feature stories

Fighting the fiscal BLUES

by Cara Metz

Feb 19, 2009 5:23 PM

UFTers go all out to participate in AFT budget campaign

[For more photos, go to the “Fighting the fiscal BLUES” gallery]

UFTers from the five boroughs supported the AFT’s “Fight For America’s Future: It’s Dollars and Sense” campaign by wearing blue on Unity Day both to school and to Washington, D.C., where many members lobbied Congress for the federal stimulus bill.

AFT/UFT President Randi Weingarten, who joined educators at PS 19 in Queens, praised members for their overwhelming participation in the national union’s Feb. 10 effort.

“I always say our members can be counted on to do what’s in the best interest of kids and their schools, and they certainly proved that once again on Unity Day,” Weingarten said.

Besides trying to ensure that there would be funding for schools in the president and Congress’ federal stimulus recovery bill by their show of solidarity, New York City public school educators also wanted to show their displeasure with Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s proposal to balance the budget by laying off 15,000 educators.

“We have everyone wearing blue, including our principal, because it’s going to affect all of us, our principal too, if we lose new teachers,” said PS 57, Manhattan, Chapter Leader Virginia Vilsaint. “We don’t want to lose any of our teachers — the more we lose, the larger the number of children we’ll have in each classroom, and they won’t be learning as efficiently as they are now.”

PS 57 was on the SURR list less than 10 years ago but received an A Progress Report grade this year.

“We want to keep that going,” Vilsaint said. “To continue our upward movement, we need all our staff, and I don’t think it’s fair to sacrifice our young teachers.”

UFT District 4 Representative Servia Silva noted that the Department of Education has already invested “a lot of money to get these new, talented teachers. If we can pay for ARIS, the computer program, we should be able to pay teachers.”

Two hundred miles to the south, three packed busloads of 120 volunteer education lobbyists — educators, parents and students, many clad in blue UFT T-shirts — broke into discrete groups to meet with Congress members or senior staff of the entire New York City congressional delegation.

First they stopped at AFT headquarters, where they and their NYSUT colleagues were met by Weingarten, wearing her AFT hat. Weingarten accompanied everyone to the Hill, meeting with new Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand.

“It was a tremendously successful day,” UFT Director of Legislation/Political Action Marv Reiskin said. “In most cases we met with our elected officials directly and were able to deliver our message face to face.”

John Amato, delegate from IS 259 in Brooklyn, went to make the case that his school’s renovation could not be delayed. With the Bay Ridge school at 137 percent of capacity, Amato wanted to see full funding for education put back into the package. So he made his case to area Congressman Michael McMahon.

David Pecoraro, chapter leader at Beach Channel HS, boarded a bus at 6:30 a.m. for the trip to Washington because he didn’t want to see his students victimized by cuts the way he was as a student during the fiscal crisis of the 1970s.

John Robilotti, the UFT’s political action coordinator for Staten Island, was a young teacher during the ’70s cuts.

“I saw what devastation those cuts had," said Robilotti. “Those students lost all of the services that children deserve,” such as updated text books, guidance counselors and manageable class sizes.

UFT Vice President Michael Mulgrew, who also made the trip, added, “We're at a point in our history where things can get really bad really fast, and it's time for government to really start doing something bold.”