Editorials

Now that the Delegate Assembly has affirmed that the UFT will endorse a mayoral candidate in the primaries, you should take time to talk to your delegates and chapter leaders about which candidate you prefer.

The recent indictment of Atlanta’s former schools superintendent and 34 other school district employees in a widespread test-cheating scandal is deeply shocking and sad.

The Department of Education calls the meetings that it holds prior to closing or co-locating schools “public hearings.” But at a real public hearing, the public is heard.

Faced with tougher standardized state reading and math exams for students this year, the New York City Department of Education is reverting to an old policy of social promotion to avoid skyrocketing numbers of students who will have to pass summer school or repeat a year.

In yet another instance of his disregard for New York City’s schools and students, Mayor Bloomberg is still refusing to intervene in the yellow school bus strike, which began on Jan. 16. 


New research shows that investments in education like full-day prekindergarten generate great returns in terms of academic preparedness and achievement for those students.

Former UFTer and longtime Retired Teachers Chapter member Jeanne Manford did not set out to become a pioneer in the gay rights movement.

In his latest assault on New York City’s public school communities, the mayor is proposing to close 26 schools with persistently low student scores on state standardized tests. Some of the schools are ones that his administration opened and championed.

It has been six years since the UFT and other education advocates in the Campaign for Fiscal Equity coalition won a landmark court victory that declared the state was underfunding New York City’s public schools. But today many city schools in poor districts are still lacking sorely needed funds and basic resources.

The push by so-called education reformers for increased testing of students in the nation’s public schools is facing growing opposition from concerned parents and committed educators who understand that high-stakes exams can never substitute for real student learning.