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'Do the right thing' NYSUT activists urge lawmakers to build a better budget for public education, from pre-K to higher ed  March 24, 2004 A contingent of Committee of 100 activists from the mid-Hudson and central New York More than 800 union activists from around the state came to Albany to thank lawmakers for their courage last year - and let them know we're counting on them again this year. As the clock ticks toward a July 30 court deadline to fix the state's school aid formula, unionists told lawmakers the money is there so that education and health care can be funded at reasonable levels. "We're urging the Legislature to do the right thing and come together to make a significantly greater investment to ensure adequacy and equity in public education," said New York State United Teachers Executive Vice President Alan Lubin. "Nobody wants additional funding to come at the expense of other school districts: Robin Hood is a movie, not a way to fund public schools. And nobody wants a court master to have to step in." The NYSUT lobbyists-for-a-day thanked lawmakers for last year's historic override of the governor's draconian cuts and their courage to raise taxes for the wealthiest New Yorkers. "This year, we're asking that legislators show the same courage by investing in New York's most prized and valuable asset - its human capital," Lubin said. Unionists dropped off thick packets of information detailing how the executive budget proposal would harm their local schools and shortchange higher education, in particular. "The years of higher ed budget cuts have taken their toll," said Robert Pompi, a professor from the United University Professions chapter at SUNY Binghamton. "I teach more than 240 students in an overcrowded lecture center arena. They're sitting in the aisles and in broken chairs. The clock hasn't worked for months." "I'm shocked at that. I thought Binghamton was pretty well maintained," said Sen. Tom Libous, R-Binghamton. "Here we're talking about all these new capital dollars, but it sounds like there might be a management problem." Libous said he fully supports the call for increasing full-time faculty lines to keep up with the record-level enrollment at both SUNY and CUNY. Community college unionists told Senate Higher Ed Committee Chairman Ken LaValle, R-Suffolk, that restorations just won't be enough. If the governor's plan were enacted, community colleges would lose state base aid of $115 per student. "We need you to restore - and more," said Kevin Peterman of the Faculty Association of Suffolk CC. NYSUT activists called on lawmakers to reject cuts to BOCES and special ed; and to fully fund Teacher Support Aid, teacher centers, the mentor-teacher intern program and the national board certification grant program. The union packets suggested several ways to raise nearly $3 billion in revenue, such as closing corporate tax loopholes and ending abuses by economic development zone companies that get big tax breaks but fail to create promised jobs. "We never go in without solutions," Lubin said. "It's just a matter of making better choices." - Sylvia Saunders |
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