Cuomo to our schools: "Drop dead"
Marilena Marchetti reports on the fight to defend public education in New York, and the challenges it faces now that the governor's reactionary proposals have passed.
New York teachers rally to protect public schools (Marilena Marchetti | SW)
IT'S SAFE to say the tiny minority of 1 Percenters who will be enjoying theYacht Tax Credit established in this year's New York state budget didn't have to organize a single picket, orchestrate a Twitter storm or launch a statewide call-in campaign to lawmakers.
But tens of thousands of working class parents, teachers and students who went to rallies and called the state capital to try to defend their public schools have been ignored by their "representatives" in Albany.
On March 29, Gov. Andrew Cuomo and leaders of the Republican-led state Senate and Democratic-led State Assembly agreed on a budget bill that includes multiple poison pills for public education. The new law will accelerate the process of taking children's education away from teachers and giving it to testing and curriculum corporations--unless New Yorkers can take the movement they've been building to even greater heights.
Cuomo declared war on public education during his run for re-election late last year when he promised to "break what is, in essence, one of the only remaining public monopolies--and that's what this is, it's a public monopoly."
Making good on that promise in January, Cuomo unveiled a plan that read like worst-of-the-worst list of education "reforms": increasing the weight of standardized test scores in evaluating teachers, expanding the cap on charter schools, making tenure more difficult to attain, a punitive approach to struggling schools that would override labor agreements, more red tape around teacher training programs, and an emphasis on bureaucratic control of school boards.
Nowhere to be found in Cuomo's proposals were evidence-based measures that are known to improve education outcomes like smaller class sizes, a fully funded, rich and well-rounded curriculum and access to quality wraparound services.
Writing for the Nation, George Joseph exposed how Cuomo's plan reflected his deep and long-term commitment to fulfilling the wishes of nine hedge-fund billionaires who want a piece of the public education pie. Inevitably, such flagrant neglect of what education justice advocates, parents and teachers want created a backlash.
On March 12, over 300 New York City schools responded to a call by an education justice parent-led coalition to stand up against Cuomo. As Socialist Worker reported, "The 'Protect Our Schools' action is the most expansive school organizing effort in recent memory in New York, and demonstrated the widespread anger at Cuomo's endless efforts to weaken public schools."
School communities built enough momentum through their organizing efforts to compel the United Federation of Teachers (UFT) to endorse the day of action and push it to mobilize for a citywide action for March 28 outside of Cuomo's Manhattan offices.
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THE THOUSANDS-strong rally on March 28 brought together parents and teachers, along with community members from every borough, Long Island and upstate.
Amy Weintraub from PS 107 in Brooklyn, along with dozens of other parents, wore a bright green t-shirt with the simple phrase "Public School Parent" blazoned across it. "We don't want Cuomo to think this is merely a union issue or a teacher issue," she explained. "This is also an educational issue that effects our children and that's why parents are upset."
Alexandra Alves, a teacher and member of the Movement of Rank and File Educators(MORE), the opposition caucus in the UFT, talked about how after the March 12 day of Cuomo to our schools: "Drop dead" | SocialistWorker.org:
