On November 20th Dave, Lynn and I attended the Education for Action Summit, presented
by the Alliance for Quality Education
(AQE) in Albany. Our day began in a large auditorium to “Kick-off the No More Excuses Campaign” with hundreds
of other attendees. The auditorium was crowded with people who had arrived from
all over New York State to advocate for our students. Many high school students
were also present to participate in the day’s events. The moderators were
Zakiyah Ansari, AQE’s Advocacy Director and Angelica Rivera, parent advocate
with Citizen Action of New York and AQE. Both women spoke passionately about
the struggles that New York students are currently facing in terms of their
education, including the shortage of resources, the inequity in school funding
and the lack of engagement from state leaders to make the public education of
students in New York a priority.
Senators Kevin Parker and Cecilia Tkaczyk and Assembly
Members Barbara Russell, Addie J. Russell and Karim Camara attended the Kick-off
and they all spoke about the importance of funding NYS public schools and why
they will be focusing their efforts on education this year. My favorite speaker
was Assemblywoman Addie J. Russell who told the audience a story about growing
up in a home with five siblings. Every year, for her family’s Thanksgiving
feast, they would bake a pumpkin pie and
all the kids would argue and fight over the biggest piece of the pie.
The lesson her parents taught her was it that it doesn’t matter who is oldest,
who helped bake the pie, or who was the best behaved at dinner - they all would
get the same size slice because everyone in the family is equal. She expressed
the importance and value of this lesson for her work as a legislator, “Everyone
deserve the same size slice of the pie, no matter what the circumstance. It is
the governments responsibility to be equitable in how they are distributing
funds to our schools.”
Two high school students also spoke at the event. One was from a school in NYC and the
other was from a school in the North Country. Each student presented their view
of their high school experience and they were vastly different. The student
from the city compared his school to a jail complete with metal detectors and
guards who greet the students by yelling, ‘Get in line, take off your coat and
open up your backpack!’ “How can we start our day feeling good about coming to
school when it starts like this?,” he said, and then he painted a bleak picture
of crowded classrooms, lack of books and materials and teachers who were unable
to do their job because they have inadequate resources.
The student from the North Country expressed his experience,
which was vastly different from the first high school student. He felt safe and
supported in his school, the environment was conducive to learning and he
thought his teachers were excellent, but his school district could not afford
to have extra-curricular activities or offer many AP courses for high school
students. This student was worried about his chances of getting into a good
college because he would be competing with other students from across the state
that have had more educational opportunities. Although these student’s
presentations were different they both ended with, “I want to be educated, teach me!”
The last presenter was Billy Easton, the leader of AQE. He
presented the 2014 Legislative
Priorities, No More Excuses: Educate Every Student Campaign. The main
priorities for this year are:
3. Raise NYC's millionaires' tax to pay for quality full-day pre-k for all NYC 4 years olds and
after- school programs for all middle school students.
- Calling for $1.9 billion in School Aid
- $1 billion in new classroom operating aid distributed equitably (foundation aid)
- $225 million for full-day pre-K
- $110 million for college-ready community schools
- $300 million for curriculum restoration and improvement
- $20 million for supports and interventions to build a positive school climate
- $250 million in expense-based aid
3. Raise NYC's millionaires' tax to pay for quality full-day pre-k for all NYC 4 years olds and
after- school programs for all middle school students.
Mr. Easton stressed the importance of advocating now before the January State of the Union address. Attendees all received postcards to fill out that were addressed to our governor, who this campaign is primarily focused on. Every person who attended the kick-off filled out a card by completing this sentence, “In order for our students to excel in college and careers, they need…” (list the programs, classes, extra-curriculars, etc. that are vital to your student’s education). We brought home a stack of postcards and AQE said we could request more to distribute to parents in our district and region.
Mr. Easton also urged participants to come back to Albany on
January 14th and to each
bring five friends with them because January 14th is statewide
action day in Albany and they want to show huge public support for quality
public education. This will be the final big action before the Governor
releases his Executive budget. Another date to save is March 12th for the statewide budget rally in Albany- Parade for Public Education and Lobby day in Albany.
After lunch we were able to choose a workshop to attend. The
following workshops were offered:
- Organizing your community- learn to organize to build a bigger, stronger movement in your community.
- Recruiting Legislative Champions- learn to organize and lead lobby visits as well as engage elected representatives in the New More Excuses campaign.
- Youth Track- students from across the state will share their experiences and learn how to fight for their education.
Lynn was invited to
participate in a meeting with Governor Cuomo’s education staff, which included
Deputy Secretary for Education, DeShawn Wright, as a representative of Fair
Funding for our Schools. While Dave and I attended our workshop Lynn met with
the lobbying team to plan out their visit.
Next, we participated in
the March to the Capital for “No More Excuses Speak-Out.”
Approximately 400 people signed a giant diploma and wore graduation caps as we
marched to the Million Dollar Staircase chanting, “2, 4, 6, 8- We want our kids
to graduate!” The day closed with the “No
More Excuses Speak-out” and featured the Legislators who were present in
the morning. After the speak out we marched to the War Room and delivered the
diploma to the governor’s office which was entitled, “Educate Every Student.” After the Speak-Out the crowds left and the government building became very quiet. Twenty plus advocates from across the state stayed to meet with the Governor’s Education staff. Representatives had a chance to speak about the education climate in their home district or region. Lynn said that every report that was given was worse than the previous speaker. Her statement focused on the bleak situation in Hudson Valley school districts: school closings and their affect on the community, the dismantling of programs, laying off valued teachers and in some cases cutting kindergarten. Especially heart wrenching were reports from the inner city school districts where one representative spoke about her school having a library in it without a single book. She said, “How can our students pass these state tests that you are requiring without having books for students to read and learn from.” These stories were dramatic reminders of the inadequacy of funding for education, and a reminder of the need for urgency in out fight for fair funding. ALL representatives agreed on and demanded equity and adequacy in education and expressed the consequences of doing nothing.
Overall, we came away with
a lot of information and ideas for advancing advocacy efforts in our region. We
agreed that the day brought on a feeling of sadness for us because of the level
of despair some of our neighbors are feeling throughout the State. However, it
made us want to do more and we left feeling energized by all of the organization
and activity of the advocacy groups from throughout the state. Dave captured
the moment by saying, “Maybe a groundswell is happening and something might
change.”
To stay current on
regional advocacy events check in at: Fair Funding for Our Students
Submitted by: Shannon, Dave and Lynn
Submitted by: Shannon, Dave and Lynn
