Educators and Community Leaders Tell Puerto Rico Control Board to Put Children First

NEW YORK—As Puerto Rico’s unelected Fiscal Control Board met to decide on the island's financial future, educators and community leaders rallied with their Puerto Rican colleagues to demand that the board put children and their education first, not hedge funds and banks.

A morning rally and press conference outside the meeting was attended by leaders from the Asociación de Maestros de Puerto Rico, the American Federation of Teachers, the New York State United Teachers, the Service Employees International Union, the United Federation of Teachers, the New York State Public Employees Federation, the Professional Staff Congress of the City University of New York and community groups.

President of the Asociación de Maestros de Puerto Rico Aida Diaz spoke at the board meeting. Her prepared remarks read, in part: “Most of the 379,000 students enrolled in our public school system live under the poverty levels. We are convinced that the only way we can bring them out of where they are is through education. The numbers within the board’s fiscal plan have human faces—the faces of our citizens, the faces of our public employees, the faces of our teachers, the faces of our retirees, but most important the faces of our children.”

AFT President Randi Weingarten said: “Today, we stand with Puerto Rico’s children, parents and educators, who are suffering because of a crisis manufactured and exacerbated by hedge funds and banks. Austerity in Puerto Rico has meant severe cuts to public education and other public services and the erosion of retirement security for workers. The teachers’ pension plan has been gutted because the government refused to pay its share.

We are fighting for a sustainable future for Puerto Rico’s workers—and that starts with holding the board, politicians and the banks accountable for their actions and telling them to put the needs of kids and their teachers first.”   

AFT Executive Vice President Mary Cathryn Ricker said: “We’re raising our voice to stand with Puerto Rico’s teachers and send the board a message that it can’t balance Puerto Rico’s books on the backs of educators and students. The cuts to Puerto Rico’s public schools have been some of the most regressive we’ve seen as Americans. Educators and kids are being robbed, and Puerto Rico’s future is being robbed.”

NYSUT Executive Vice President and AFT Vice President Andrew Pallotta said: “Puerto Rico’s hardworking and dedicated teachers and staff—and those who have retired from careers serving the island’s students—deserve to be treated fairly. They did not create this fiscal crisis. It should not be solved on their backs, the backs of students, or the backs of Puerto Rico’s working families. NYSUT’s more than 600,000 members, in every corner of the state, stand with their colleagues in support of Puerto Rico’s working families and a just solution to this difficult issue.”

SEIU 32BJ President Héctor Figueroa said: “Making more cuts to education and public services will do nothing to stimulate the island’s economy or bring more jobs to the island. It will only make life more difficult for children and families, and continue to push families to abandon their homes. The members of SEIU, including workers in Puerto Rico’s schools and members throughout the states with loved ones struggling under Puerto Rico’s crisis, are disappointed by the control board’s choices that favor banks over people, and we will continue to demand that the board do what is right.”

UFT President and AFT Vice President Michael Mulgrew said: “Puerto Rico’s children and working families should not have to shoulder the burden of the island’s debt crisis. Cutting school days, closing schools, furloughing teachers and slashing healthcare is going to make life worse for ordinary citizens, without improving the island’s economy. The only winners will be the large banks and bondholders.”

PSC executive council member and Hostos Community College PSC Chapter Chair Lizette Colón said: “PSC/CUNY stands with the educators of Puerto Rico against this unelected control board. As a union including hundreds of Puerto Rican faculty and staff, and working with thousands of Puerto Rican students in New York, we support our brothers and sisters because we know, as they do, what it takes to fight back against cuts and how to take on the powerful and win. Puerto Rico has already seen unfair tuition hikes for students and debilitating cuts of hundreds of millions of dollars from higher education. Now salaries are being threatened. Our fight is their fight, and we will stand united to resist the imposition of austerity on students, teachers and working people in Puerto Rico.” 

Public Employees Federation Hispanic caucus President Melissa Lasanta-Edwards said: “It is essential to maintain a strong system of education in order for the economy to flow, and Puerto Rico needs the support of its educators to continue this momentum.”