By Anthony Rifilato
Surrounded by a group of children ranging from seven to 11 years of age, Nixon and others from several organizations held a press conference at the center as part of a statewide campaign to overturn the decision and pressure Gov. George Pataki to sign a pledge and make a twelfth-grade education available to all students.
Kids were armed with signs and placards that read "An Eighth Grade Education Is Not Enough," and supporters waved applications from McDonald's and other low-paying jobs to demonstrate the limited career opportunities available to kids who receive a sub-par education.
"Pataki has said that kids are only entitled to an eighth-grade
education," said Nixon, who is seven months pregnant. "We're fighting that."
Nixon, a native of New York who plays Miranda Hobbs on the hit HBO series, is the spokesperson for the Alliance for Quality Education, a statewide coalition of more than 200 organizations, and will
tour parts of the state to gain support for the case, which has been dubbed the "12th Grade Express."
Last May, Nixon was arrested in front of City Hall for protesting budget cuts, and said she was compelled to do something about the issue after visiting her daughter's school.
"Last year I brought my daughter to kindergarten," said Nixon, whose six-year-old daughter attends school on Manhattan's Upper West Side. "But there had been budget cuts over the summer and they lost teachers and staff."
Nixon chided Pataki, who won an appeal in June following a lawsuit
brought by the Campaign for Fiscal Equity, a non-profit organization that has argued for reforms in under-funded schools. CFE won a ruling in January 2001 which said that New York City schools were shortchanged on state aid and that schools were entitled to millions of dollars in additional funds required under the state's constitution, which mandates a "sound, basic education."
"The original ruling was to restructure the system across the state," said Bob Cohen, a coordinator with the Alliance for Quality Education,
But that ruling was overturned in June and means that Pataki will not have to increase state spending on city schools. The court also ruled that the state must provide the equivalent of an eighth-grade education -- the amount needed to serve on a jury, vote and hold minimum wage jobs.
"Pataki applauded the June decision but has gotten heat as the
[gubernatorial] election comes closer," Nixon said.
