Want to give our Central New York members a heads-up about an event at 5:30 Monday night at the Lyncourt School in Syracuse.

Educators, school board members. administrators and families will gather to connect and get the info they need to advocate for our students, schools and districts. Billy Easton of the Alliance for Quality Education will speak. Everyone is welcome. The school is at 2707-2709 Court St.

Next week is a busy one as

• Monday (in addition to the Syracuse event), we plan to formally unveil a new action center on NYSUT’s website;
• Tuesday, members of the United Federation of Teachers come to Albany for a legislative briefing with lawmakers from 8 to 10:30 a.m.; and
• Wednesday, NYSUT and its higher education affiliates deliver testimony to the Assembly and Senate. Also, AQE is scheduled to release a report on the impact of the proposal to move school operating aid into competitive grants.
  Somebody must be watching too much reality TV if they really want to turn basic education aid into a contest. I liked the Twitter question, “How do we win immunity?” Here are a few more: “Who gets to play Jeff Probst? Who gets to vote? What will it take to be put on Redemption Island?”

How sad are all these questions when we are talking about what kids need in classrooms? You can help by signing the petition.