GC Teachers, Parents Headed to Albany Education Rally

Close to three dozen Garden City public school district teachers and parents are traveling to Albany Saturday, June 8, to stand against corporate control of education, demand a moratorium on high stakes testing and to fight for the funding that public schools need and for local control of school districts by fixing the tax cap, according to Garden City Teachers' Association (GCTA) president Kevin Pollitt.

The One Voice United/Fighting for Public Education rally kicks off at noon at Empire State Plaza in Albany. The GCTA has chartered a bus and is leaving the Garden City High School parking lot at 7 a.m. Saturday, returning in the evening. There's still room on the bus for anyone who'd like to join them. Register here. 

"This has been a very difficult year in education. New York State adopted the new Common Core Learning Standards and teachers have had to implement these new standards with less instructional time due to the state’s obsession with high-stakes assessments," Pollitt said.

"These tests put excessive stress on our students and their parents, with an additional financial burden on our school districts. With an ill-conceived tax cap that allows 41 percent of voters to fail a budget and doesn’t even provide an adjustment for an increase in student enrollment, many districts across the state are beginning to see massive program cuts and class size increasing to over thirty students in a class."

Pollit says that while the district has been fortunate to maintain programs and class size, "we are not immune to the negative impact of this tax cap in its current form."

For more information about the rally, click here.