At Lansing education rally, teachers scold legislators
BY DAWSON BELL
FREE PRESS LANSING BUREAU
FREE PRESS LANSING BUREAU
LANSING -- Thousands of public school teachers and support personnel descended on the state Capitol on Thursday for a rally to celebrate public education and urge lawmakers not to cut funding for it.
The crowd waved signs declaring "Enough is Enough" and "Stop the Attacks," aimed at state lawmakers, who they said scapegoated school employees for government budget woes and underfunded K-12 education.
"Over the past year, our public schools have been held hostage by a Legislature that has done nothing but ... cut," Michigan Education Association President Iris Salters told the crowd.
Lansing Mayor Virg Bernero, who is endorsed by the teachers union in his bid for governor, joked that he planned to have the city's water department check the line to the Capitol building to see "if there's something in the water" that makes people who claim to support public education change when they get inside and start casting budget votes.
"I know what you have to go through. I know how much you care. I know how hard you work," Bernero said. "Thank you."
School employees in attendance said chronic budget battles in Lansing are disruptive and a distraction from the mission of education.
"We'd like to see people we vote into office make us a priority," said Dawn Parker, a second-