PEF's Robert Jackson: A natural organizer

One-point-one million reasons motivated Robert Jackson to file a class-action lawsuit in 1993 against the state of New York--the 1.1 million New York City school children attending the city's 1,100 public schools.

That lawsuit made headlines nationwide in January when state Supreme Court justice Leland DeGrasse issued a landmark decision validating Jackson's claim that the state's school funding system violated both the state's constitution and the Civil Rights Reform Act of 1964.

Since the ruling, city officials and children's rights advocates have called Jackson, director of field services for the FPE/AFT-affiliated Public Employees Federation (PEF), a hero. But Jackson was only doing what he has always done in response to an injustice. He organized.

"It's all about working with each other to do better for our communities and our families," says Jackson, who organized his first campaign in 1968 when he led a student protest against chained doors at his East Harlem high school.

When those chains were removed from the doors, Jackson experienced firsthand what individuals can accomplish through collective action, and he has never shied away from a challenge since. He organized members of PEF's PS&T local as a union leader before he left his state job to work for PEF. He organized a tenants' association strike that compelled the owner to install a new boiler. He organized a community basketball club for indoor play during the winter months. He organized a campaign for Community School Board in 1986 and won the seat he still holds today. In fact, his familiarity with the education funding process as a school board member sparked his largest organizing campaign--the lawsuit.

In 1992, Jackson, then school board president, realized city schools were financially taut. Classes were bloated systemwide with 30-plus students to one teacher. In his northern Manhattan community of Washington Heights, students were bused to schools in other areas of the city, some as nearby as neighboring Harlem, others as far away as the south Bronx. "Enough was enough," Jackson recalls. It was time to organize. It was time to sue the state.

Jackson turned to District 6 school board lawyer Michael Rebell. Rebell formed the Campaign for Fiscal Equity (CFE), a nonprofit organization, and filed the class-action suit in 1993 naming Jackson lead litigant.

While Jackson is encouraged by DeGrasse's decision, which orders the state to rectify the funding disparity and meet a series of criteria for city schools, including hiring sufficient numbers of teachers, he says that "the battle is over but the war is not won." With Gov. George Pataki promising an appeal, Jackson equates the lawsuit to a relay race. The CFE has passed the baton to the state legislature, he says.

"Bob's determination to pursue justice and equal education is an inspiration to us all," says PEF president Roger Benson.

Now, with the baton passed, Jackson is on to another race--the race for New York City Council--where his efforts to organize supporters is as essential to his successful bid as it has been to the outcome of his other endeavors. "I have been involved in every facet of our community from housing to education to the electoral process," says Jackson. "I think it is a natural progression as far as the type of work I have done in the community."