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| President's
Perspective Feb. 25, 2004 
Profiles in courage at Columbia High Michael Bennett is a special ed teacher and girls varsity basketball coach at Columbia High School in East Greenbush. John Sawchuk is an assistant principal at Columbia. But on Feb. 9, Mike Bennett and John Sawchuk played different roles for their students: heroes. When two loud bangs sounded in the hallway at Columbia, Mike and John didn't hesitate. They say they were just doing their jobs when they rushed toward the scene, only to find a student with a gun. John wrestled him to the ground and in the course of the struggle, the shotgun went off again, wounding Mike in the leg. Fortunately, the wound was not serious, and Mike, a member of the East Greenbush Teachers Association, is expected to make a full recovery. It's frightening to contemplate what might have happened if John and Mike had not acted so selflessly; police found nearly 20 more shotgun shells in the perpetrator's jacket. When I spoke to Mike Bennett a few days after the shooting, he said all he wanted was to resume his normal life as a father, a teacher and a coach. Both Mike and John have resisted being lionized for what they did. Yet, as I heard the accounts of that day, I was reminded of something said about the firefighters on 9/11: One of the survivors recalled thinking as he passed firefighters heading up the stairway in the Trade Center, "You're going the wrong way." Mike Bennett and John Sawchuk went the "wrong way" at Columbia High School last week, but it was the right way for the Columbia students, faculty and staff whose lives they saved. Equity case moving forward at last After nine years, the Campaign for Fiscal Equity lawsuit is - apparently - nearing a resolution. The courts last year gave the governor and the Legislature until July 30 of this year to craft a school funding plan that ensures every child in New York receives a "sound, basic education." In early February, CFE released a costing-out report that puts the cost of implementing such a plan at $7.1 billion more than New York currently invests in education. During the last few weeks, I've met with some newspaper editorial boards upstate. The conversation always winds up with a statement something like this: "We've got a $5 billion state budget deficit. How is the state going to come up with another $7 billion for CFE?" I'm not a budget expert; I don't even play one on TV. But I do know that there are hundreds of thousands of children being shortchanged by New York's school aid process. I understand New York has severe budget problems. I also understand that the Bush administration has shortchanged New York by more than three-quarters of a billion dollars in funding for No Child Left Behind. But most importantly, I understand that those hundreds of thousands of students can't put their future on hold while Albany struggles to put its house in order. Any remedy must not take away from districts that are sufficiently funded, but instead "level up" so that all children will receive a sound, basic education. A young girl entering third grade when the CFE case started is graduating from high school this year. This year's third-graders shouldn't be forced to travel the same road. |
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