10,000 Expected for School Funding Rally in Austin (TX)
March 30, 2011
AUSTIN — For nearly a month the nation has watched the massive protests and rallies in Madison, Wis., a state which, like Texas, is facing a multibillion-dollar revenue shortfall.
Could Austin join Madis on and other state capitals where these kinds of rallies are becoming common?
Organizers of an expected massive gathering called Rally to Save Texas Schools, scheduled for Saturday in Austin, don’t rule out such possibility.
The Austin rally, which expects to draw as many as 10,000 parents, teachers, educators and community leaders from across the state, was organized “to send a loud, unified message to our elected officials: Keep Texas smart by funding public education,” said Allen Weeks of Save Texas Schools, the grassroots movement organizing the event.
Rebecca Pollard Pierik of Austin, a volunteer in charge of media outreach for the coalition, said Thursday that although they were hoping for groups from the Amarillo and Lubbock areas, they weren’t sure whether those people would make it.
“A lot of them said they would like to be here but that if they couldn’t, they would be here in spirit,” Pierik, an Austin parent of a first-grade student, said. “We recognize it is a long drive, or, that it costs money to fly.”
The noon to 2 p.m. rally on the south steps of the Capitol at 11th Street and Congress Avenue is intended to deliver three messages to the Legislature, organizers said.
First and foremost, tap the state’s reserve fund, popularly known as the Rainy Day Fund, to finance public education. The State Comptroller’s Office said recently the amount in the bank is $8.2 billion and it is projected to grow to $9.4 billion by the end of the next fiscal biennium.
In addition, the coalition suggests the state file the paperwork to qualify for $830 million in federal aid for teachers.
And the third solution they propose is for the L egislature to fix school funding laws because in their view such laws need to be fair to all school districts in the state and the nearly 5 million students in the public school system.
Rally organizers struggled with the decision of whether to hold it on a weekday when the lawmakers are meeting, or on a weekend. They opted for the latter because their main goal was to get as many participants as possible, especially teachers, Pierik said.
The best time is Saturday when teachers, parents and most people have the day off and can even bring their families along, she said.
“Even if the legislators are back in their districts, we can still send a powerful message and that is our intent,” Pierik said.
Most weekday rallies, when the lawmakers are meeting, seldom draw more than 1,000 participants.
The Saturday rally is getting plenty of attention in advance because of the size organizers estimate and because Gov. Rick Perry said Wednesday the state cannot be blamed if thousands of educators and other school workers lose their jobs.
“That is a decision that will be made at the local districts,” Perry said at a news conference when asked about the rally.
But that is not how educators see it.
At a recent gathering of superintendents and school administrators, the educators said that because of a budget shortfall of as much as $27 billion in the next two fiscal years, massive layoffs and furloughs are expected because of the more than $11 billion in public education cuts.
Pierik said that although the rally will feature influential public figures such as San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro and Bill Hammond, CEO of the Texas Association of Business, organizers are also expecting some members of the Texas Legislature to join it and address the crowd.