The timing of this year’s UFT Lobby Day in Albany could not have been more opportune.

With Gov. Andrew Cuomo pressuring state lawmakers to pass his misguided education proposals as part of the state budget, 1,100 UFT members on March 12 converged on the state capital to shift the focus to the real priority: getting the state to pay the $2.5 billion it owes to New York City schools.

Union members boarded buses at 7 a.m. that morning from locations around the city for a full day of lobbying. Before heading to visit their local elected officials, they first heard from union, community and legislative leaders at the Empire State Plaza Convention Center.

UFT President Michael Mulgrew fired up the crowd when he asked, “Are you ready to tell our legislators why the governor’s proposals are just plain wrong?”

Carl Heastie, the new Assembly speaker who would go on to play a pivotal role in budget negotiations, received a standing ovation when he told the member-lobbyists, “To me, it’s unfair to blame teachers when some of our children have problems at home before they even walk into the schools.”

Among those also addressing the group were state Senate Minority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins, state Sen. Jeff Klein and Cathy Nolan, the chair of the Assembly education committee.

Armed with statistics about what their schools are owed and real-life stories about what students need, the member-lobbyists then set off to meet face to face with their state legislators.

The lawmakers heard from educators like Paula Washington, a veteran music teacher and chapter leader at Fiorello H. LaGuardia HS of Music & Art and Performing Arts. Using the website www.howmuchnysrobbed.nyc, which was created by the Alliance for Quality Education and the UFT, she learned that her school is owed $7.3 million. “That makes my blood boil,” she said.

When teachers retire or leave, Washington said, their classes are not replaced, and she is watching their once excellent programs disappear. “It breaks my heart to see that this generation of students is not getting the same education that I received as a student at LaGuardia,” she said.

English teacher Bob McCue, of the Manhattan Center for Science and Mathematics, was emphatic that “the kids are being shortchanged by people who don’t understand the dynamics of education.”

Michelle Arellano, the chapter leader at Manhattan’s PS 138, a District 75 school that is co-located with a Harlem Success Academy charter school, said it’s clear to her that charter schools are not accepting the same high-needs students enrolled in her school and that her school does not have the resources it needs.

“I had no choice but to be on this bus so that politicians can learn what’s going on,” Arellano said.

Michelle Mongers, a third-year teacher and new chapter leader at the Manhattan Business Academy, was making her first trip to Albany with the UFT. “I’d do it again,” she said. “It was a very good experience.”

Mongers said many teachers at her relatively new school are new teachers like herself, and lengthening the probationary period feels punitive to them.

Making for a crowded day, Eva Moskowitz closed her 32 charter schools and shipped some 7,500 students and parents to Albany on the very same day for an outdoor rally in the cold, capped by a performance by Ashanti, who declined to say how much she was paid for her appearance.

But the UFT member-lobbyists stayed focused on their mission. Washington, who was attending her ninth Lobby Day, said she and her fellow UFT members were able to deliver their message effectively on behalf of public school educators and students.

“What our legislators needed from us was not convincing, but anecdotes to make the dry data come alive as they argue for justice,” she said.