Opinion: Parents should not have to choose between life’s basic needs or quality education

Gwen Samuel is a parent of two children in Connecticut Public Schools and the Founder and President of the Connecticut Parents Union. She also works with a Parent and Youth Group in New Haven. She can be reached on Twitter @RealTalkGwenS.

This weekend, I watched on television as people across the country, mostly of color, gathered at the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, to remember the civil rights march that occurred there 50 years ago. I reflected on what the march represented for African American parents like me.

While we’ve made progress as a nation, we still have so much farther to go. For me, it represented our ongoing efforts to ensure that people of color and the poor have equitable access to quality opportunities via voting, education, employment, fair housing, and health care.

Here in Connecticut, we’ve made some progress in education, starting in 2010, with the Black and Latino Caucus members leading the efforts and Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s and our General Assembly’s efforts in 2012 to ensure that all Connecticut’s children and their parents had access to the educational opportunities that would give them their best chance at success in academics and in life.

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