For the past three decades, Washington politicians and their benefactors have broken their promises of jobs and economic relief to struggling working families. Instead, they have turned the “American Dream” of health, education and success into an American Nightmare of poverty, foreclosures and a loss of stability and dignity.

Now, they’re coming for our Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security, all to pay for more tax cuts for the rich and sweetheart deals for big corporations. The upper one percent of Americans currently control over one third of the private wealth in America, and instead of paying their fair share, they now want to take the programs that we have spent our entire lives working to build. It’s our money and we’re not going to sit back and watch them take it!

Joining our staff, coalition partners, and concerned supporters were President Franklin Delanor Roosevelt and his wife Elanor Roosevelt, who oversaw the implementation of The New Deal, an economic overhaul in the 1930s that stimulated the recovery of the economy after the Great Depression and provided jobs and stability to thousands of working families. Arriving in a stately Studebaker, the elegant couple added an air of prestige and elegance to our caravan.

The Caravan commenced at Kleinhans Music Hall, a world-class venue that was made possible by Roosevelt’s New Deal. It was a fitting location to start off the procession and a testament to the ability of government to provide jobs and security instead of preying upon vulnerable working families.

Many citizens spoke about the need to restore the American Promise. Speakers included elderly people that rely upon essential services in order to pay for medication, disabled parents that rely upon the safety net in order to provide for their children, and concerned adults that have to care for their parents, among many others.

Meeting at 11 different locations across New York State, our Caravan garnered thousands of demonstrators, a myriad of press coverage (click here to read a list of articles) and supporters from different political parties (including Republicans!). America’s true majority came out to express their disbelief at the immense greed required to strip America’s social safety net.

At a press conference in the Legislative Office Building in Albany, AQE Executive Director Billy Easton spoke adamantly about the negative effects of Governor Cuomo’s budget cuts to education that are now being identified across the state as local school budgets pass. Last year, 10,000 school employees lost their jobs, including teachers, administrators, secretaries, aides, librarians, and other indiduals. Class sizes have increased, many essential in-school and after-school programs have been cut, and schools have been permanently closed. This year, 16,000 more school employees will also lose their jobs. It is important to note that the people losing their jobs are not just statistics — they are hard-working people with jobs and families that are being put out of work. Every school employee has a direct and tangible effect on a student’s life. Be it a teacher, aide, hall monitor, librarian, or secretary,  these people are employed to enhance a student’s experience and to contribute to his or her well being.

All of this, while millionaires and billionaires are getting a huge tax break.

Developing our kids’ minds from a young age is of the utmost priority. Early childhood education is increasingly being cited as one of the most important factors in a child’s future success. 75% of a child’s brain development and 85% of intellect, personality, and social skills are developed by age five. And, several studies, most notably the High Scope Perry Preschool Project, estimate that every dollar invested in early childhood education returns over seven dollars by the time a child turns 19. Governor Cuomo’s cuts are directly affecting our kids’ opportunities for success!

And, contrary to popular belief, the millionaires’ tax doesn’t expire until the end of the year. There is still time for us to tell Governor Cuomo that it’s simply not right to put the interests of millionaires and billionaires before the needs of our kids.

You can help! Tweet your message with the hashtag #KidsNotMillionaires to help fight for our teachers, aides, and other school staff. Let Cuomo know that our children need quality education and that we cant afford to cut their future.

In the news:

Advocacy Groups suggest reinstating “Millionaires’ Tax”

Groups Urge Lawmakers, Governor to extend Millionaires’ Tax

The Public School Boycot

Cuts to Schools: “Devastating” – Education Advocates

Most School Budgets Pass

Organizations participating include Alliance for Quality Education, Citizen Action of New York, New York City Coalition for Educational Justice, Long Island Progressive Coalition, Make the Road New York, New York Communities for Change, VOCAL, Push-Buffalo, Right to the City New York, Real Rent Reform New York, Community Voices Heard and also New Deal for New York , The Save Our SUNY Coalition, Strong Economy for All and Growing Together NY.

We’ll be covering the event live, using the stream below. If you can’t make it to Albany, come back here on 3/30 between 2pm and midnight for full, live coverage of the events at the Capitol.

Justice Works: A Conference for Progressive New York – is a new event like none other in New York.

For those of you who have been to a Citizen Action annual leadership conference in the past: This event is going to be bigger and better than ever before. We will have at least double the number of attendees, nationally renowned speakers, and, most importantly, we’re opening registration and inviting dozens of other organizations to participate. This is no longer an event just for Citizen Action’s top volunteers. It’s an event designed to strengthen and unite New York’s progressive movement.

For those of you who are asking, “what’s a Citizen Action annual leadership conference?” : We’re bringing together hundreds of New York’s progressive population for an intense two-day conference complete will workshops on issues and skills and plenary discussions on big questions facing our communities, our state, and our nation. We’ll also have some top notch keynote speakers to help put it all into perspective.

Justice Works will be held at the beautiful (and unionized) Crowne Plaza Hotel in historic downtown Albany, New York, just two blocks from the Capitol. It’s easily accessible by plane, train, bus, car, and, well, being just two blocks form the Hudson River, boats too. The hotel will offer free shuttle service to and from the airport and train station. With your registration, you’ll also get free covered parking in the hotel garage. There’s a lovely swimming pool, and all the guest rooms have flat panel TVs. But, you’re not going to want to watch TV…

We’ll have workshops on organizing skills, health care, education, green jobs, the economy, the arts as part of progressive change. And there’ll be some great entertainment on Saturday evening.

Now that you know why you have to be there, here’s some details about registration:

1. Early registration is from now until April 1st. We strongly encourage you to take advantage of the cheapest rate by registering today!
2. Scholarships are available. Applications for scholarships are due on March 18th. Get yours in today.
3. Sponsorship is available. If you’re from an organization, and want some good promotion at the progressive meet up of the year, become a sponsor of Justice Works. Details are here.

Once you’re registered, be sure to let your friends know about Justice Works. And be sure to “like” the Justice Works Facebook page to stay up to date on the conference agenda, speaker announcement, and other details.

These events were covered by many press outlets. Here are some of the stories:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/15/nyregion/15schools.html
http://polhudson.lohudblogs.com/2011/02/14/education-groups-criticize-governor-on-school-funding-equity/
http://www.pressconnects.com/article/20110214/NEWS01/102140361/Broome-school-advocates-protest-proposed-cuts?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|FRONTPAGE
http://www.wivb.com/dpp/news/niagara/Public-meeting-in-Falls-over-education-cuts
http://www.wbng.com/news/local/Groups-Urge-Lawmakers-To-Say-No-To-Education-Cuts-116191149.html
http://buffalo.ynn.com/content/top_stories/533494/state-legislators-receive-valentines-with-special-message/?ap=1&MP4
http://polhudson.lohudblogs.com/2011/02/14/education-groups-send-hearts-to-lawmakers/
http://www.capitaltonight.com/2011/02/from-lobbyists-with-love/
http://binghamton.ynn.com/content/top_stories/533509/community-urges-lawmakers-to-reject-school-cuts/
http://www.wicz.com/news2005/viewarticle.asp?a=17529
http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/wned/news.newsmain/article/1/0/1763096/WNED-AM.970.NEWS/Bake.Sale.Raises.Awareness..Dough.for.Education

And here are some photos from the events:

Shanna Goldman, our Organizing Director, and Chris Scoville, our Capital District Organizer, opened the conference with a dynamic discussion on far reach of economic concerns. Leaders then chose among 3 workshops that were divided into 2 days. Jess Wisneski, our Legislative Director, and Cynthia Ward, Northeast Action Executive Director, moderated the health care workshop. Cleo Oliver, Citizen Action Campaign Coordinator, and Carin Schiewe, Northeast Action Field Director, moderated the civic engagement workshop. Karen Scharff, our Executive Director, managed the education workshop.

Citizen Action staff loved the level of engagement–especially since we all put so many hours into organizing the conference.

The engagement, though, reached into the Internet this year. We live-streamed portions of the conference and actively used Twitter and Facebook. Leaders especially loved the Twitter projection. Be sure to click on the link to see what the buzz was all about.

We ended the conference on a riveting and uplifting note. William McNary, President of USAction – our national affliate-, brought everyone to their feet and some even to tears. Luckily, in yet another example of technological versatility, Charlie Albanetti, our Communications Director, captured this provocative engagement on video.

Here is a collection of photos that highlight our very active weekend:

We’re also embedding the informational binder that each attendee received. The pages highlight our major projects and is chock full of useful summaries. Please take a look!

2010 Leadership Conference Binder Docs

A few weeks back, AQE launched a campaign going door-to-door in communities across the State to speak with voters about the proposed cuts. Six out of every 10 people we talked to actually sat down and wrote out a letter to their Senator in opposition to the cuts.

The Governor’s Budget Proposal included $1.4 billion in education cuts. The State Senate passed a Budget Resolution that didn’t restore a dime of that funding. The State Assembly then passed their Budget Proposal, which dropped the damage down to only $800 million.

Worst case scenario (i.e., if $1.4 billion is cut from the education budget): 15,000 teaching position will be eliminated. After-school programs will be eliminated. English as a second language (ESL) classes will be eliminated. Class sizes will balloon.

And, on top of all that, your property taxes will go up. By a lot.

The past two years haven’t been easy on New Yorkers. Ordinary folks across this State have made one sacrifice after another. The tanking of the economy – largely due to Wall Street’s greed and incompetence – has resulted in an increased (and consistently high) unemployment rate.

There’s no two ways about it – cuts to eduction will permanently hurt our children, and will make it harder for New York’s economy to rebound.

But, there’s an alternative. A temporary two-year banker’s bonus tax on compensation over $250,000 would bring in almost $7 billion back to the State, allowing for easy restoration of the proposed cuts to education.

After a press conference where some of the letters’ authors read their messages aloud, the group delivered the wagons to Senators Darrel Aubertine, John Bonacic, Brian Foley, Kemp Hannon, Craig Johnson, Owen Johnson, Jeffrey Klein, Kenneth LaValle, Frank Padavan, William Stachowski, and David Valeski.

Here’s some quotes from the letters:

We need you to do this for children like my grandchildren who will have a bleak future if you allow our district to suffer cuts of over $6million. My newest granddaughter Kacey is only 13 months old and I worry about what will be left of our schools by the time she is in the district if these cuts happen.
-Amparo Sadler, a Central Islip grand-parent, from her letter addressed to Senator Brian Foley

As a student in your district I think cutting the budget that will result in teachers getting laid off will be bad because less teachers will produce less students being taught. Wall Street is the same as you and I and they should pay their fair share to rebuild this economy.
-Jacob Merrill, a 9th grader at Oswego High School, from his letter addressed to Senator Darrel Aubertine

If we do not ask Wall Street to help stop the pending school budget cuts our children will be deprived of the necessary requirements needed to succeed and they will fall further behind. In order to keep our children competitive in the 21st century job market, we need Senator Valesky and his colleagues to prioritize their education.
-Gerald R. Lotierzo, a resident of the 49th Senate District, from his letter addressed to Senator David Valesky

As press clips come in from today’s event, I’ll post them below.

WNYT NBC 13 – Senators Receive Some Handy Advice

Protest in Times Square, NYC

On Tuesday, activists in dozens of state across the US protested the unfair, profiteering, and crisis-causing practices of big private insurance companies in America. In New York, Citizen Action focused on two of our state’s worst: United Healthcare and GHI/HIP.

We held protests in New York City, Long Island, Albany, Binghamton, and Buffalo, and used the findings of two new reports released by our research affiliate, the Public Policy and Education Fund of New York, to show that these corporations are the worst of the worst when it comes to customer service and protecting their profits by using ratepayer dollars to oppose reform.

Big insurance companies make profits by overcharging policyholders, raising prices for individuals, families, employees, and unions, and denying people health care.

The result:

• more than 47 million Americans are uninsured
• 45,000 people in America die every year because they don’t have health insurance
• tens of thousands of families are torn apart and thrown into poverty every year due to medical bankruptcy
• with the economic depression, Americans are losing their jobs and consequently are losing coverage

America’s health care system is broken – and every minute we delay fixing it, more lives are being ruined and lost.

Here’s some facts about United Healthcare and the way they operate:

• Based on complaints to the State Insurance Department, United Healthcare has the third worst ranking of the state’s 46 insurance companies. These complaints surrounded issues like the company failing to provide coverage and promised benefits and failing to make payments to doctors and hospitals
• United Healthcare gets the worst ranking on the 29 private (i.e., for-profit) New York insurers
• In 2008, the Insurance Department upheld 559 complaints against United Healthcare (as opposed to Aetna’s 200)
• In 2007, United Healthcare agreed to a $4 million settlement with the state Insurance Department that included a three-year improvement plan to eliminate the company’s errors in claims processing. This was the largest settlement ever entered into with a health insurer involving practices that had harmed customers
• In 2006, after years of findings of improper business practices that remained uncorrected, the Department of Health took the rare step of banning United Healthcare’s managed care plan from enrolling most types of new customers

And they oppose reform. At least some of those people expressing opposition to health care reform this past summer at Congressional town hall meetings were insurance company employees, a portion of whom were influenced and even intimidated into taking action by their employer. Several media outlets reported that United Health Group (United Healthcare’s parent company) sent a letter to its employees on company stationary asking them to attend town hall meetings and write letters and make phone calls to Congress. The employees were given anti-reform talking points to use.

And, here’s some facts about GHI/HIP and what they do:

• GHI HMO is the worst of the 13 HMOs in New York when it comes to customer complaints to the Insurance Department, and 46th of 46 for all categories of insurers
• GHI’s indemnity plan is 41 of 46, and HIP HM is 42 of 46 in consumer complaints – right near the bottom
• In 1999, the New York Attorney General found that HIP was illegally requiring prior authorization for emergency service. Prior authorization for EMERGENCY SERVICE!

GHI/HIP also opposes reform. David Abernethy, EmblemHealth’s senior VP for governmental affairs, is a member of the policy committee of America’s Health Insurance Plans (AHIP), which is the major insurance industry group opposing reform. AHIP spent $7.5 million on lobbying Congress in 2008 and already spent another $2 million in the first quarter of 2009 – obviously in opposition to reform.

At the events Tuesday, we called on these companies to:

1. Adopt a plan to radically improve poor consumer complaint records
2. Terminate any policy or company incentive that rewards employees financially or otherwise for denying care or rejecting claims
3. Not use any employees or company resources (our premium dollars) to defeat legislation to expand health care coverage

Our message spread. Here’s a tv piece from Binghamton and an article from Long Island.

Here’s a great video from the protest in Kingston, NY, organized by MoveOn.org:

Here’s the report on United Healthcare:

And the one on GHI/HIP:

It appeared that the Administration we worked so hard to elect was backing away from our strongest mandate – true health care reform through a strong public option.

But every cloud has a silver lining!

My group in Buffalo, BuffalObama, that worked so very hard from March of 2007 until election day and after, is re-energized.  And it’s not just Buffalo, across the state the grassroots organizers who have been continuing to meet, open offices, make phone calls and support health care reform initiatives are ready to speak up.  We are not going to lose this fight!

So, if you were involved in the campaign – knocking on doors, making calls, holding signs, sending in money – it’s time to do it again!  Let’s not waste the significant time we put in during the election with inside the beltway politics and insurance company money.  We proved we could overcome all of that during the election – we can do it again!

Call your Citizen Action office right now and ask what you can do – we have LOTS of events happening and each one is important to show that our support for a public option is louder and larger than the voices of the right wing crazies.

The Committee of concerned residents and parents worked together to develop a platform consisting of specific policy reforms.

They teamed up with students from Hofstra’s Law School to create policy language around “no nepotism” and “conflict of interest” – two key issues on the platform that had been developed.

These new policies would focus on how the District hires staff – ensuring those most qualified are hired.

Members of the Committee then presented the policies that had been developed to the Board of Education.

The presentation was followed up with a storm of handwritten letters and phone calls  from parents, grandparents, students, and community members to members of the Board asking for support of the policies.

Now, the policies are in their final stages of implementation: Committee members will be meeting with the Board’s Policy Committee to review the policies and implement them in District operations.

To celebrate their victory, LIPC hosted a family barbecue and invited the whole community. Over 60 people attended and enjoyed the day.