shouting their objection to the school committee's matter-of-fact acceptance of a budget that was $57 Million less than what the superintendent originally asked for. While the budget reduction cut very few teacher positions, many valuable educational programs and classroom support positions were cut.

Two points were made over and over by BTU officials. One) that our so-called under-performing schools are schools that have been really under-resourced for many years. These schools, with their yearly budget fluctuations and, in some cases, administrative mismanagement, have never been given a fighting chance to thrive. And two) the city has failed to examine the issue of how and why non-profits (hospitals, universities, and the like) are allowed to continue avoid paying their fair share in taxes for city services they use. Non-profits are exempt from paying property taxes under a law that was passed in 1830(!). Northeastern, for example, owns $1.3 Billion (yes, billion) in property covering 57+ prime acres, yet voluntarily paid the city only $30,000 last year. Had Northeastern paid the city at the corporate tax rate other city-based corporations pay, it would have paid more than $30 Million. (All figures come from the city of Boston.) Perhaps it is time to re-visit the 1830 law. Coverage of the rally and the issue of the exemption from property tax collection enjoyed by non-profits was picked up in today's Boston metro . Other coverage of the rally was seen in the Globe and the Herald .

BTU Rally-goers were joined by hundreds of custodians, community members, parents, students, and bus drivers. Custodians and custodial services have taken the hardest budget hit of any one department, a move that will surely lead to greatly-reduced sanitary conditions in our schools. Building maintenance and repair, also reduced, is an area where there is little budgetary wiggle room, so every dollar lost hurts our schools and our students.

A little disappointing--but not surprising--to our members was the last-minute letter the superintendent sent out yesterday telling us essentially that the loss of $57 Million was, in effect,  manageable inasmuch as teaching positions were not cut. We are not persuaded . It is a huge problem when $57 million is cut, whether or not teaching positions are lost. The point is that valuable programs were lost. Support services were lost. Custodial and maintenance services were lost. Altogether $57 million in goods and services were cut, and it is a big deal. We have noticed a pattern that the superintendent appears to try to pre-empt our actions with a direct letter to staff, usually on the day we are about to take that action. When we leafleted  parents last fall about the 'Ed Reform' law, the superintendent did too. When we held our rally yesterday, the superintendent sent out a letter to staff on the same day saying that the budget cuts were not that bad. Well...we see through this. We turned out anyway to the rally, despite the letter meant to distract. And we turned out in large numbers.  We will continue to protest when we think we need to, regardless of the 'spin' we get from Court St.

Lastly, we show here a picture taken by one of our taller members through a window peeking in to school committee deliberations last night before the vote to adopt the  budget.  Last night's school committee vote was the 1,874th consecutive unanimous vote the committee has taken. Of course, the vote came after great deliberation. Since the elected school board was replaced by the appointed school board 20 years ago, the appointed school committee has taken thousands of votes. 99.73% of those votes have been unanimous. All votes have come after great deliberation.

(Photo by Angela Cristiana)

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Many thanks are in order for all the help we received yesterday. First, we thank all who attended.Your presence and support helps all of our members. We thank the building reps., who stepped up, organized and encouraged staff to attend. We thank the many, many hundreds of retirees who came to help with their presence.We truly appreciate everyone's help. We are a union, and we depend on everyone's combined efforts to help bring our message out--a message that helps our schools, our students, and ourselves. Thank you.