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Every member, every day
PICTURED:
From right, Tom Hobart, AFT’s Edward McElroy, NYSUT’s Alan Lubin and UUP President Bill Scheuerman cheer on other higher education advocates at a rally for more state funding in 2002.
 The union achieved a milestone in 2003 when NYSUT organized an extraordinary May rally to protest draconian budget cuts in public education. In his RA speech, Hobart foreshadowed the need for "every member, every day" to join the fight for what students need.
"On one side are those who would use the budget crisis to end opportunity," he said, noting the growing call for givebacks and cutbacks. On the other side are "all of us, the people who do the work - every member, every day."
Hobart asked people to come to Albany on a Saturday in May to remind lawmakers that New York's future is in its classroom and they needed to fund public education and health care.
Tony Bifaro recalled the trepidation before the May 3 event. "It was like Field of Dreams, where we really weren't sure how many were going to come," he said.
They came by car, bus, train and even planes. And more than NYSUT members: Other unions, parents, children and community groups answered the call.
The tens of thousands of activists called on lawmakers to do what had happened only twice since 1872: override a governor's veto. Which they did, restoring millions to education.
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