Warwick Valley School Board members attend day of education advocacy and training in Albany

WARWICK — Three members of the Warwick Valley School Board – who are also members of The Hudson Valley Committee for Fair Funding for Our Schools - attended an Education Action Summit and training in Albany on Nov. 20.

Board President Dave Eaton, Lynn Lillian and Shannon Hockswender participated in the event that was co-sponsored by the Alliance for Quality Education and Citizen Action of New York. The meeting served as the kick-off for an education advocacy campaign titled “No More Excuses.”

Legislative priorities
The day began with speakers who talked about the lack of resources, inequity and lack of focus in prioritizing the education of students in New York State.

Alliance for Quality Education official Billy Easton then presented the organization's "2014 Legislative Priorities, No More Excuses: Educate Every Student Campaign."

Goals of the campaign include almost $2 billion in new school aid and more teaching, less testing. Easton stressed the importance of advocating now, before the State of the Union address in January.

Jan. 14 'action day'
Participants were urged to return to Albany and to bring five friends with them on Jan. 14 – a statewide “action day” – to show support for public education. This will be the final educational advocacy event before Gov. Andrew Cuomo releases his executive budget.

Hockswender, Lillian and Eaton attended afternoon workshops called “Organizing your community,” “Recruiting legislative champions” and “Youth track,” for the many teens who attended to learn how to advocate for their own education.

The training sessions were followed by a march to the capitol to demand "No more excuses." There were 300 to 400 participants in the day’s activities, including the many high school students.

Networking
With so many advocacy groups and individuals in attendance, there was plenty of networking with others from across the state who share the same concerns.

“It was eye-opening and very upsetting,” said Hockswender, “to hear the range of challenges districts are facing.”

A group of about 20 people were selected to share their school district stories with Cuomo’s education staff, which included Deputy Secretary for Education DeShawn Wright.

Lillian, Warwick’s Board of Education vice president and organizer of Fair Funding for Our Schools, was one of those invited to speak.

“The conversation,” said Ms. Lillian, “was about equity and adequacy of education funding, and the consequences of doing nothing.”

She said representative from other school districts described situations such as a critical lack of materials in school libraries and classrooms, top-notch education programs being dismantled due to lack of funds and the effects of inadequate education on students.

'Consequences of doing nothing'

Representatives from the Alliance for Quality Education stressed their priorities to increase education aid in New York State by $1.9 billion and to demand equitable distribution of that aid across the state.

Lillian spoke to the group about the bleak situation in Hudson Valley school districts, mentioning the irony of fact that one of the governor’s stated goals is Pre-K, when often there is no “K.” She told the group that many of districts may have to consider cutting Kindergarten or going to half-day Kindergarten next year in order to close budget gaps.

“The consequence of doing nothing,” Lillian added, “is that there will no longer be public education as we know it for anyone.”

After the meeting, which lasted more than an hour, Wright promised to bring the group’s message to the governor.

The Warwick group came away with a lot of information and ideas to advance advocacy efforts in our region.

“I feel energized,” said Eaton, “and it was exciting to see the organization and activity of all the advocacy groups and individuals. Maybe a groundswell is happening and something might change.”

Essential information
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