The Past Week and the Rally Long Passed

Before getting in to the meat and potatoes of this posting, I am just going to reiterate that my intent is to give you insight into my activities as a Board Member and not necessarily to tell you what my thoughts are about things.  That being said, I am having a quiet week.  I could tell you about how I reorganized some of my papers and folders but that would be boring.  This week I wrote a letter to Congresswoman McCarthy regarding the ESEA/NCLB Act the Congress was voting on and we had a Communications Committee Meeting. Not a lot going on so this is a good time to tell you about the rally in Albany that took place on June 8th  which I did promise I would tell you about next, anyway, so this works out well all around!

  The rally was organized by NYSUT which is New York State Union of Teachers but it was open to anyone to attend.  The theme of the rally was “One Voice United: Fight for the Future of Public Education.”  NYSUT’s headquarters is in Woodbury and I could have taken their bus from there but my friend who teaches in Lynbrook told me that the teachers’ union in Freeport also arranged for busses so I went to their office the week before to reserve my spot.  Three buses left from Freeport High School.  At the rest stop we stopped at we saw other busses that were headed for the rally…from both Suffolk and Nassau…at least 7 more.  And then when we got to our prescribed parking lot and along the walk to get to the rally…there were busses and busses and busses!  People had come from all over the State…some groups were very organized and came with banners and tents.  I had heard someone say that there were 10,000 people there but I have no way to confirm that AND I certainly didn’t count.  All I know is that there were A LOT of people!

At the rally there was entertainment and speakers representing parents, teachers and various other groups (which ultimately represents students).  There were over 22 speakers who spoke about the following issues:

• Ending the over-reliance on expensive corporate developed tests.
• Fair and equitable funding of our schools.
• Protecting the safety of students and staff.
• Restoring local control of our public schools and fixing the Tax Cap.
• Investing in public higher education and saving SUNY Downstate Medical Hospital.

Among the speakers were Nikhil Goyal, the 18 year old from Syosset (not the 18 year old on their School Board), who has actually written a book about education and who has been speaking across the country.  He was just recently on MSNBC talking about the interest rates on student loans.  At the rally he spoke about “drill kill and bubble fill”.  I have seen him speak before.  He testified at the Commissioner’s Hearing (the earlier one that listened to public…not the symposium) that I told you about in my last writing.  This kid is a dynamo!  Another familiar face was the Northport School Board member whose video went viral on You Tube.  He performed that song at the rally and another song he wrote just for the day.  If I can figure out how to upload things here I will share what I recorded at the rally…I recorded both of these guys and then some!

Other key points for the day that were either on signs or spoken were: “Our students are not for sale”; “We are not against testing, we are against testing abuse”; “Common Core is supposed to be about robust learning not testing…testing is not educating”; “No more shaming and blaming teachers”; “Pearson sees us as a marketplace not a learning place”; “Policing staff is not leading staff”.

Out of everything that was said and done at the rally…the thing that sticks with me the most now were the parents that walked silently through the crowd with posters of pictures of their children who had committed suicide due to school stress (Did anyone see the movie “Race to Nowhere”?).  They held the posters up on their heads with their story…whenever they moved through a group of people that were chanting a hush fell over that spot…heartbreaking.

Anyway, as I said there was representation from all over the State (parents, educators, AND lots of students!) and strong representation from Long Island which one of the speakers referred to as “Strong Island”.  I am not aware if any of our local politicians were there but there were a few politicians from other areas present who were there for the cause.  I am almost positive that there was media there and I find it interesting…no…disturbing…that there was virtually no coverage of the event.  I did see something about it on The Ed Show on MSNBC afterwards…but that is about it…so now I am reporting it to you.  This week I will be attending the New York State School Board Association’s Summer Law Conference…I attended this last year and it was chock full of info…and since the laws are constantly changing…I go again!   I will let you know all about it…you can be sure!