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Dedication to Children and Educators

I am a local public school teacher who lives in Branford with two young children in the public school system. Over the past few years I have come to value and appreciate Connecticut State District 12 Senator Christine Cohen’s dedication to Connecticut’s children and educators.

Among her many accomplishments on behalf of education, Sen. Cohen has worked to increase funding to our local public schools, voted to create the Office of Dyslexia and Reading Disabilities, championed debt free-community college, and helped develop an automatic college admissions program for high school students who earn a certain grade point average.

However, I am most grateful for her phenomenal support with youth mental health. Coming out of this terrible pandemic, many of our students are now dealing with mental health issues, and we as educators are doing our best to adapt to their needs.

We could not do it on our own.

Sen. Cohen has ensured that as educators we have many more tools at our disposal and better training to help this young generation that has gone through so much.

For example, Sen. Cohen voted to fund the hiring of counselors, psychologists, nurses, and social workers in schools, expanded services at school-based health centers to include mental and behavioral health services, increased wages for child care workers, improved access to early childhood education for families, and made mobile crisis centers available 24 hours per day, seven days per week.

As a parent and local educator I will forever be grateful to Sen. Cohen for what she has done for Connecticut educators, parents, and students.

I would encourage everyone to reelect Sen. Cohen this coming Tuesday, Nov. 8.

Brett Joly

Branford