Thousands of UFT members, parents and community activists gathered in February at 11 education forums sponsored by the UFT throughout the five boroughs to send a message to Gov. Andrew Cuomo: All public schools — not just charter schools — deserve fair funding, and public education will suffer if even more consequences are attached to state test scores.

The first forum took place on Feb. 6 in the Bronx, one of the poorest congressional districts in the United States, and teachers were often emotional as they described the lack of resources to help their students succeed.

“Our middle school kids used to be banging on the door to get in the building at 7 a.m. because they’d be running track and playing rugby,” said William Woodruff, a teacher at PS/MS 31. “Those extracurricular activities are gone. It’s not right.”

Kim Ray, the chapter leader at PS 65 in the South Bronx, spoke of the daily indignities that the co-location of a charter school in her building had inflicted on her students. She noted that the building got better food, a new elevator and air conditioning only after a charter took up residence.

“I thought the Supreme Court took care of separate and unequal,” Ray said. “The charter school children are told not to talk to us. Where did we get the message that some kids matter and some kids don’t?”

The seven local state lawmakers in attendance took questions about the budget process, but also had their own message for UFT members: Come up to Albany and make your voices heard.

“You are under continual attack for doing nothing wrong,” said Bronx Assemblyman Michael Blake. “You need to know we appreciate you and we will stand with you, but we need you to come up on lobby days and tell us what we have to do. Folks are ready to fight with you.”

A near-capacity crowd of more than 900 turned out for the Staten Island forum on Feb. 11 in the New Dorp HS auditorium. The organizers assembled a panel of parent and community leaders, educators and a student.

“When trying to find the truth, you need to hear many different sources,” UFT Staten Island Borough Representative Debra Penny said of the diverse panel. “A lot of people who came had no idea what is going on, but by the end of the night everyone was against what Cuomo is trying to do.”

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Bruce Cotler

The elected officials in attendance listened to the panelists and then answered questions from the audience.

State Sen. Diane Savino’s comment brought down the house. “Extortion — get out your dictionaries,” she said. “What Cuomo is trying to do is extortion!”

Brooklyn held three simultaneous forums on Feb. 12 at Maxwell HS in East New York, Seth Low IS 96 in Bensonhurst and Brooklyn Borough Hall in downtown Brooklyn.

The standing-room-only crowd at Brooklyn Borough Hall heard teachers and parents plead with a panel of lawmakers to oppose Cuomo’s education budget.

PS 45 teacher Yvonne Buchanan told the panel that the governor’s individual merit pay idea has failed everywhere it was tried. Her own experience with a merit pay plan 10 years ago was “one year I got it, next year I was frowned upon,” she said. “Gov. Cuomo, we don’t need merit pay.”

Parent and grandparent Carmen Roldan said that rather than blame teachers, the governor should properly fund schools. “Our children desperately, desperately need the funding you are withholding,” she said. “Gov. Cuomo, it’s not our teachers, it’s you.”

Many of the legislators were sympathetic. Assemblyman Jim Brennan told the crowd that in preliminary discussions lawmakers have been unfavorable to the governor’s proposals. “I can tell you, the general tenor of the discussion was we should reject the governor’s education budget,” he said.

Elected officials at the first Manhattan forum, held in the Adam Clayton Powell Jr. State Office Building in Harlem on Feb. 11, struck a similar tone.

“We are listening, and we’ve heard you. I spoke to the governor today, and I told him that there’s no reason in the world why you should demonize teachers and parents,” said Assemblyman Keith Wright. Teachers and parents at the Harlem forum elicited strong reactions from the crowd with impassioned remarks about how the governor’s proposals focus on the wrong things.

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Erica Berger

“Our students come in hungry and bouncing from shelter to shelter. The real solution would be to tackle poverty,” said Karla Reyes, a special education teacher at the Renaissance School in East Harlem. “Instead the governor wants to hand out money in a skewed and unfair way that deprives the poorest students of the resources they need.”

Parent Miriam Aristy-Farer told the crowd, “The governor pitched a system that makes learning a chore rather than a wonder. All children matter, not just the ones that win a lottery.”

Maria Tierra, a parent whose children attend PS 30, a Community Learning School that has lost space and resources due to co-location with a Success Academy charter school, addressed Gov. Cuomo directly:

“Give us the opportunity to demonstrate for you that we are worth it.”