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DA launches phase two of budget fight targeting City Hall
Apr 24, 2008 2:46 PM
UFT President Randi Weingarten discusses the state budget fight and its coverage in the New York Teacher.
April’s big Albany school budget victory was the prelude to what figures to be an even tougher battle, UFT President Randi Weingarten told delegates at the April 16 Delegate Assembly. Members need to be prepared to mobilize to fight budget cuts planned by the mayor and the chancellor for city schools.
“The state has kept its promises,” she said. “Will the city keep its promise?”
Weingarten congratulated delegates for the “stunning” March 19 City Hall rally, where even torrential rain couldn’t keep away teachers, parents and school kids.
“I am so proud of you and our members and even the principals who came out and the parents with kids in strollers,” Weingarten said. “From the podium, you could see past Chambers Street and all around Tweed. Honor is due and everyone deserves a standing ovation.”
Weingarten noted that the state schools victory was singular in that “every other agency or state-funded entity was cut … except for K-12 education.” Albany increased state funding to city schools by $600 million, including the promised money for class-size reduction, and restored construction aid.
But that was then, and this is now.
Michael Mulgrew, vice president for Career and Technical Education high schools, introduced a resolution that the Keep the Promises coalition of the educators, parents and community groups would redouble its efforts to fight the city budget cuts.
The resolution also demanded that the Department of Education “immunize the classroom and other vital services to children and schools” while calling on the DOE to “open its books and identify cuts that will not directly affect the classroom or other children’s services.”
“Between now and June 5, the most important thing the union will have to do is make the city keep its promises,” said Mulgrew. “We need to get moving on this as soon as possible because it will be an extremely difficult fight.”
The resolution passed unanimously, as did a companion resolution that Weingarten summarized as “cut the consultants, not the schools.” The second resolution blasted the DOE for continuing to pad its consultant fees even as it was cutting classroom services.
It called on the union to demand that the DOE freeze the 9 percent increase to the British consulting firm Cambridge Education, which conducted the quality reviews — something DOE staff can and should do — and demanded that Tweed disclose every other outside contract to see what other contracts could be eliminated.
An amendment from the floor to co-endorse a Brooklyn-organized “youth rally” at Tweed that had yet to be scheduled was rejected after the maker of the motion could not identify the sponsoring organizations.
