More than 2,000 NYSUT delegates — including more than 80 UUP members — raised their voices as one during last month’s Representative Assembly, in a gathering that invoked the many urgent issues education unionists face this year.

Tops among those issues: NYSUT’s effort to shift federal education policy away from rigid standardized testing and a blame-the-messenger attitude toward schools, teachers and faculty. Instead, NYSUT is seeking a federal funding policy for public education that puts money where the need is greatest, while also examining ways to strengthen the entire support system behind each child – including the support from the student’s family.

In keeping with this focus, NYSUT’s “Just One Thin Dime” campaign, announced at the RA, will ask the federal government to increase education spending by 10 cents on the dollar.

The funding push was just one illustration of the unified voice at the April 26-28 gathering that carried the theme: “We are NYSUT.” The slogan speaks to both the strength and the diversity of the more than 585,000 members of UUP’s statewide affiliate.

In keeping with NYSUT tradition when the country is heading toward a presidential election, this year’s RA was in Washington, D.C. There, delegates heard from New York Sen. Hillary Clinton — the Democratic front-runner in a large field of hopefuls — as well as from New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer and state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli.

Spitzer is already considered a strong supporter of public education, including public higher education.

Still, NYSUT President Richard Iannuzzi reminded representatives that a union’s hardest work often follows notable gains.

“From pre-K through post grad, in our schools and in our health care facilities, in our two first-class public university systems, SUNY and CUNY, and in our community colleges and private colleges, you, our members from every sector of our great pluralistic union, understand that before us is work that we can and will finish,” Iannuzzi told the audience.

UUP members already know that their hardest work in memory lies ahead, as they continue their efforts to block the recommendations of the Commission on Health Care Facilities in the 21st Century. The recommendations in the report issued by the commission — which became state law Jan. 1 — targeted SUNY hospitals for mergers and privatization. NYSUT members and affiliates gave UUP strong support in this critical issue, which UUP President William Scheuerman has said threatens not only health care in New York state, but the future of UUP.

Tops on the state’s list: SUNY’s Upstate Medical University, which is slated for merger with Crouse Hospital, a private facility. Scheuerman, as the leader of NYSUT’s largest higher ed local, introduced a special order of business to keep Upstate within the SUNY system — one of six resolutions introduced by UUP and passed by the full body at the RA, and one of two within that half-dozen which opposed the Berger Commission.

“New Yorkers depend on Upstate and the rest of the SUNY hospital system for services that we believe would be lost forever if the Berger Commission’s plan for privatization goes through,” Scheuerman said. “We need the support of our sisters and brothers in NYSUT to send a message to the Legislature that this cannot happen.”

The other UUP resolutions included:

• Opposition to recent U.S. Senate action on definitions of rape and sexual abuse;

•  A protest against a U.S. House bill legalizing warrantless wiretapping;

• Opposition to the static reimbursement rates of state and federal health insurance programs; and,

•  A special order of business in support of the faculty, staff and students of Virginia Tech following the recent shooting massacre on the campus.

UUPers were everywhere at the RA — taking the microphone on the floor of the full assembly to speak in favor of UUP resolutions; turning out in a show of support for their resolutions during committee meetings; and receiving accolades during the annual NYSUT Journalism Awards Luncheon.

The Active Retiree — the newsletter of UUP’s Committee on Active Retired Membership — won an award of merit for best feature story. COARM Chair Judith Wishnia accepted the award on behalf of writer Donald Cohen of Albany.

Clinton’s appearance at the RA spoke to the importance of NYSUT on the national scene, as the senator arrived during a weekend of criss-crossing the country for campaign stops. In her remarks, she criticized the direction that public education has been heading under the Bush administration.

Clinton was especially critical of the increasing federal and state reliance on standardized testing. She said she supports the need to assess learning, but noted that an excessive reliance on testing leaves little room for developing critical thinking skills that students need for college and careers.

“I think it’s time we had a president who cared more about learning than memorizing,” Clinton said to strong applause. “The test has become the curriculum, rather than the other way around.”

NYSUT representatives responded enthusiastically to Clinton, and backed up that reaction by passing a resolution recommending to the AFT that it give Clinton “its full consideration for endorsement” at AFT’s Executive Council meeting in May.

Spitzer also noted the importance of education in a global economy.

“If we are going to compete, we must educate our children. And if we fail to appreciate that that investment is the single most important thing we can do, then we will have failed our children.”

— Darryl McGrath