It is encouraging to see that Gov. Spitzer has reaffirmed his commitment to continue funding to meet the goals of the Campaign for Fiscal Equity. This will go far to address the needs of city public schools and help the city significantly reduce class size to the five-year goals of 20 students in kindergarten through 3rd-grade and 23 students in grades 4-12. He noted how excited students at IS 123 in the Bronx were as they talked during a recent visit about how much more they could learn in smaller classes, so he obviously understands how important this issue is for children, parents and educators, too. His commitment to making it happen offers great hope for our school system, and we applaud him for the sustained effort.
New Yorkers in general – and we at the teachers’ union in particular – know all too well that developing affordable workforce housing here is not easy. It requires a strong partnership with government and developers for union-built housing along with a commitment to helping workers afford to stay and raise their families here. The Governor’s appreciation of the challenge workers face in securing affordable housing is heartening, and we applaud him for trying to help.
[Editor’s note: Read Gov. Spitzer's State of the State speech and initial press coverage.]
1 Comment:
1 phyllis c. murray
· Jan 12, 2008 at 7:43 am
A View from the South Bronx: Past and Present
By Phyllis C. Murray
City sidewalks, busy sidewalks! The sidewalks along our Faile Street school are nothing to sing about. And if you had to negotiate these broken pieces of pavement with several children, several packages, and a stroller, you would be singing the blues. Furthermore,as a teacher, there is more of a chance that you would trip than not , as you walk gingerly through the potholes and puddles, daily en route to school. I have tripped. Others have tripped. And strollers are caught in the cracks and potholes, constantly. What you have before you is an accident waiting to happen.
Something like this could only happen in the South Bronx; not Mid-Town Manhattan or Wall Street. In the South Bronx time seems to stand still. When it comes to quality of life issues, there is no urgency. Crime is unabated. When will the City of New York recognize the fact that equity and access to NYC resources should not stop at the red-line which seems to surround the South Bronx? There must be equity and access for all in education and democratization in a free society. This would mean equal rights for all which would translate into the right to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,” in America.
Gisela Rodriquez-Montalvo said it best when she wrote “I Don’t Hear America Singing in the South Bronx in 1979. Today Gisela Rodriquez-Montalvo is an extraordinary and exemplary teacher in our South Bronx school. Her poem (which I have included in this piece) is like a prayer from the past. It has become a self prophecy in the present. It has also become a declaration of hope each day as Montalvo invests selflessly in the future of her students.
“I don’t hear America singing in the South Bronx.
As the sun rises over this low and dismal place,
You can hear the stirring of a people in bondage:
A people held together by the same broken dream;
The dream of every American to live in harmony.
Each link of the long chain that binds us,
Represents our failures in achieving what is rightfully ours.
Our yells and calls for help fall on deaf ears.
Our captors’ hearts are as solid and cold
As the concrete streets of our land…the South Bronx.
False promises are what they make and we…
Being vulnerable, take them and are satisfied;
But nothing is gained.
We’re living circles of unending strife as
We strive to become all that we can possibly be.
Every once in a while a prodigy is born.
Someone who is able to break the chains
And leave behind the memory of the land
That raised him.
Let’s hope that he remembers
Of what soil he is from.
If I am among the lucky ones,
I pray to God I can help my people to be equal! “Gisela Rodriquez-Montalvo
This is our quest: Equity for all.
Phyllis C. Murray
UFT Chapter Leader
District 8