Latest news with #UFT
New York Post
19 hours ago
- Politics
- New York Post
Democratic mayoral race didn't even TOUCH on fixing the public schools
If there's one thing the Democratic candidates for mayor don't want to talk about, it's getting better results out of the city's public schools. Even though the Department of Education, now burning more than $40 billion a year and over $33,000 per student, is easily the biggest item in the city budget and still growing even though enrollment is declining. To be fair, one candidate did want to talk about the schools, but hedge-fund exec and philanthropist Whitney Tilson never got traction, perhaps because he alone refused to kow-tow to the United Federation of Teachers. Otherwise, 'I give the mayoral candidates a D or an F grade across the board,' said Ray Domanico, co-author of a damning Manhattan Institute report on education in the mayoral race. Of course, most of the field are die-hard progressives who'll never question the anti-excellence 'equity' agenda, nor cross the self-serving UFT. The worst of them, Zohran Mamdani, actually calls for ending mayoral control of the DOE and so guaranteeing that voters can't hold anyone accountable for failing schools. This, when just 33% of the city's fourth graders scored proficient in math last year and 28% in reading, numbers that don't get any better in the higher grades. Supposedly less-radical Andrew Cuomo did try to stand up to the teachers unions as governor, but got his hat handed to him. He's since publicly denounced his own past positions and even embraced a core priority of the mayor he once held in utter contempt, calling to ramp up Bill de Blasio's 'community schools' initiative. In all, Cuomo's education platform panders shamelessly to the UFT and its hatred of charter schools — the only part of the public-school system that offers real educational opportunity in most of the city. No one in the race dares call for a return to Bloomberg-era policies: expanding charters while opening more good regular public schools and doing top-down reorganization of failed ones. Nor will they breathe a word about chronic absenteeism, a huge post-COVID problem. More than a third, 34.8%, of Gotham students — about 300,000 public school kids —missed at least 10% of the 180-day school year in 2024, up from 26.5% in 2019. That's a disaster, but the candidates won't even talk about it Maybe the fall campaign will see candidates talking about doing better for New York's kids, but it's beyond damning that the topic is taboo in today's Democratic Party.
New York Post
6 days ago
- Politics
- New York Post
NYC's failing schools need a mayor who will take on the selfish teachers union
Fixing our public schools is one of the most important jobs facing New York City's next mayor: At $41 billion, education spending is the single largest item in City Hall's gargantuan $115 billion budget. But in both televised debates of the Democratic mayoral primary, my opponents offered only platitudes and teachers-union talking points. Last Thursday, I was the only candidate on stage to argue against the foolish class-size mandate secured by the United Federation of Teachers. Advertisement The policy may sound good, but as I noted it will cost $1.6 billion — and having to suddenly hire thousands of teachers who are less experienced and less qualified than the teachers we have will undercut any possible benefit of smaller classes. When it comes to education, we can't afford to repeat the same tired slogans and tinker around the margins. Advertisement But the UFT's self-interest makes real reform impossible. Fighting for kids — and taking on the adults who run our educational system for their benefit — has been my life's mission. It's why I helped start Teach for America and Democrats for Education Reform, and why I served on the board of NYC KIPP charter schools for more than two decades. Now that I'm running for mayor, I am the only candidate who has made fixing our schools a core part of my pitch to voters. Advertisement I have a simple message to the city's parents: Our Department of Education is ripping you off — and lying about it. The facts are damning: Every year, New York City spends upward of $40,000 per student — more than any other district in the country — but nearly half (46%) of our fourth-graders lack basic reading skills. Shockingly, fourth graders in our nation's poorest state, Mississippi — which spends just $12,000 per student — are now reading at a higher level than their peers in the five boroughs. Advertisement The results for New York City's black and Latino kids are especially alarming. In 2024, 58% of black fourth graders and 62% of Latino fourth graders in New York City public schools lacked basic reading skills, compared with 27% of white students and 25% of Asian students. Fourth grade is a critical time, because that's when the curriculum pivots from learning to read to reading to learn. Most children who struggle to read as fourth-graders fall further and further behind — and end up living lives of poverty and hardship. But to cover up its failure, NYC's public schools lie to parents, telling them their children are doing fine and passing them along year after year. That's why I've pledged to end this 'social promotion' after third grade. If the school system hasn't taught a child to read after five years, it needs to keep trying. The good news is we know what works: Establish high standards and a rigorous curriculum, hold all schools and educators accountable, reward excellence and give parents greater freedom to send their kids to schools of their choosing. Advertisement Against the objections of the UFT, former Mayor Mike Bloomberg expanded high-quality charter schools and other innovative public schools, made all schools take responsibility for their students' performance and greatly expanded parents' choices. The results spoke for themselves: The portion of fourth-graders lacking basic reading skills declined from 53% in 2002, Bloomberg's first year in office, to 38% in 2013. NYC's next mayor should expand on Bloomberg's approach. Charter schools, which educate about 15% of New York City's public-school students, are rigorously evaluated every five years. They must demonstrate that they're delivering for their students — and if they're falling short, they can be put on probation or even closed. Advertisement All public schools should be held to those standards. As mayor, I would establish similar accountability for every school in the system. To make sure we hire and retain the best teachers in the country, we need to pay teachers based on how much they inspire and educate our kids, not on their years in the system or the number of certifications they have. The next contract with the UFT must include differential pay based on merit and other measures that actually benefit our kids. And as mayor, I'd fight to overturn the UFT-engineered class-size mandate. Advertisement Unlike the other candidates, I can make that promise — because I'm not seeking the UFT's endorsement, and therefore I don't owe it anything. It's not too late for my fellow Democrats to join me in standing up to this self-serving special-interest group. Our children's future depends on it. Whitney Tilson, a businessman and education activist, is a candidate in the Democratic mayoral primary.
Yahoo
13-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
UFT says it won't endorse in NYC Democratic mayoral primary
New York City's powerful teachers union announced Friday it won't endorse in the Democratic mayoral primary, citing no clear consensus among United Federation of Teachers members this election cycle. The UFT's seal of approval had been one of the last-remaining endorsements with the potential to shake up the mayoral primary. But signs the union was struggling to coalesce around a candidate became apparent earlier this week when no resolution was brought at the final delegate assembly before early voting begins on Saturday. 'We couldn't even get near consensus,' UFT President Michael Mulgrew told the Daily News in an interview, despite what he described as an extensive process of polling and surveying the union's members. Mulgrew said it was 'frustrating' and 'troubling' not to endorse, but he considered it better than dividing or alienating members. The last time the union did not endorse was in 2009. The UFT previously backed the former comptroller Scott Stringer in his last bid for mayor in 2021. Mulgrew told The News that this year, while the union liked Stringer best again for education, other concerns took precedence. 'Traditionally, UFT ends up endorsing the candidate who's best for education, and that's not what our members are looking for at this point,' Mulgrew said. 'The affordability of the city [and] pushing back against the Trump administration, those came ahead of education. And on those issues, our membership was basically divided.' Andrew Cuomo, the current front-runner in the race, had seemingly been angling for the UFT's endorsement, despite a rocky past with the teachers union over pension plans and charter schools. At the UFT's mayoral forum last month, he promised to rollback the plan known as Tier 6 that he implemented as governor. During mayoral debates, he called for hiring more paraprofessionals, which has been a top priority of the UFT. But the ex-governor's history with the union proved to be a sticking point, as did Zohran Mamdani's support of Palestine. Mamdani has consistently been polling in second place. Mulgrew said he did not consider endorsing a slate of candidates. The non-endorsement capped off a tumultuous approval process for the UFT, who had to drop a prerequisite for their backing that candidates spend a day teaching at the Adams administration's behest.
Yahoo
01-06-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Teachers union prez handily wins reelection in low-turnout race
Michael Mulgrew handily won re-election as United Federation of Teachers president Saturday, clinching more than half the votes for his sixth term. Mulgrew got 54 percent of the vote, sources said. His closest competitor, A Better Contract candidate Amy Arundell, netted 32 percent, according to numbers obtained by The Post. Olivia Swisher, the candidate from the Alliance of Retired and In-Service Educators, finished third with approximately 14 percent of the vote. All told, 201,791 ballots were mailed in with 413 voided for various reasons. The full and complete count was announced around 3:30 p.m. via Instagram. Sources revealed fewer than 30 percent of eligible UFT voters mailed ballots in. 'Apathy prevails in this union of educators,' offered retired teacher Arthur Goldstein, an A Better Contract candidate for assistant secretary. The votes were counted by the independent Global Election Services. It was the slimmest margin of victory since Mulgrew's first run more than a decade ago, sources said. In 2022, Mulgrew's Unity party won with 66 percent of the votes, besting United For Change's then-34 percent. Mulgrew's new three-year term begins July 1.
Yahoo
31-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
UFT President Michael Mulgrew reelected to top NYC teachers union post
NEW YORK — United Federation of Teachers President Michael Mulgrew won his reelection bid Saturday, edging out two rival candidates who challenged the longtime incumbent over his handling of retiree health care and dissatisfaction with the status quo. Mulgrew's caucus, known as Unity, secured 54% of the vote this election cycle, compared to 32% and 14% for the opposition slates, A Better Contract ('ABC') and Alliance of Retiree and In-Services Educators ('ARISE'), respectively. More than 58,300 UFT members cast ballots — the highest voter turnout in a teachers union election in recent years. 'I want to thank the tens of thousands of UFT members who put their trust in Unity and in our work on behalf of the union,' Mulgrew said in a statement. The UFT is New York City's second-largest, public-sector union — with nearly 200,000 active and retired teachers, paraprofessionals and other members. With his latest victory, Mulgrew, the UFT president since 2009, has won six consecutive elections, but by increasingly smaller margins. In 2022, Unity won roughly 66% of the vote, while the opposition slate in the race secured 34% of ballots. This year's election results continued that trend. The results cap off a particularly invigorated election cycle, including an unsuccessful legal challenge by A Better Contract over in-person voting. In recent months, Mulgrew campaigned on the passage of the state's 2022 class size law, took a sharply critical stance of Mayor Eric Adams' relationship with the Trump administration, and tried to push through legislation to boost pay for paraprofessionals. ARISE brought together three caucuses, including the progressive Movement of Rank and File Educators ('MORE') and 'Retiree Advocate,' which last year toppled Mulgrew's ally who led the Retired Teacher chapter. The ARISE coalition, led by Olivia Swisher, a middle school art teacher in Brooklyn, hoped to harness the anger against Mulgrew over efforts to move former city workers onto privatized health care, known as Medicare Advantage, which retired teachers said could diminish their care. Acknowledging those headwinds, Mulgrew has since withdrawn the UFT's support for the the plan, which would have provided the city with hundreds of millions of dollars in annual savings. A Better Contract was led by Amy Arundell, a former top borough official at Unity. She left the caucus after she was removed from her position overseeing all union matters in Queens amid controversy over a pro-Israel union resolution. ABC, too, stood against the switch to Medicare Advantage. The insurgent bids seized on a growing anti-incumbent sentiment, which most recently played a part in the ouster of longtime health care labor leader George Gresham of 1199SEIU, who POLITICO reported used member dues to benefit himself, his family and political allies. Driven in part by that feeling, voter turnout increased by 15% since last election, according to the results. Both slates insisted that pay raises in the last contract did not keep pace with the cost of living. Mulgrew's rivals have also accused current leadership of not giving the rank and file enough of a voice in union matters and also of backroom dealings. In particular, some of his critics took issue with the city's new reading curriculum mandates, which were announced alongside the UFT, which they said threaten teacher autonomy and professionalism. The UFT president and other newly elected officers will serve three-year terms, starting on July 1.
