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80-degree heat, but he continued clutching it in his palm as a
svmbol of what he and other
students on Long Island stand
to lose.
"Our government seems to
have forgotten this issue is not
about facts and figures," said
his -mother.
- -- -- , -Marie
.-- -- Tanker
- - --
--
f
of
Riverhead. "It's about giving
o u r children the tools they
need to succeed in life!'
As state legislators emerged
from special session yesterday
without consensus on a plan to
increase school funding, figures were about the only things
they were considering.
With Gov. George Pataki and
the Legislature still at a standoff, activists, parents and students from some of the Island's
low-wealth districts took to the
steps of the Central Islip school
administration building yesterday to urge lawmakers to remember the plight of districts
like theirs.
In Central lslip yesterday, parents and students protest
"We need a deal to be made," Albany's inability t o enact a statewide school funding plan.
said Lisa Tyson, representing
the Alliance for Quality Educa- heldin hallways or cafeterias be- tendents. "That's the thing loomtion, which organized the rally. cause there is no space. 'We are ing over everybody's heads."
"AgooddeaLAstatewidedeal."
mad because we are still sepaAll districts w o r n about this.