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Union members seek votes for May 17 Vote 'yes' on your school budget 
posted: May 6, 2005 From left, Newark TA's Bobbi Clifford, school nurse Sharon Wiltsie, Wendy Hrabek and Sharon Sweet (in front) get ready to plant lawn signs. Clifford, an art teacher, designed the campaign logo. In Wayne County, educators are putting up lawn signs and sending out post cards. In North Rockland, you'll find educators distributing fliers at Little League games. At Shenendehowa, Saratoga County, teachers go before the school board to thank them for lowering class size. "Anywhere there are families, you'll find us," said North Rockland Teachers Association President Robin Brennan. "They're the ones with the most to lose if our budget goes down." While polls show a growing anti-tax-hike sentiment, New York State United Teachers members around the state are pumping up their get-out-the-vote efforts for statewide school budget voting day May 17. (Residents of the Big Five cities of New York, Yonkers, Syracuse, Rochester and Buffalo don't vote on budgets.) "Our first aim is to make sure our own members get to the polls," said NYSUT President Dick Iannuzzi. "With more than 525,000 members, that represents a tremendous voting bloc. Our second goal is to get our natural allies like parents and pro-education community leaders out to vote, too." Ad campaign NYSUT has launched a $1 million television and radio ad campaign featuring actress Blair Brown urging New Yorkers to invest in public education's progress by supporting school budgets and electing pro-education board candidates. The new ad campaign asks, "What's at stake on May 17?" The 10-day campaign, which begins May 8 and runs through the May 17 budget voting day, includes broadcast and cable television ads in markets across the state. Radio spots are also airing in many markets across the state, as well as 20-second preview ads at movie theaters. The TV ad focuses on the cuts districts will have to make if local school budgets are defeated. Brown, star of the former television series "The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd" and motion pictures, provides the voiceover. As children involved in school-related activities flash across the screen, Brown says, "If our local school budget fails this year, we'll lose even more teachers ... and have to eliminate sports, arts and tutoring programs." The ad also features New York state Teacher of the Year Elizabeth Day, a sixth-grade teacher from Mechanicville, Saratoga County. Voters have overwhelmingly supported school budgets in recent years, but Iannuzzi said there may be some growing taxpayer resentment, especially in Western New York and on Long Island. Last year, about 85 percent of the budgets passed on their first vote, down from the usual 90 percent. "There may be taxpayer frustration out there, but we don't want them to take it out on the kids," Iannuzzi said. "When budgets go down, so does the quality of education." Extensive phone bank operations will begin about two weeks before voting day. The statewide union has also distributed "5/17/05 It matters" buttons. In Northport, Long Island, educators learned how important coalition-building is. They lost their budget vote the first time last year and mobilized for the second, successful, vote. "What we've tried to assure the board is that we'll get the large turnout we had the second time around last year," said Dave Hait, president of United Teachers of Northport. "We're reaching out to parent organizations and the booster clubs, which we had never done before." Several local union leaders said they have also encouraged teachers to make more positive calls to parents throughout the year, as well as promote "good news" stories in local newspapers. "There is a column in our local newspaper called 'Sidewalk Talk,'" said Pat Davidson, president of the 220-member Newark TA. "Because we're a very, very small community, it's the first thing everyone turns to Friday. This year we made a concentrated effort to get in positive school-related information ... If you can do it year-round, the less likely it seems that we are only doing it because we want the budget passed." The Wayne County district's budget went down last year on the first vote. "We were neutral and the tax increase was 7.9 percent and it was voted down by a handful of people," Davidson said. "Then we joined with the other unions, the administrators' union, with CSEA, our paraprofessional union. When we all campaigned for the second budget and showed support, it did pass." The Long Island Presidents Council, comprising more than 100 local unions affiliated with NYSUT, is sponsoring a pro-education radio ad campaign. The council also sponsored a "Why I Love My School" student essay contest. Districts worked hard to keep proposed budget increases down, according to a review by NYSUT's Research and Educational Services Division. Districts on average are proposing budgets for 2005-06 that contain an overall spending increase of 6.3 percent, which is similar to last year's 6.2 percent proposed increase. The average tax levy increase is 6.9 percent for 2005-06, which is lower than the 8.3 percent average tax levy increase proposed last year. - Sylvia Saunders and Jane Gottlieb |
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