Sachem teachers: Don't cut education

ALBANY -- About 300 teachers from the Sachem school district sporting red and white T-shirts reading, "This is what a laid-off teacher looks like" rallied Wednesday at the Capitol, along with the school board president and superintendent, to demand more state aid.

School district workers who left Long Island on buses before dawn gathered at a theater inside the Empire State Plaza, part of the government complex connected to the Capitol. There, they cheered and whooped and flashed signs, such as "Sachem Deserves Its Fair Share," a reference to the 14 percent cut in state aid to the district under Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo's proposed budget.

Not long after Cuomo unveiled his budget, the school district informed about 375 of its roughly 1,300 instructors they might lose their jobs as a result.

One of them is Monica Marlowe, a Sachem graduate who returned three years ago to teach high school environmental science, biology and ecology. Now, she fears she might be out of a job soon.

"Sachem is being hit pretty much the hardest," Marlowe said as the group fanned out to visit individual legislators. She said the teachers' message to legislators is "we need to have an equitable cut."

"I think they [lawmakers] get the idea that by making cuts to education, they will fix the system. But it won't," said Kevin Riley, who is in his second year teaching social studies to middle school students. "The best teachers might end up getting cut and the best program might get cut, and the mandates they are keeping might not be the best for the kids."

Cuomo has proposed reducing school aid statewide from $20.9 billion to $19.4 billion, a 7 percent cut.He has noted that state school aid had grown about 50 percent since the 2001-02 academic year and that all state agencies are being asked to cut operations spending 10 percent as the state tries to close a $10-billion deficit. He has proposed trimming more than $16 million from Sachem's budget.

School board president Rob Scavo told the crowd that there were other options. "There is a millionaires' tax," he said, drawing one of the loudest rounds of applause of the rally. The "tax" is a surcharge on individuals with $200,000 or more in taxable income annually and families with $300,000 or more. Enacted during the Wall Street crisis, it is set to expire Dec. 31.

Cuomo and the Republican-led Senate have vowed to eliminate the surcharge. The Democrat-controlled Assembly has called for renewing it, but raising the income threshold to $1 million.

There are no classes in the district Wednesday because it had been scheduled as a staff development day.

With Jo Napolitano