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Joining ‘hands’
Jun 26, 2008 4:46 PM
Ralliers chant and wave their signs ...
UFT President Randi Weingarten joined thousands of parents, students and community activists in a Hands Across New York City rally at City Hall on June 16 to protest the school-budgets cuts ordered by Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Schools Chancellor Joel Klein.
The crowd endured thunder, lightning and rain to hear from City Council members, labor activists and outraged parents and students. Also speaking was City Comptroller William Thompson, who sarcastically said Chancellor Klein’s budget math “doesn’t add up.”
After the rally, Weingarten joined protesters in marching around City Hall Park and past the Department of Education headquarters on Chambers Street, chanting: “Keep the Promises.”
Protesters carried signs that read “Show us the money,” “A school without funds is a school without a future,” “Fund schools, not war,” “Flunk the budget, not our kids” and “Don’t cheat our children.”
Thompson, a probable candidate for mayor next year, told the crowd that “the state just sent the city $600 million and the chancellor is talking about making cuts.” He then gave a tongue-in-cheek math lesson to Klein: “One and one is two — not three, not four, not five and not minus one.”
Weingarten told the enthusiastic gathering that “this is not a game. It’s about how a city cares about its children.” She added that students go to school only once in their lifetimes. She said, “City Hall, you have to keep your promises.”
Also speaking was Vladimir Epshteyn from the Metropolitan Russian American Parents Association. “We are the money-producers, the working people,” he said.
... before stretching as far as the eye can see while marching past Department of Education headquarters.
Irina Denisenko, a student at Staten Island Technical HS, recounted how A.P. classes and film courses in her school were being cut and urged city leaders to “think of our future.” She said the city should “cut the budget cuts” and said the Department of Education is “just going to give us the bare minimum.” She quoted Franklin Delano Roosevelt: “We cannot always build a future for our youth but we can build youth for our future.”
Council of School Supervisors and Administrators President Ernest Logan said, “This is not the time to turn backwards. I am tired of hearing that the economy is going down.” One CSA member, who requested anonymity for fear of reprisals, said, “Mayor Bloomberg and Joel Klein have demoralized everyone in the system — principals, teachers, parents and students.”
Jane Hirschman, of Time Out From Testing, derided Klein’s spending, listing $80 million to McGraw-Hill and another $80 million to IBM for “computers that don’t work.” She urged Klein not to “cut one dime” from the budget.
Also speaking were Hector Figueroa, Secretary-Treasurer of SEIU Local 32BJ; Pat Boone of ACORN; Esperanza Vazquez and Ernesto Maldonado of the Coalition for Educational Justice; John Williams of Churches United for Educational Excellence; Hazel Dukes, a member of the NAACP’s national Board of Directors and Ed Ott, executive director of the New York City Central Labor Council.
