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Councilman Begins March to Albany
By Ellen Yan
Staff Writer
May 1, 2003
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Council member Robert Jackson, center, founder of
"Walk a Mile for Your Child", along with Joel Klein, Education
Commissioner, and several other politicians, gathered in Madison Park in Manhattan
to begin an eight -day march over state school funding. |
Robert Jackson has a dream; his
feet will take him there. Wearing his trusty blue-and-gray sneakers on
Thursday, the city councilman started a seven-day, 150-mile march to Albany,
trekking over hill and dale, in rain and sun rays, to highlight a landmark
court battle for equitable funding of schools.
He is expected to arrive at the state capital on May 8,
the day attorneys make the last legal stand in Campaign for Fiscal Equity vs.
the state, an appeals case that could funnel millions of dollars more annually
for city schools.
"150 miles or bust," read the sign Jackson carried yesterday through Manhattan,
where school kids cheered and supporters gave him foot-care advice.
"We're being shortchanged and it's discrimination, because 84 percent of
the children in the city are children of color," Jackson, the suit's lead
plaintiff, said Wednesday, likening his walk to the 1965 civil
rights march from Selma, Ala. He is the father of a campaign that started 10
years ago, after he found his daughters in overcrowded classes in
short-staffed, dilapidated schools.
The Campaign for Fiscal Equity, a coalition of groups supporting funding
changes, won the first legal round two years ago in State Supreme Court,
arguing that the city got 35 percent of state education funds even though it
had 38 percent of New York public school students.
Then last June, Appellate Division justices overturned the ruling, concluding
the state satisfies its constitutional obligation by providing between an
eighth-grade and ninth-grade education.
For Jackson, battling a cold and forecasts of rain, an appeals victory would
pave the way for the gold standard in education.
"The only way I'm going to stop walking is they have to carry me away in a
stretcher," he said walking up Broadway near 86th St.
He walked 12 miles in October 1999, from Washington Heights home to the
courthouse on the first day of arguments in the case.
Jackson said he got depressed several weeks ago when he went by car to map the
way to Albany, Route 9 all the way. "Day 3 is tough," the councilman
said. "You have hills. That's when you pass Bear Mountain."
While he'll be joined by supporters along the way, Jackson is among the few to
try to walk the entire route. A support car will follow, carrying energy bars, bandagesisters and Jackson's extra shoes.
The long march was Jackson's idea. He admits he's crazy.
"I'm crazy about children and what it means for the rest of their
lives," Jackson said. "All of us are basically putting our lives on
hold for one week ... so the people who decide the case know how important it
is for us."