This time of year the apple trees are stunning. Delicate, paper-like pink flowers crown the crooked branches in a halo of soft color. Once the blossoms drop, it is time for farm workers to sort out the branches of the apple trees to make more room for the apples to receive the sun, and to [...]

What if students had to pass a quiz if they want to have lunch? Canandaigua students in Ontario County think that the testing situation in New York has almost become that crazy. So they created a scenario where they’re banished from the lunch line if they can’t correctly guess the meal for the day. And they [...]

“The Bully Effect,” a half-hour CNN documentary,  aired  Sunday night (May 5) on Cartoon Network, which helped produce the show as well. The cast of Level Up, who usually take on digital monsters, have their radar on real-life  bullies this time. Anti-bullying has now gone prime time. But even if you missed the program Sunday [...]

Today is Workers’ Memorial Day, and every year NYSUT holds a simple and solemn ceremony to mark the memory of those who have lost their lives on the job in the past year. A red rose is laid down on a table as each name is called; a symbol for each life lost in the [...]

It was an evening where everyone had a seat at the table. Farm workers, musicians, high school performance artists, union leaders, faith activists and the wide-eyed children of farm workers toddling around as their parents spoke out for a way of life that would give them a day off every week to be family. At the [...]

Fresh. Healthy. Ripe. Nutritious. This is how we want our food to be; how we envision it growing on the farms. Plump tomatoes. Juicy strawberries. Strong zucchini. We make salads and stir-fry, slice and dice, blend and boil. Chances are, we do not know the farmworkers who tend to those fruits and vegetables during the [...]

There’s a march today from 11:45 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., at the Washington Avenue entrance of the Capitol for the 1.5 million working class New Yorkers who are thwarted from  making ends meet because they earn minimum wage. The ongoing movement to get the minimum wage increased has involved cadres of people busing to Albany, [...]

“We’re doing fundraisers to keep arts,” said Rachel Busher, one of many teachers hoisting signs outside the Capitol on Tuesday. She came to tell  lawmakers how number crunching in Albany is stealing opportunities from students in New Paltz. Drama club, art club, chorus and band are “all clubs that were cut since the 2 percent [...]

Tonight begins the 40-Hour Fast for Worker Justice, held each year by the New York State Labor–Religion Coalition. Starting at 8 p.m. and finishing at noon on Thursday, people are asked to fast as a spiritual exercise and to call attention to the plight of farmworkers and  minimum-wage laborers. The event calls for justice in [...]

The student marching band from Cohoes High School put on quite a show, lifting the excitement level high and loud at the Capitol in Albany today during the Parade for Public Education. The students wore crisp blue and gold band uniforms and band hats strapped on their heads. Batons, horns, drums, performance routines – they [...]