Teachers, parents knock Cuomo at Merrick Road rally

The bleats of car horns blared through the air in front of Levy Lakeside Elementary School in Merrick last Friday afternoon — but not because of traffic. Drivers were honking at more than 100 teachers and residents lining Merrick Road, dressed in red and waving signs sporting phrases like “Respect Public Education.”

One driver slowed as a light turned yellow, calling out to Bellmore Faculty Organization President David Reilly. He asked what the gathering was about, and Reilly told him it was a protest about Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s education policies.

Patricia Assande, a Merrick resident and a first-grade teacher at Park Avenue School in the North Bellmore School District, said this kind of interaction was what the rally was all about. “The hope is that, as they’re driving by, they’ll see some of these signs and start doing a little Internet research,” she said. “I think parents are maybe thinking it’s business as usual, but things have really changed since the governor came out with his new education reform agenda.”

Bellmore-Merrick teachers and parents who took part in Paint Merrick Road Red for Public Ed, a series of peaceful protests along the roadway and Montauk Highway that were organized by two Long Island teachers through Facebook, to voice their concerns about the state of public education in New York and raise public awareness of changes made to the system. The rally was held days before Cuomo announced an agreement on the 2015-16 state budget late on Sunday.

As of press time on Tuesday, details about hotly debated changes to the teacher evaluation system and a state oversight program for troubled schools were only beginning to emerge. The spending plan includes a 6.1 percent increase in school, according to an earlier Cuomo press release.

Karen Magee, president of New York State United Teachers, explained that educators and parents were concerned about Cuomo’s reliance on test-based teacher evaluation, which she said is an unreliable measure of teacher quality. She explained that the governor had temporarily abandoned a plan that would base 50 percent of a teacher’s rating on his or her students’ standardized tests scores because of the efforts of local legislators and activists.

“The Legislature, led by the Assembly, mitigated some of the worst elements of Governor Cuomo’s toxic agenda after parents and teachers stood up to his bullying,” Magee said in a statement. “School aid for our kids is moving forward and public schools and colleges will get much-needed state increases … [W]hile Governor Cuomo’s attempt to double down on testing has been stopped for now, too much of his destructive agenda remains on the table. We will keep pushing to the last minute of the last day to ensure that the state addresses what kids need, that educators’ rights are supported and that evaluations are fair, meaningful and focused on improving teaching and learning.”