under the current grant formula, maintain scheduled increases in ECS aid for underfunded towns and extend the scheduled phase-in of increases and decreases by two years until fiscal year 2028-29. Additionally, the Act also modifies the formula for determining a towns base ECS grant by increasing the weighting percentage for the number of resident students in a town eligible for free or reduced-price meals or milk and for the number of resident students in a town who are English language learners.

EXPANDED ECS REGIONAL BONUS FOR TOWNS SENDING STUDENTS TO HIGH SCHOOL ACADEMIES: This section of the Act, which became effective July 1, 2021, modifies the existing definition of the regional bonus portion of the ECS grant formula by expanding applicability of the bonus to towns that pay tuition for students to attend incorporated or endowed high school academies, as well as by eliminating the existing ratio component of the regional bonus that reduces the per-pupil bonus payment in proportion to the number of grade levels serviced by applicable the regional school district. As a result of these changes, regional and incorporated or endowed high school sending districts will see increased base ECS grant levels in future years.

Presently, there are three State Board of Education-approved incorporated or endowed academies that serve as public high schools: The Norwich Free Academy; The Woodstock Academy, and; The Gilbert School in Winchester. Under this section of the Act, towns that send students to these schools will receive a regional bonus to their base ECS grant based on the number of students sent to these schools.

Before passage of this Act, the regional bonus portion of a towns ECS grant was equal to $100 per student enrolled in a regional school district on October 1 of each year multiplied by the ratio of grades, kindergarten to grade twelve, in the regional district up to thirteen. So, for example, a town that sent one hundred students to a regional high school would receive a regional bonus of approximately $3,077 per year to its base ECS grant which reflects a $30.76 per student multiplier based upon a 4/13 ratio reflecting the fact that the regional high school only services four out of thirteen possible grades (inclusive of kindergarten). This section of the Act eliminates the ratio component of the bonus formula entirely. As a result, the same town that sends one hundred students to a regional high school will receive a $4,000 regional bonus since the regional high school services four grades. This change to the regional bonus formula will apply to incorporated and endowed academies.

ESSER FUNDS FOR OTHERWISE INELIGIBLE SCHOOLS: The Act requires the SDE to distribute federal COVID-19 school relief funds to schools which may otherwise be ineligible to receive the funds. The fund, known as the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund [ESSER Fund], will be available to: any school ineligible for federal Title I funding or to any approved incorporated or endowed high school or academy (i.e., The Gilbert School, Norwich Free Academy, and Woodstock Academy). The SDE is prohibited from distributing state or federal funding to any school if it would conflict with federal law, United States Department of Education guidance, rules, or regulations on the ESSER Fund.

IMPACT: Connecticut has received more than $1.5 billion in ESSER Funds. This Act ensures that the funding will be spread to as many schools as legally allowed under federal standards.

STATE CHARTER SCHOOL FUNDING FORMULA CHANGES: Under current law, a state charter school receives a uniform per-pupil operating grant of $11,250 per fiscal year. Under the Act, a state charter school will receive a per-pupil grant determined by a formula based on the ECS grant foundation (a fixed grant of $11,525), plus a percentage of the schools charter-grant adjustment, which is based on student needs.

IMPACT: Charter schools may now receive their state grants with an adjustment based on school needs, which may increase grants for some schools.

MATERIAL CHANGES TO CHARTER SCHOOL OPERATIONS AND INCREASING CHARTER SCHOOL STUDENT CAPACITY: Under current law, a charter school must submit a written request to the SBE to amend its charter if it plans to make a material change to its operations. The new Act would require the SDE, rather than the SBE, to review the request and solicit comments from the local board of education in the town in which the school is located. Under the Act, any charter school wishing to increase its student enrollment capacity by 20% or more must submit a request to the SDE by April 1 of the fiscal year that is two years before the fiscal year when the change would take effect. The Act lays out the various review standards for approving the request.

MAGNET SCHOOL GRANT CONDITIONS BASED ON RESIDENCY: The Act extends through the 2023-24 school year the requirement that (1) magnet schools comply with specific enrollment standards in existing law and that the education commissioner only award an operating grant to compliant schools. The commissioner may only award a grant to schools that have (1) no more than 75% of the school enrollment from one school district and (2) total school enrollment that meets the reduced-isolation setting standards developed by the commissioner.

MAGNET SCHOOL OPERATING GRANTS: The Act requires the state to fully fund per-pupil magnet school operating grants. Current law allows the states per-pupil magnet grants to be prorated to reflect available appropriations. The new Act removes this provision and requires the state to fully fund the grants.

LIMIT ON MAGNET SCHOOL GRANTS: By law and unchanged by the Act, the total per-pupil operating grant paid by the state to a magnet school operator cannot exceed the aggregate total of the schools reasonable operating budget, minus revenue from other sources.

SUPPLEMENTAL TRANSPORTATION GRANTS FOR MAGNET SCHOOLS: The Act changes the payment schedule and number of payments for a supplemental transportation grant for magnet schools that help the state meet its obligations under the Sheff v. ONeill desegregation court decision.

GRANTS FOR PRIORITY SCHOOL DISTRICTS: The Act allocates $5 million in the 2021-22 and 2022-2023 fiscal years to the SDE to provide grants to towns with school districts that are identified as priority school districts [PSDs]. PSDs have students with low standardized test scores and high levels of poverty; there are 15 of these districts. PSDs must spend the grants for certain purposes specified in statute, such as dropout prevention, alternative and transitional programs, and elementary and middle school accreditation.

WAIVER OF WORLD LANGUAGE REQUIREMENT FOR CTECS 2023 AND 2024 GRADUATES: The Board for CTECS, or its Superintendent, must allow any student in the class of 2023 or 2024 to graduate without fulfilling the one-credit world language high school graduation requirement under state law.

TUITION FEE WAIVER FOR ANSONIA HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS TAKING MANUFACTURING COURSES: The Act requires the Board of Regents for Higher Education [BOR] to continue waiving tuition and fees for Ansonia High School students to attend College Connections at Derby High School. The College Connections program allows high school students to take advanced manufacturing courses and receive both high school and college credit. The Act also requires the BOR to waive tuition and fees for Ansonia High School students who participate in a manufacturing program offered in Ansonia or Derby which is offered outside the College Connections program.

REGIONAL BOARD OF EDUCATION RESERVE FUND: The Act increases the amount a regional board of education may deposit in a capital and nonrecurring expenditures reserve fund from 1% to up to 2% of the districts budget for the fiscal year.

IMPACT: Regional board of education administrators and board members should consider this change for future budgeting purposes. Regional board business/budgeting policies may have to be updated if regional boards wish to avail themselves of this new provision.

GROWN FOR CT KIDS GRANT PROGRAM: The Act requires the Department of Agriculture to administer a new CT Grown for CT Kids Grant Program to assist school districts in developing farm-to-school programs. The grant must be used to develop or implement a farm-to-school program, including: purchasing equipment, resources, or materials, such as local food products, gardening supplies, field trips to farms, gleaning on farms; providing professional development and skills training for educators, school nutrition professionals, parents, caregivers, and piloting new purchasing systems and programs. The Act requires the Department to prioritize grants to applicants (1) located in alliance districts or who are providers of school readiness programs and (2) who demonstrate broad commitment from school administrators, school nutrition professionals, educators, and community stakeholders.

IMPACT: School districts will need to decide whether to participate in the CT Grown for CT Kids program. If so, districts must apply to the Department of Agriculture to receive a grant. The Agriculture Commissioner will prescribe the grant application form and process. The Department of Agriculture will provide technical assistance to grant recipients to develop and implement farm-to-school programs.

EXPANSION OF OPEN CHOICE PROGRAM: The Act expands the Open Choice Program for up to 50 students from Danbury and 50 from Norwalk in the 2022-23 school year. Open Choice is a voluntary inter-district public school attendance program that allows students from urban districts to attend suburban schools and vice versa, on a space-available basis. Its purpose is to reduce racial, ethnic, and economic isolation; improve academic achievement; and provide public school choice. The SDE provides a per-student grant for school districts that receive Open Choice students.

STUDY OF EDUCATIONAL FUNDING: The Act requires the states Office of Fiscal Analysis to conduct an independent modeling of the education funding proposal described in Senate Bill 948, which proposes the following education funding changes: a funding mechanism under which the per-student grants for magnet schools, charter schools, agricultural science and technology education centers [Vo-Ag Centers], and the Open Choice program are merged into one grant program. The modeling must also look at funding for CTECS, including the funding at a system-wide, school, and per-pupil level, and the effects of racial equity within the system based on the funding.

MODEL CURRICULUM FOR K-8: The Act requires the SDE (in collaboration with the State Education Resource Center) to develop by January 1, 2023 a model curriculum for Grades kindergarten through eight that may be used by local and regional boards of education.

NATIVE AMERICAN STUDIES AND CURRICULUM: The Act requires the teaching of Native American studies as part of the social studies curriculum starting July 1, 2023. It is required that the curriculum include, but not be limited to, a focus on the Northeastern Woodland Native American Tribes of Connecticut.

MINORITY TEACHER RECRUITMENT: The Act requires the SDE to establish a minority candidate certification, retention or residency year program. It also requires alliance school districts to partner with the operator of such residency program for purposes of enrolling minority candidates and placing them in such districts as part of the program; after the successful completion of the program by the candidate, the district may hire such a candidate. Ten percent of any increases in alliance school district funding would be allotted to such minority recruitment and residency programs.

IMPACT: Alliance districts will need to partner with at least one operator of a residency-year program to place minority candidates in their districts as part of the program.

PROMOTING THE TEACHING PROFESSION: The Act requires the SDE to develop a plan to assist school districts in promoting the teaching profession as a career option to students in high school and to provide school districts with information that promotes the teaching profession.

IMPLICIT BIAS TRAINING: The Act requires the SDE to develop and require school district personnel responsible for hiring educators to complete a video training module relating to implicit bias and anti-bias in the hiring process and requires teachers, administrators and pupil personnel holding teaching certificates to complete the same video training modules.

IMPACT: Districts will need to ensure and document that the proper employees complete the video training.

STUDY OF CONTENT AREA MASTERY: The Act requires the SDE to conduct a study of a multiple measures approach to demonstrating content-area mastery and to issue a report by January 1, 2023.

LATINO AND BLACK STUDIES: Commencing July 1, 2022, the Act requires local and regional board of educations to offer a black and Latino studies course to be developed by the State Education and Resource Center [SERC], once the course is approved by the SBE. It also requires SERC to provide technical assistance to school districts for professional development and in-service training related to the teaching of black and Latino studies courses.

REMOTE LEARNING COMMISSION: The Act creates the Remote Learning Commission to analyze and provide recommendations concerning the provision of remote learning to public school students enrolled in grades kindergarten through 12. The Commission is tasked with issuing a report of its findings by July 1, 2022. One of the main things the Commission is tasked with investigating is the feasibility of creating a state-wide remote learning school for students in grades kindergarten through twelve that would be maintained by and under the control of the SBE.

STATE-WIDE REMOTE LEARNING SCHOOL: The Act provides further direction regarding the requirements for any state-wide remote learning school that may be established. It requires the SDE to develop a plan for the creation and implementation of a state-wide remote learning school for grades kindergarten through twelve. The deadline for the SDE to submit the plan and any draft requests for proposal to carry out the plan is July 1, 2023.

AUDIT OF PANDEMIC-ERA REMOTE LEARNING: The Act requires the State Department of Education to conduct a comprehensive audit of the virtual learning programs provided by school districts during the COVID-19 pandemic and to develop guidelines for training educators in the provision of virtual learning through in-service training and professional development programs.

LITERACY AND READING INTERVENTION: The Act requires (commencing July 1, 2023) local and regional school districts to implement a reading curriculum model or program for grades pre-kindergarten through three that has been approved by the Center for Literacy Research and Reading Success. The Center for Literacy Research and Reading Success, which is to be established by the SDE, shall approve at least five reading curriculum models or programs to be implemented by districts; such models or programs shall be: (1) evidence-based and scientifically-based, and (2) focused on competency in the following areas of reading: oral reading, phonetic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, rapid automatic name or letter name fluency and reading comprehension. Districts are required to notify the State of the model or program that they have selected and allows for waivers from the State. The section also allows the Commissioner to grant a board of education an extension of time to implement this section if the Commissioner determines that the board has insufficient resources or funding to implement any of the approved reading programs.

The Act further requires the Center for Literacy and Research and Reading Success to compile, for the start of the 2023-2024 school year, a list of reading assessments for school boards to use to identify students in kindergarten through grade three who are below proficiency in reading and that provided an opportunity for formative assessment at least three times per year, in the fall, winter and spring. It also requires the Center, on or before July 1, 2022, to develop an intensive reading intervention strategy that will be available to alliance districts that includes the availability of external literacy coaches with experience and expertise in the science of reading instruction.

DISABILITY DISCRIMINATION IN EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMS: The Act adds disability to the list of protected classes under Connecticut General Statutes 10-15c; this statute generally prohibits discrimination against students in the public schools.

IMPACT: This provision may require an update to board non-discrimination policies. In addition, this provision may also lead to an uptick of cases being filed with the Commission on Human Rights and Opportunities.

PER PUPIL VO-AG GRANT: The Act increases the state per-pupil grant for Vocational Agriculture schools by $1,000.

TRS EXEMPTION FOR REEMPLOYED TEACHERS: The Act extends, until June 30, 2024, an exemption that allows retired teachers receiving a Teacher Retirement System [TRS] pension to return to teaching without salary limits if they 1) are receiving retirement benefits from the system based on thirty-four or more years of credited service, 2) are reemployed as a teacher in a district designated as an alliance district, and 3) were serving as a teacher in that district on July 1, 2015.

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Developments from the 2021 Session of the Connecticut General Assembly Affecting Schools - JD Supra

Illegal immigration is caused by both push factors from the home country and pull factors from the new countrythe United States. In its brief time in office, the Biden Administrations messaging on immigration, and its related policy decisions, have been strong pull factors for the historic number of people from Central and South America (considered aliens under U.S. law) that have sought to enter the United States illegally. Rather than stopping that messaging or changing the policies to prevent illegal entry and securing the southern border, the Administrationwith Vice President Kamala Harris as the appointed czaris focusing solely on push factors, or what the Administration is calling the root causes of the illegal migration. However, in addition to ignoring their own open-border policies, which is the strongest pull factor of all, the Administration has misidentified some of the root causes of current illegal immigration from the Northern Triangle countries of El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras.

Worse, the Administrations solution is to throw more foreign aid money at the primary source countries in Central America with little accountability demanded of the recipients. This plan merely expands and doubles down on an unsuccessful, decades-long approach that has spanned multiple U.S. Administrations. In addition, the Administrations so-called solutions will exacerbate current pull factors and create new ones, thereby undermining its own efforts to address root causes. Nevertheless, Vice-President Harris doubled down on the Administrations root causes approach in a July 29, 2021, White House press release.REF

Rather than putting the onus on the recipient governments suddenly to solve the centuries-old problem of corruption in the region, U.S. policy should be to focus on promoting private investment and curtailing external actors, such as transnational criminal organizations (TCOs), that are aggravating corruption and destabilizing effective governance. By focusing on solving the problems of corruption (in the short term), the Biden plan sets up its foreign-aid program for failure, which it will then use to justify its continuing encouragement of illegal migration.

Vice President Harris has launched a high-profile campaign to spur economic development that the Administration claims will address and solve the root causes of poverty in the Northern Triangle countries of Central AmericaEl Salvador, Guatemala, and Hondurasso that would-be migrants to the United States from those countries can find jobs in their home countries.

The Administration correctly identifies some of the regional problems as root causes (corruption, violence, and poverty). Others cited by the Administration are not, in fact, root causes (climate change and gender issues, among others). More unsettling is the approach that the Administration says it will take to solve them. The solutions it proposes are misguided, would waste U.S. taxpayers money, and will not stem the flow of illegal immigrants.

The Biden presidential campaign announced it would divert funds away from the Department of Homeland Securitys budget for immigration detention, and toward foreign aid to improve conditions in the Northern Triangle region and help people to feel safe in their home countries.REF The Biden Administration has severely restricted immigration detention specifically, and enforcement generally.REF In addition to violating immigration law, which requires immigration detention in certain cases, releasing aliens from immigration detention into Americas interior is a known pull factor for illegal immigration. For each pull factor the Biden Administration keeps or puts in place, it undermines its stated goal of addressing root causes.

The Administration has pledged to spend additional fresh, deficit-financed billions on new foreign aid programs, in addition to what the U.S. government has already funded for the region. According to the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the Biden Administrations proposed fiscal year (FY) 2022 budget includes $861 million for the region as a first step toward a four-year $4 billion commitment to foster economic growth, combat corruption, improve security, help countries adapt to the effects of climate change, promote human rights, and strengthen government accountability.REF

In fact, according to research by Heritage Foundation analysts, since 2015, USAID has expended more than $1 billionREF in Northern Triangle countries on development assistance projects alonenot including additional spending on health, humanitarian aid, and security assistance. Therefore, according to the Administrations FY 2022 budget, it plans a massive increase in spending in the region. The problem is that the new spending will not work.

In addition to the problems noted previously of reliance on programming that has been proven not to produce the promised results, there is also the stark practical concern that these countries simply do not have the capacity (i.e. infrastructure, qualified workforce, availability of other vital resources) to absorb a doubling of foreign aid through-put. Through-put is the term-of-art among development contractors in reference to the spending of appropriated U.S. development assistance funds. Nevertheless, many of those for-profit, USAID contractors are happy to participate with the Biden Administrations efforts because they are sympathetic to the Administrations goals and are directly benefitting from the increased development spending.

The reality is that American foreign aid programs in Central America date back six decades, and the problems they were intended to solve persist today. Adding climate change and gender issues to the list of root causes may please the Administrations domestic supporters, but it will do nothing to improve the situation on the ground. Spending more money will not prevent hurricanes. Furthermore, projects that link foreign aid benefits to gender-based projects can perpetuate the current single-parent household model in Central America (since many of the regions working-age males are already in the U.S.). This would undermine the Administrations purported objective to keep migrants in their respective home countries because it would incentivize more males to emigrate while their families left behind would receive benefits funded partially by U.S. taxpayers.

Promises by American Presidents and politicians to address root causes of poverty in Latin America started in 1961 with President John F. Kennedy, in conjunction with the establishment of USAID. As President Kennedy declared in his March 13 speech launching the hemispheric Alliance for Progress:

Kennedys main goal was to push back against inroads being made by Cuban and Soviet-sponsored guerilla groups and political movements to destabilize Northern Triangle governments and create national security headaches for the United States.

The Alliance for Progress also fit within Kennedys philosophy that big government spending programs could solve the problems. That policy approach, a legacy of the New Deal, was perhaps crystalized best when President Lyndon B. Johnson launched the Great Society programs in 1964:

By the time of the Reagan Administration, the poverty and the communist threat in the region remained unsolved. In 1983, President Ronald Reagan called for a new initiative:

It is unfortunate that the main conclusion of the Kissinger Commission on Central America (appointed by Reagan to address the problem) was to urge more spending on economic and humanitarian foreign aid in the region. Apart from a few successes here and there, those programs largely failed to address the problems of poverty in the region.

Since then, subsequent pledges by American Presidents and politicians (such as then-Vice President Bidens Alliance for Prosperity in the Northern Triangle in 2015, a time when there was also lax enforcement against illegal immigrationREF) have also come up short.

Throwing U.S. foreign aid money at the problems in Central America for several generations has failed for one simple reason: Government can make only modest contributions to solving the multifaceted root causes of poverty. To address those issues effectively would first require improving social capital in the region.REF That would require local initiatives to launch Northern Triangle countries onto a new path that would turn those societies away from their destructive cultural norms, change local attitudes that do not value education, and end the acceptance of massive corruption in the region. After decades of trying, it is clear that government programs alone cannot begin to solve these long-standing problems.

Evidence of the failure of the current, traditional development assistance approach was reported recently by The New York Times.REF One project highlighted in the article was the production of a smartphone app by a USAID contractor meant to help subsistence coffee bean growers to get real-time prices for raw coffee beans and to obtain technical advice about agricultural problems.

Theyve never helped me, Pedro Aguilar said after the training a few weeks ago, referring to American aid programs intended to spur the economy and prevent migration. Where does all the money go? Wheres the aid? Who knows?

The article goes on to report that as much as half of the American tax dollars funding the foreign aid programs is absorbed by the big U.S. development assistance contractors in the form of overheadincluding generous salaries for executivesand company profits. When the Times reporters sought confirmation of that figure, USAID officials did not deny it.

Congress should squash attempts by the development assistance industry (comprised of non-profit and for-profit, foreign-aid contracting companies located around Washingtons Beltway) to repackage and relaunch the failed development assistance programs of the past. Lobbying efforts by these contractors are focused on manipulating the policies of the federal agencies (such as USAID) and congressional staffers who are in charge of development assistance programs. The continual lobbying and influencing efforts by U.S. development assistance contractors reflect a classic form of agency capture, since many of them employ former U.S. government officials. It is also a form of rent-seeking in that it creates profit opportunities for the companies for inefficient projects that would not likely be undertaken absent their unceasing lobbying efforts.

A major root cause of poverty in Central America, as it is in the United States, is the weakness of the traditional institution of marriage. Additionally, poverty rates can be exacerbated by weaknesses in the social institutions that should be in place to support and strengthen married couples and their children.

Family breakdown is a major problem in the United States, too. It began in the 1960s, when Great Society programs weakened marriage by expanding the liberal welfare state, which incentivized women to raise their children alonedependent on the state for support. Fathers were canceled out of the nuclear family in far too many homes.

As former Heritage Foundation visiting fellow Christopher Rufo has observed, This breakdown of the American family has dire implications for American society and the U.S. economy.REF As Rufo explained, the new type of poverty that resulted is not merely economic. It is now a social, familial and psychological problem that reaches the very foundations of our social order.

The devastating consequences of, and pathologies emanating from, family breakdown are even direr in Central America. A 2020 study by Gallup found that in Latin America 30 percent of mothers with children under the age of 15 in the household are unmarried.REF The study also found that Latin America is the region with the highest percentage of children born out of wedlock in the world, as well as the highest levels of cohabitation.

The undermining of marriage and stable, two-parent households is probably the single-most significant root cause of poverty, as Heritage analysts have demonstrated repeatedly.REF Countless villages in El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras have witnessed the departure for the U.S. of many young and able-bodied men in their late teens, 20s, and 30s. This form of (mostly illegal) migration has further contributed to the breakups of families as women and children are left behind and many of those men go on to marry in the U.S.

The absence of fathers in the home has also fueled the rise of the regions vicious gangs.

As noted in a report by Edward A. Lynch, the poisonous and corrosive effect of corruption on freedom and democracy in the regionREF has deep roots that go back to the Spanish Colonial era. Although the Spanish conquistadors brought with them Western education and values, their vice-royalty governance system imposed centralized economic and political control. Those systems have largely remained in place. Governments in the region were (and still are) highly centralized and almost completely in control of the most lucrative economic enterprises. Management by the state (instead of by the private sector) of the majority of assets and resources in the country inevitably creates many opportunities for corruption.

Other independent forces in Central American societies that could have blunted and mitigated the negative consequences of government controllocal private voluntary institutions, the military and, especially, the Roman Catholic Churchtoo often became accomplices with repressive and corrupt governmental regimes.REF

The Heritage Foundations Index of Economic Freedom was created to offer policy alternatives to government-funded foreign aid. In the immediate aftermath of the catastrophic guerilla warfare in the Northern Triangle region in the mid-1990s, El Salvador had adopted many of the so-called Washington Consensus liberalization policies and became one of Latin Americas regional leaders in economic freedom.

After decades of failures by national and local governments and societal institutions to tackle the real root causes, combined with the growing and corrosive power of narcotraffickers in the region, El Salvador is not a leader in economic freedom anymore.

The Trump Administration made a laudable effort to promote private-sector growth and job creation through the America Crece (Growth in the Americas) initiative.REF Heavy disincentives to U.S. private foreign direct investment in the region (such as poor security, massive corruption, weak judiciary systems, violent crime, gangs, narcotrafficking, lack of education, and weak infrastructure), though, meant that the program was effectively dead on arrival.

Even if would-be American investors were to overlook these major drawbacks, they would face insufficient available labor in the Northern Triangle countries because so many working-age citizens (mainly men) have already emigrated to the U.S. The Biden administrations deliberate opening of the Southern border to massive illegal immigration is only making that problem worse, and it is undermining the Administrations claimed efforts to address root causes on the ground.

Another good idea to stimulate growth in Central America would be to lift U.S. barriers to sugar imports from the region. However, many efforts to remove protection of the U.S. sugar industry over the past few decades have failed. That is in part due to the heavy lobbying and political influence of powerful families in Florida and sugar beet growers in Colorado and other states.

The continuation, and now expansion, by the team headed by Vice President Harris of antiquated, one-size-fits-all foreign aid solutions for the region today, in light of their universally recognized past failures, must be regarded as exceptionally cynical, even by the standards of Washington, DC.

On February 2, 2021, President Joe Biden stated in an executive order:

The reality right now is that the BidenHarris plan is to build public sympathy for the admittedly tragic circumstances in Central America to justify its de facto policy of opening the southern border.

On May 4, Vice President Harris stated that a root cause of poverty in the Northern Triangle is the lack of climate adaptation and climate resilience.REF Thus, to the already long list of intractable root causes and elusive solutions, the Administration has added climate change.REF It is not credible that a long-term problem, such as global warming, could explain why the numbers of migrants apprehended at the southern border has surged by more than 1,000 percent per month since the new Administration took office in January compared to the same months in 2020. The migrants themselves admit that they come to the U.S. for economic reasons.REF They do not cite climate change. Nevertheless, the Administration seeks to expend U.S. tax dollars to promote transitions to clean energy as well as climate change adaptation and resilience in Central America.

Other proposals by the Administration to address root causessuch as gender-related programsare designed to please its powerful domestic constituents and to propagandize and coerce socially conservative Central Americans into accepting a radical, divisive, and unwelcome social-engineering agenda. This gender focus appears in the design of multiple foreign aid projects.

First, the Biden presidential campaign explained that it would bolster microfinance and financial-inclusive banking in Central America with a priority on programs that empower women.REF The campaign noted that remittances from family members sending money home constitutes a larger share of gross domestic product (GDP) in some Northern Triangle countries than foreign direct investment, accounting for more than 10 percent of GDP in Guatemala and approaching 20 percent in El Salvador and Honduras.REF Candidate Biden promised to create mechanisms to help remittance recipients, especially women, to invest in and start small businesses.REF While private investment focused on such financing is a practical solution, it must be noted that this assumes a continued model of working men remaining in the U.S. and sending remittances home, in other words, illegal immigration. Perpetuating this model undermines any attempts to address root causes.

On his campaign website, Joe Biden also identified domestic abuse as a major problem in the Northern Triangle countries and a driver of migration, particularly for women and children.REF Consistent with his campaign promise, the Administration has already returned to a Department of Justice administrative court finding that a domestic abuse victim is eligible for asylum.REF This finding shoehorns domestic violence victims into the members of a particular social group ground of persecution to reach the Administrations desired conclusion that they be granted asylum and remain in the United States. This creates another pull factor of illegal immigration and the overbroad use of particular social group encourages migrants to file fraudulent asylum applications, undermining immigration integrity.

On his first day in office, President Biden sent a legislative proposal to Congress to reform immigration, including economic development in Central America.REF Introduced as the U.S. Citizenship Act of 2021,REF the bill seeks to promote social justice reforms, including environmental activism, and expand roles for multilateral and ideologically progressive community organizations in the Northern Triangle, just as the Administration is doing in the United States.REF

Multilateral organizations have proven to exceed their authorities in the past. Also, unelected and unmonitored community organizations would be designated to conduct oversight over all branches of the government and security services. As far as solving poverty, these programs are a waste of American taxpayer money. A progressive agenda focused on climate change and gender programs will do little-to-nothing to address the fundamental problems in the regionsuch as endemic corruption.

A far more practical and achievable way the Administration could contribute to reducing crime and corruption in the region would be to work with the Duque government in Colombia on a Plan Colombia 2.0 program to reduce, drastically, the quantities of illegal narcotics being transited through the region by smugglers on the way to sell the drugs in the U.S. When the Northern Triangle countries are secure from drug and gang violence, private investors will much more easily invest there, which will sow the seeds for economic security. Instead, the Administration (by its silence) so far seems to have sided with radical leftists and narcotraffickers backed by Cuba and Venezuela who are seeking to overthrow market democracy in Colombia.

The Administration has even floated the idea of making cash payments to residents of the Northern Triangle. This action would likely have the opposite effect. There is no evidence that such payments would disincentivize illegal migration to the U.S., and the cash could well be used to pay human smugglers (known as coyotes) to make the dangerous trip north.

Communist Chinas aggressive efforts through its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), which finances infrastructure projects in the region, are continuing, especially in El Salvador. These non-transparent BRI projects win the approval of the regional governments often through corrupt back-room deals that increase corruption and undermine government integrity. Also, the experience with BRI projects around the world to date indicates that the investments accrue fewer benefits for the local economy and fewer jobs created for local workers than might have been anticipated.

This geopolitical strategy by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) also adversely affects the U.S. due to Chinas expanded presence in the region. Accordingly, it is important that the U.S. work closely with the leaders of El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras to achieve needed and agreed-to goals specific to each of the respective countries. Referencing his meetings with Vice President Harris about the immigration crisis, Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei stated that they were in agreement on the what of the crisis, but not on the how to address it.REF Giammattei repeatedly distinguished his country from neighboring El Salvador and Honduras, stating that the primary reason his citizens leave Guatemala is lack of economic opportunity, whereas violence fueled by the illegal drug trade is the leading push factor for his neighbor countries.REF

Private companies from the U.S. and elsewhere may be reluctant to invest in the Northern Triangle due to the corruption and thriving TCO operations. However, throwing $4 billion in foreign aid will neither end the corruption and TCOs, nor will it offset the pernicious effect of the CCPs BRI. Rather, it is imperative that the Administration work with ally governments in the region to dismantle the TCOs through counter-operations to permanently disrupt their business. Also, the Administration needs to use strong incentives and consequences to prevent foreign aid from being wasted by corruption. If the U.S. fails to cooperate with the three Central American countries to solve their specific and respective issues, the U.S. will push the countries further into the arms of China.

To truly address root causes of migration from the Northern Triangle countries, the Administration should:

Congress should:

The Administrations continued bad messaging and bad immigration policies further drain the Northern Triangle countries of able-bodied adults needed to work in their home countries to re-build them. Rather than fixing the current self-created border crisis with sound policies that prevent further illegal immigration, the Administration seeks to divert attention by funding unproductive programs in the source countries in an attempt to address the root causes. However, the Administration has misidentified several of the root causes, will waste American tax dollars, and will perpetuate current pull factors of illegal immigration, thereby undermining its own claimed efforts to address the root causes.

Notwithstanding the rising power of China in the region, the United States is still by far the pre-eminent power in Northern Triangle countries. The Administration should not be afraid to exercise the immense influence of the U.S. government and the U.S. military to leverage the policy changes in the region needed to truly address and provide sustainable solutions to reduce crime, violence, and poverty.

James M. Roberts is Research Fellow for Economic Freedom and Growth in the Center for International Trade and Economics, of the Kathryn and Shelby Cullom Davis Institute of National Security and Foreign Policy. Lora Ries is Director of the Center for Technology Policy, of the Davis Institute, at The Heritage Foundation. Gavin Zhao of the Heritage Young Leaders Program assisted in the research for this report.

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The Best U.S. Response to the Root Causes of Poverty in Central America - Heritage.org

The free market economist Friedrich Hayek once described the difference between himself and arch-rival John Maynard Keynes as similar to that between the fox and the hedgehog in the Ancient Greek aphorism. The fox who knows many things crafts clever theories and policies to artificially kickstart an economy. Meanwhile, the hedgehog who knows one big thing clings modestly to the wisdom that state intervention eventually leads to trouble. Its intriguing that Hayek saw one of the most significant intellectual rifts in modern economics in these almost quaint terms. Perhaps its because he sensed that the split between the men was essentially non-ideological. Both Hayek and Keynes were liberals who believed in freedom. Where their schools of thought differed was on their levels of patience, and arrogance.

Now, this clash between impatient liberalism and its more cautious counterpart has returned with a vengeance, in the rift between Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak over public spending. Both never liked lockdown. Both have at least paid lip service to the importance of economic freedom and individual responsibility. But our fox-like Prime Minister now seems to believe that he can abandon the Tory Party's one big thing fiscal prudence and commitment to free market economics. That he can splurge billions on infrastructure and green projects in a get-rich-quick scheme to revive growth and cement his hold over the Red Wall.

Warnings from his Thatcherite Chancellor that piling on debt at a time when the country may be one interest rate rise away from carnage appear to have fallen on deaf ears.

Johnsons attitude is, on one level, understandable. When fear of the virus is still rife and the costs of lockdown have barely been counted, it would take exceptional modesty and courage for a leader to step back and give the market space to painfully adjust to the new world of endemic Covid, while the Government re-exerts control over public spending.

Presumably, the PM thinks that his short-cut strategy is the easy way out. Unfortunately for the Conservative Party, the country, and Johnson himself, it is anything but. The PM is gambling everything on the idea that the big state jamboree doesnt need to end with Covid, but can continue seemingly indefinitely.

Is he so sure that its a bet he can win? The scale of the political risk that Johnson is taking is significant. In a pre-Covid world, his flirtation with centre-Left nostrums may have just about passed as a ruthless election strategy. His attachment to them as our indebted economy struggles to reawaken from its lockdown coma tips into delusional dogmatism. For one thing, it assumes that fiscal prudence is unpopular. Yet for a not inconsiderable proportion of voters including wealthy suburban Remainers and Brexit-supporting Thatcherites the Tory reputation for being sound guardians of the public finances is one of the last remaining reasons why they might still support the party.

It is not even clear that continuing the splurge, or a shift further Left on economics, will be popular among the Conservatives new voters. The idea that interventionism is always populist is risible. Keynesian bank bailouts during the financial crisis didnt exactly go down well with the public. Spending big on green and infrastructure projects today may well create short-term jobs and perhaps even drive longer-term renewal in a couple of lucky left-behind towns. But for the larger number of Red Wall voters who will not directly benefit, the combination of green profligacy on a government level and eco-austerity for consumers is already proving noxious.

Nor should the Prime Minister be so no naive as to think that he can get frugal, cynical Workington Man excited about the transport vanity projects coming their way. In working class towns that have seen their share of failed investment projects, an attitude often mistaken for Leftishness prevails that if cash one doesnt have is to be sprayed around, it should at least go on worthy causes like youth clubs and food banks.

Then there are the economic risks. History not least the doomed socialist experiments of the 1970s cautions against the idea that governments can spend their way out of trouble. The Covid crisis, however historically unprecedented, is surely no different.

In any case, to believe that there is a state-driven answer to a state-driven crisis is borderline insanity. To believe that there can be a tidy economic solution to a downturn of complicated non-economic origins is full-blown derangement. There is a view among Keynesians that you can restore an economy to full health by creating a positive aura around it, encouraging consumers to spend and businesses to expand. That is woefully inadequate in the context of a pandemic. It is fear of the virus and future variants which is keeping punters away from restaurants. It is a fantastic leap to think the government can artificially generate enough buzz to overpower middle-class revulsion towards returning to the office. Or that stimulating activity in trendy sectors can offset the pingdemic and Long Covid fears restraining animal spirits.

And this is all assuming the UK avoids Sunaks nightmare scenario of interest rates rising precipitously, pushing the country into a torturous cycle of austerity as the public debt pile becomes unsustainable. Or that the economy can avoid the multiple perils of net zero. Take the possibility of dangerous green bubbles inflated by massive eco-fiscal stimulus. Or the breath-taking risk the West is taking by pursuing decarbonisation in an international downturn unable to rely, as originally envisaged, on buoyant global growth driven ironically by Asian use of coal.

No doubt Boris Johnson knows all this, but he has wagered that any final unravelling may be a good few years away. That when the economy he has only pretended to free from the Covid doldrums finally collapses, and his disgraced party is cast into the wilderness, he will be long gone. Perhaps, having played the role of liberating Churchillian hero for a while, he intends to retire to write his Covid war memoirs. The Prime Minister shouldnt be so sure, however, that the final reckoning wont come sooner rather than later.

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Boris Johnson's big spending gamble could cast the Tories into political oblivion - Telegraph.co.uk