Irony of Connecticut: The Difference Between New Haven & Hartford

When people think of Connecticut Yale University often comes to mind along with some of the most influential people of our time who call this state home. In fact CT, is 4th in the nation for having the most college grads in its population. However, the inner-city tells a very different story. In 2007, Hartford, CT reported that its high schools graduated only 29 percent of the students who had entered the public schools in the ninth grade. Furthermore, Hartford ranks 10th nationwide in household poverty.



A recent study by Northeastern University showed that Connecticut high school dropouts were 17 times more likely than college graduates to need food stamps. More than a quarter of dropouts under 64 receive rental subsidies. CT's achievement gap remains the largest in the nation. In National Assessment of Educational Progress tests, the gap between Latino and white students in eighth-grade math was the worst in the nation, and black students lagged 4.4 grade levels behind white students. What does this tell us? There's an obvious disconnect between what's going on in New Haven and Hartford. We must do more to empower our youth with education and instill in them that without their hard work & determination life will be a lot tougher for them than it has to be.

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