Dear Catholic School Supporters:
On March 8th there is public hearing in the Education Committee for a bill that calls for a study of Education Savings Accounts (ESAs) and their potential effect in Connecticut. ESAs grant parents access to all or a portion of the money allocated toward their child’s government school education, to use on educational alternatives such as homeschool textbooks, tutoring, learning therapies, or private school tuition. As you know, Connecticut currently has no private/nonpublic educational choice programs.
We are arguing that all Catholic School families and prospective families should have these accounts.
Therefore, we need written and vocal support from all of our Catholic school friends: parents, volunteers, teachers, administrators, staff, school board members, and pastors.
We must join together and convince our elected state officials, especially those on the Education Committee, to vote in favor of this bill.
Please both e-mail and call your state legislators and express your support for House Bill No. 5340, An Act Concerning a Study of Education Savings Accounts, a necessary first step towards ESAs. The following link helps you find your legislators’ contact information: https://www.cga.ct.gov/webapps/cgafyl.asp
Your communications should:
1) Introduce yourself, and identify where you live.
2) Explain the impact Catholic Schools have made for your family and how you and others would benefit by making tuition more affordable.
3) Respectfully ask your legislator to support your family, your school, and House Bill 5340.
4) If possible, CC alamonica@ctcatholic.org on your e-mails to your legislators so that she can follow up with them.
“Although ESAs are hardly a panacea for all of Connecticut’s problems, they do promise both to improve equity and save millions of dollars—and most importantly, offer the opportunity for children across our state to achieve their full potential,” authors Lewis M. Andrews and Martin F. Lueken write in “Education Savings Accounts: Empowering Kids and Saving Money in Connecticut,” released in September 2017.
