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UFT to state legislators: ‘Keep the cuts away from kids’
Feb 18, 2010 4:13 PM
Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver (right) with (from left) NYSUT President Dick Iannuzzi and UFT President Michael Mulgrew.
During the toughest budget time lawmakers and taxpayers have seen in decades, the UFT’s message at the union’s annual kickoff legislative meeting in Albany was consistent: Keep the cuts away from kids.
“We made a promise to every child, every student in our city and across our state ... of a quality education,” UFT President Michael Mulgrew told every lawmaker who came to meet with the union’s representatives on Feb. 2 over coffee. “Cutting state aid as the governor proposes ... breaks that promise.”
Gov. David Paterson has proposed cutting more than $2.7 billion in education and health care aid. New York City schools would be cut by $500-600 million for 2010-11.
“This will devastate not just today’s kids but also tomorrow’s work force,” Vice President of Career and Technical Education High Schools Sterling Roberson told lawmakers.
Mulgrew with Senate Majority Leader John Sampson.
Instead of cuts, the UFT and its statewide union, NYSUT, have proposed alternative ways to increase revenues that if enacted would save $1.4 billion a year.
“We are always ready to work with anyone on these issues to minimize the impact on our students and on our schools,” Mulgrew told Senate Majority Leader John Sampson and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver.
Educators and lawmakers also discussed the need to reform the state’s charter school law before a cap on the number of charter schools can be lifted. The UFT and NYSUT back changes that would ensure equal opportunities for all students and fair funding and transparency about how taxpayer dollars are spent in the schools.
Whether it was Mulgrew, Roberson or any of the UFT borough and political action representatives from Brooklyn, Queens, Manhattan, the Bronx or Staten Island, the message was clear: Schools and communities should not bear the brunt of cuts in this economic crisis.
“This was highly productive,” said Vice President of Middle Schools Richard Farkas. “I especially thanked a number of members of the Assembly for standing up for fairness, equity and accountability as the state continues to wrestle with the charter school issues.”
Listening were lawmakers from across the state, including Assemblywoman Cathy Nolan and Sen. Toby Ann Stavisky, both Democrats from Queens who chair key education committees, as well as Republicans including Sen. Andrew Lanza of Staten Island and Sen. John Flanagan from Smithtown, L.I.
With state senators Andrew Lanza (second from left) and Diane Savino are (from left) UFT Vice President Richard Farkas, Jason Goldman of the UFT Legislation and Political Action Department and union Staten Island Political Action Coordinator John Robilotti.
Bronx Assemblywoman Vanessa Gibson appeared to be on a fact-finding mission, asking various UFT leaders for information about school closings, especially the Alfred E. Smith Vocational HS in the Bronx. Assemblywoman Rhoda Jacobs, D-Brooklyn, spoke at length with UFTer Elizabeth Perez, who taught English language learners for two decades, about the impact of charter schools not taking a proportionate share of ELL and special education students.
Sen. Eric Schneiderman, D-Bronx, thanked the UFTers for making the long trek north.
“There’s so many great public schools in our city and across our state, and I don’t think that gets publicized enough,” Schneiderman told Manhattan Borough Representative Evelyn DeJesus and Special Representative Wilma Velazquez.
All NYSUT officers also attended New York City’s kickoff campaign to restore the cuts.
“We cannot get this economy back on track by dismantling education,” NYSUT President Dick Iannuzzi told lawmakers.
In past years, the event included breakfast, but new rules prohibit offering anything more than coffee at such meetings.
