Hundreds of educators, parents and students from all over Long Island gathered at Westbury High School March 12 to fight for public education.
The crowd, which spilled from the Westbury High School auditorium into the gymnasium, rallied against what they called Governor Andrew Cuomo’s “anti-public education propaganda.”
Much of the crowd was made up of teachers who are members of New York State United Teachers (NYSUT). The union has decried Cuomo for his proposed budget, which, among other components, gives the state the ability to appoint a third party agency to take over school districts deemed as failing, uses state testing to evaluate teacher effectiveness, and puts more money toward charter schools. Cuomo has not released the school state aid numbers to districts until the state legislature approves his education reform.
Board members are currently working off projections to put together their school budgets. If the governor’s educational amendments are passed into law, he is expected to release as much as $1.2 billion to school districts, if not, it could be as low as $300 million.
“We wanted to raise awareness to communities and taxpayers about what he’s doing, and let legislators know we don’t want them to support his proposal,” said Westbury Teachers Association president Christine Corbett, who helped organize the forum. “The money should go to our schools, the schools should know how to prepare.”
Teachers groups, educators and community activists all over the state have been regularly holding rallies to call out Cuomo and voice their displeasure with his reforms.
“Tonight we are here to celebrate public education,” said Westbury Board of Education president Dr. Pless Dickerson at the rally. “Although everyone’s challenges may be different, I’m sure everyone can attest to and identify the road blocks public education is facing today. Let each and every one of us make certain our faces are heard on behalf of public education.”
Numerous Westbury students took to the stage to share their success stories and counter Cuomo’s claim that public education is failing. Students emphasized that the extracurriculars, electives, and support from educators was what stood out to them the most, not the tests they took.
“The Westbury School District has been instrumental in shaping me to be the empathetic, worldly person I am today,” said Westbury High School senior Danielle McDougall. McDougall credited the school’s dual language program for her near fluency in Spanish, which has led her to being a two-year Spanish honor society member and recent first place winner of the Optimum Community’s Hispanic Heritage Month essay contest.
“My teachers’ continued efforts has taught me…to acknowledge and embrace diversity, and use it to propel myself and others toward success and a better condition of living,” McDougall said.
Marie Festa and her family moved to Massapequa in the 1970s, looking for a school district with a strong special education department for her daughter.
“She graduated from public high school with a diploma,” Festa said. “She is a very successful woman in her chosen career because of her public school education.”
Festa spoke against charter schools, which she said did not seem to very successful in educating “the whole person to live in a diverse world.”
“Nowhere can you get a better education than in public school,” said Festa. “Today’s public schools educate the whole child, every child, not just the elite or select few. This world has all kinds of people. It is very important with our children attend public schools with diverse people. This is the real world.”
Parents joined the fight as well, saying they would stand united with educators.
“When you reduce teachers to a single test score, you’re taking away their ability to teach. And when you do that, our children lose,” said Marianne Adrian, a parent of three young children in the Levittown School District. “Governor Cuomo’s proposal is not only hurting our teachers and schools, but it’s hurting our children. But together we will fight, and give our children what they deserve.”
Read more in next week’s issue of The Westbury Times
