While the Bridgeport Board of Education is busy with possible impending lawsuits and political intrigue, a group of high school seniors are wondering: What about college readiness?

What a great question! What about college readiness? Shouldn’t this be a priority for the board?

The Connecticut Post recently published a letter to the editor sent by the Youth Organizing Leadership Academy (YOLA), made up of mostly high school seniors, who shared their concerns over Public Act 12-14.

Passed in 2012, PA 12-40 prohibits Connecticut’s state universities and community colleges from charging students for no-credit remedial classes.

Sounds great in theory, but when school board leaders fail to implement college readiness plans, students suffer.

Here is an excerpt from their letter:

“…we all know that Bridgeport Public Schools are failing to live up to its mission. What if a student attended a school system that did not prepare them to be successful in college? Then P.A. 12-40 will likely cause them problems. That’s because students who need remedial classes will have to find their own way to catch up with all their classmates. Due to the law, colleges are probably going to cut back their help for students who need more support. We are concerned that we will get to college and not be able to get the help that we will need.

We have attended Board of Education meetings and subcommittee meetings. Yet we have not heard of any plans brought up in regards to P.A. 12-40.

According to the third section of the law, the Bridgeport Public Schools have to “(1) use available evaluation methods for early assessment of the potential for college readiness of each student enrolled in the eighth and tenth grades in a public school, and (2) share the results of such assessment with such student, such student’s parents or legal guardian and the public school in which such student is enrolled.” In other words, we need to know if we are college ready and our school district has to tell us.

Assessing students and creating a plan to get high school students at grade level takes more than a summer to change. The Bridgeport Public Schools have had two years since the law was passed, yet we don’t know of any action that was started or has been taken about this….”

To read the full letter: [Connecticut Post, 5/27/2014]

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