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1,500 UFT lobbyists tell legislators: ‘Invest in education’

by Michael Hirsch

Apr 2, 2009 4:54 PM

Armories were built after the Civil War to aid militias in suppressing workers’ uprisings, but Albany’s Washington Avenue Armory served as the launching ground for another uprising on March 17 — the battle against the $1.1 billion in state education cuts in the governor’s budget.

The UFT’s annual Lobby Day drew some 1,500 educators, parents and community supporters to Albany to rally at the Armory and then proceed to lobby against cuts the union says will gut core school programs.

Unless the cuts are reversed by the state Legislature, New York City schools would see a combined $500 million state and city reduction in school spending, they said.

Thirty-eight busloads of UFTers from all five boroughs journeyed upstate to remind city-area legislators that the state’s fiscal crisis can’t justify cutting supports to the classroom or failing to reduce class sizes, especially when the revenues are available by asking the state’s highest earners to pay their fair share of income taxes.

The state personal income tax is a flat 6.85 percent, and a modest tax hike on the state’s wealthiest earners could raise some $6 billion annually. Combined with the federal stimulus spent efficiently and effectively by the state and city, that progressive revenue tax increase could help offset the deficit still facing New York City public schools.

The upstate bus trip served to prepare the amateur lobbyists, as UFT district and citywide leaders serving as bus captains urged them to feel free to voice their concerns with their electeds.

On the District 2 bus, leaving union headquarters before 7 a.m., UFT Vice President for Academic High Schools Leo Casey told riders that, despite the hefty federal stimulus package to the states and pledges made by some elected officials that schools would not be harmed, “we’re going to Albany because we have to keep the pressure on.”

That pressure was pumped up by UFT President Randi Weingarten at the packed Armory gathering before union members marched to the legislative office buildings to meet with their representatives.

“At a time when President Obama is calling for a comprehensive plan for public education, we are faced with cuts that will eliminate core services in the classroom,” Weingarten said.

Referring to the massive City Hall Rally for New York, she added, “On March 5, you closed New York City down. By bringing together health care workers, civil service workers, teachers and paras, you said that in tough times what matters most is what you do to the people who are suffering. And now we’re here in Albany to say the same thing we said to Wall Street: ‘Guys’ — and it’s still largely guys — ‘you did well in the good times, but now you have to dig deep.’”

Weingarten also urged lobbyists to tell legislators “not to take dollars away from the things that we love” or allow charter schools to avoid sharing sacrifices.

She also said it was necessary to “explain why class size is important for kids. Yes, kids need quality teachers, but teachers need supports, too. Go in and tell them what you need.”

These included funding for Teacher Centers and an early retirement incentive.

“Instead of a new Tier V pension, urge them to look at ways so that teachers will want to retire,” she said.

Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, credited by Weingarten as “having the soul and the moxie to take hard positions defending schools,” pledged that “I and my colleagues in the Assembly majority will be your best friends and staunchest advocates in Albany.”

Silver added that, “despite a multibillion-dollar budget gap, the Assembly majority will ensure that there is shared sacrifice and that the burden is not borne on the backs of our children and working families.”

State Senate Majority Leader Malcolm Smith said that “the only way to ensure that our students are the best in the country is when you have teachers who are paid well and respected.”

Like the speaker, Smith pledged that his majority would also see that funding for the classrooms was not cut.

Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, credited by Weingarten as “having the soul and the moxie to take hard positions defending schools,” pledged that “I and my colleagues in the Assembly majority will be your best friends and staunchest advocates in Albany.”

Silver added that, “despite a multibillion-dollar budget gap, the Assembly majority will ensure that there is shared sacrifice and that the burden is not borne on the backs of our children and working families.”

State Senate Majority Leader Malcolm Smith said that “the only way to ensure that our students are the best in the country is when you have teachers who are paid well and respected.”

Like the speaker, Smith pledged that his majority would also see that funding for the classrooms was not cut.

Assembly Education Committee chairwoman Kathy Nolan and Senate Education Committee Chairwoman Suzie Oppenheimer (D-Westchester) also greeted the crowd, as did NYSUT President Richard Iannuzzi, the Campaign for Fiscal Equity’s Geri Palast, Lorraine Bridges of the Chancellor’s Parents Advisory Council and the Alliance for Quality Education’s Billy Easton.

Coalition for Economic Justice member Ernesto Maldonado urged the legislators attending to “Make a Switch — Tax the Rich.”

Among the 56 legislators meeting with the UFT on Lobby Day was state Sen. Eric Schneiderman, chief sponsor of the “Fair Tax” bill, which would impose a higher tax rate on all taxable incomes above $250,000. Urged by Joe D’Urso of IS 218 in Upper Manhattan to raise the financial floor on his legislation, Schneiderman, who was optimistic his tax bill would pass this session, said it would likely happen in negotiations leading up to a final bill.

Eighth-grade social studies teacher and first-time lobbyist Wade Brozik of Manhattan’s Wagner Middle School said he was impressed with how he and the other lobbyists were received. After visiting both Schneiderman and Assemblyman Micah Kellner, he said, “They seemed to be solidly supporting us, and they weren’t at all patronizing.”

Melanie Diaz, a 4th-grade teacher at Brooklyn’s PS 145 and also a first-time lobbyist, called the trip “a learning experience for us. I’m interested in learning about the UFT’s relationship with state government, and how that works. I want them to understand our issues. If [decisions] were based on reasoning and need, it would be easy, but that’s not always the case.”

Added Karen Schiff, art teacher at Brooklyn’s IS 388, trying to get across to legislators what cuts will mean to her students: “I have students who are so amazing in art, and then I hear they’re struggling in other subjects. … [Art] is the first thing to go, but students really need it; it’s a necessity. Visual arts and performing arts give them a chance to let it all out.”