On Thursday, May 29, CT Mirror continued its interview series, In The Room, hosted by John Dankosky, with fifth district Congresswoman Jahana Hayes.

In The Room is a monthly, in-person interview series where CT Mirror host Dankosky interviews top elected politicians throughout the state. Each politician has their own “bread and butter,” so to speak, to talk about, and one of Hayes’ biggest concerns in D.C. is literally bread and butter. Dankosky and Hayes discussed child nutrition programs and how they relate directly to education, as well as the presidential administration at large.

Dankosky started the interview by asking Hayes how her day was going so far. Hayes responded by saying that she spends most of her time in Washington, D.C., and is only home for one week a month. Hayes said she had participated in three parades, as Memorial Day weekend just passed at the time of this interview, and was hosting several town halls throughout the district, which encompasses 41 towns and cities.

Dankosky asked if, after “doing this for a while,” what ties the 41 towns together.

“I like to describe it as a microcosm of the country,” Hayes responded. “I actually have more exclusive boarding schools than any other member of Congress in this district, but also four of the ten commissioners’ network failing schools. So the equity [gaps] are so great…When I first decided to run, there were people who said, ‘you will never be able to coalesce support around the entire district.’”

Hayes said that “every community has a school, and I know how to talk to teachers, so I’ll start there.” She said that “people want the same things.” Constituents want their children to be safe in school and retire with dignity.

Dankosky pointed out that public school education does not look the same across the communities in the district, and Hayes agreed. She said that she does not change the conversation based on the community she is in; she uses the opportunity to explain to her colleagues and other constituents what life is like in other towns.

Dankosky said that it was “refreshing” to hear a politician say that she was learning on the job as a lot of officials get to D.C. or Hartford and think they know everything.

Hayes shared that she felt imposter syndrome when she won her seat in Congress. She shared that there is no shortage of lawyers and consultants in Congress, but not very many teachers. Naturally, she asked to be put on the Education and Labor committee.

“Someone said, ‘Well, you need a backup committee in case you don’t get that committee.’ I was like, ‘That’s ridiculous. Why wouldn’t I get that?’ Like it never occurred to me…I was like, ‘No I’m the teacher of the year,’” Hayes shared.

She noted that there were few educators on the committee, adding that it was like “pulling back the curtain on the Wizard of Oz.”

Her other committee is the Committee of Agriculture. She shared, again, how other Congress members were confused because Hayes does not necessarily represent a farming community.

She said, “We have small farms, but everybody eats…it felt so basic to me. This is the committee that deals with food and nutrition. Hungry kids don’t learn, somebody here has to be talking about feeding people…Everybody else was thinking about it in a very calculated way.”

Dankosky noted the lack of teachers in Congress and asked Hayes what it is like trying to explain to others “what it takes to sit in a classroom and like do stuff.”

Hayes shared a story from the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. She said that everyone was getting up to leave but she said, “Wait a minute, where are we going? If schools close, how are we going to feed these kids? No one had really thought about that.”

She said that a senior legislator said that the school districts have already received their budgets. Hayes responded that federal law states that school meals cannot be taken out of a congregate setting. Hayes added that she had hung around enough lunch ladies to know the law, shooing them away so she could give leftover sandwiches to the basketball team at her school in Waterbury.

Hayes said that Congress had to change the law to allow students to get meals at home, and for parents to still receive SNAP benefits because students were no longer in school.

Dankosky asked Hayes later in the interview about a comment she made in which she expressed regret for voting for the Laken Riley Act, an act that requires the US Department of Homeland Security to detain immigrants who admit, or have been charged with, theft, assaulting a police officer, or a violent crime that results in death or grave bodily harm.

Hayes said that someone said to her “You should have never have said that as a woman. It makes you appear weak.” Dankosky was shocked.

“If you’re in this job, and you don’t see, hear, do things, that make you evolve or change your perspective, and as you get additional information, if you can’t continue to reassess and revaluate, then you don’t need this job,” Hayes said. “If you are stuck in a place where, even as you collect new information, you refuse to be moved, then this isn’t the work for you.”

Hayes and Dankosky continued to talk more about collaboration with republicans and Hayes’ efforts to be bipartisan. She shared that in her efforts to be bi-partisan, there are some “hard lines.” She said she would not work with people if they do not want to feed kids, adding that they “are not the same.” She said that she would “[go] down swinging” on the issues she cares about.

For more information and other In The Room interviews, including this one with Hayes, can be found at ctmirror.org/in-the-room.

=====

Reporter Sam Cross can be reached at sam@thebee.com.