Alan Lubin praised NYSUT members for their "exceptional nimbleness and strength" in fighting down a bad-news budget and oppressive vetoes from the outgoing governor, and called on the unionists to lace up for even tougher struggles ahead.
"While the Pataki era is over, the era of fast-paced press-release politics is not," said the NYSUT executive vice president. "It takes more than money to make change. It takes political power of a mobilized membership."
And "walking the walk," Lubin added, is critical to closing the achievement gap, making a college education affordable to all students and making sure New York receives appropriate state and national funding.
"Public education is a civil right. Fifty years ago, separate, unequal and segregated schools were the law of the land," Lubin said. "The laws may be gone, but segregation is still with us. And we don't have to go south to find it. It's right here in New York state."
Economic despair and poverty in urban, rural and small and big city schools across the state are depriving students of their right to a sound, basic education, Lubin said. "Those of us who work in cash-starved urban centers - where textbooks are few and computers non-existant - we will not be ignored," Lubin said.
Not only does the state need to make a greater commitment to education, but the federal government needs to step up as well, Lubin said.
"We need to fully fund the No Child Left Behind law. We need to elect new federal leadership that will refuse to privatize Social Security, and refuse to allow business to eliminate pensions with a stroke of a pen," Lubin noted.
NYSUT members are no strangers to what it takes to make that change, Lubin said. In responding to Gov. Pataki's final executive budget and a $400 bribe to homeowners, in three short weeks unionists sent 60,000 faxes to state senators and Assembly members.
"We earned a $1.24 billion increase in school aid to help close the achievement gap, and a $364 million increase in higher ed funding." Funding to teacher centers and much-needed aid for school construction were also won.
"And when all of those gains were imperiled by gubernatorial vetoes, we put our political muscle behind the Senate and Assembly members to keep them strong. That is walking the walk," Lubin said.
Lubin urged delegates to get out the vote for everything from school board elections and school budgets to electing new leadership in the U.S. House and Senate. "And I can't wait for a new president in '08," Lubin added.