New Light high school is part of the New Haven public school system and was established to educate at-risk youth who have been unsuccessful in the regular public school system.
Porter said that individuals and communities are going to have to come together to support each other, particularly in light of the coming budget deficits. “The truth of the matter is we’re looking at over a $1 billion deficit right now,” she told the students. “So we have to start thinking outside of the box. What can we do for ourselves and our kids and our communities that will make us better?”
The issue of college also came up, but not in the usual way. During the meeting with Fasano, Colin Dawkins, a construction contractor and chairman of the Minority Construction Council, made the point that “college is not for everyone.”
Dawkins was invited to join the students due to his previous work in teaching high-schoolers carpentry and to speak on their behalf for more trade-based programs for young people.
Dawkins hopes to see more inner-city youth learning construction trades so they can get good-paying jobs without having to pay for college. He advocated for an apprenticeship program for non-union contractors so they could take kids fresh out of high school and teach them.
“If we have our own apprenticeship program in Connecticut for our black and Hispanic kids, then we can classify them as an apprentice. It would be easy for me to take him onto the job and pay him $20 an hour so he could learn.”
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