Twenty students, parents, educators, elected officials and advocates from across the state arrived in Albany Tuesday as the final stop of a 10-day, 150 mile walk from New York City, where they gathered for a rally outside the New York State Court of Appeals to demand Campaign for Fiscal Equity funding.
The Ed Walk for CFE commemorates the historic school funding case and brings together communities from all across the state to demand $3.9 billion from the New York Legislature. The Ed Walkers began their journey Oct. 2, walking through Manhattan and the Bronx, Yonkers, Ossining, Peekskill, Garrison, Cold Spring, Beacon, Poughkeepsie, Kingston, Saugerties, Catskill, Coxsackie, Ravena and finally Schenectady for the last part of the walk to the steps of the Court of Appeals in Albany.
Tuesday morning the Ed Walkers joined the Ed Riders, who have biked 350 miles from Buffalo at Emmanuel Friedens Church in Schenectady to walk the final stretch of the journey to the Courthouse. The Ed Riders made stops in Rochester, Auburn, Syracuse, Rome, Utica and Herkimer. The groups walked to the state capitol to deliver invoices to Gov. Andrew Cuomo for the CFE funding from every school district in the state, demanding the governor, Senate majority and Independent Democratic Conference join the Assembly in support of CFE.
In 2016, the Assembly put forth a multiyear proposal to fund Foundation Aid in full. The Senate majority proposed funding 20 percent, and the governor approved just 6 percent.