UFT ad blasts same old Bloomberg

The UFT launched a hard-hitting television ad on Jan. 4 urging Mayor Michael Bloomberg to put politics aside and come to an agreement with the union on a new teacher evaluation system. 

Watch the TV ad >>

The 30-second ad opens with a photo of a young girl while the off-camera narrator says, “Eleven years ago, she entered 1st grade.” A quick cut shows a photo of Mayor Bloomberg in his first year in office as the narrator goes on: “He entered City Hall.”

Next, viewers see the girl today, now a high school senior, while the narrator says, “And while she’s changed a lot, he hasn’t.” With headlines featuring some of Bloomberg’s biggest education debacles, the narration continues: “It’s his way or the highway.”

The ad criticizes the mayor for having “no plan to support teachers” and “no strategy to improve schools.” Then, the narrator calls on the mayor to “agree to a fair evaluation system that gives teachers the support they need to help kids succeed.”

The ad was scheduled to air through Jan. 17, the governor’s deadline for local school districts to come to agreement on new teacher evaluation systems or lose their share of the state education funding increase. For New York City, $250 million in state aid for schools is at stake.

By the time its run concludes, the ad will have been seen by more than 8 million viewers on local broadcast stations and cable television networks.

“The mayor’s educational legacy is unfortunately one of missed opportunities,” said UFT President Michael Mulgrew as the ad first appeared. “If he wants his legacy to be anything but a decade of disaster, he will put politics aside and come to an agreement on an evaluation system that helps students and teachers succeed.”