Back from the brink
A faltering national economy. Huge budget gaps in Albany and New York City. Unemployment at a peak, homelessness on the rise, Wall Street losses. Sound familiar? 2010? No, the year was 1975 and the city was teetering on the edge of bankruptcy. Real disaster was averted when the state, city and business community joined forces with the city’s unions to forge a joint solution. And therein lies a lesson that today’s New York leaders might do well to recall. Read More...
Allies: The UFT and the civil rights movement
Last month, the UFT released a report detailing how some New York City charter schools constitute what is essentially a separate and unequal public school system. This is an issue that should greatly trouble everyone who cares about the education of our children — all our children — and it is an injustice that the UFT is fighting hard to correct. We have been down similar roads before. Read More...
Albert Shanker: Prophetic reformer
If a controversial topic is dominating the education debate today, it’s probably something that Al Shanker proposed decades ago. It’s a tribute to Shanker’s forward thinking that many of the education reforms that he advocated in the 1970s, ’80s and ’90s remain as cutting edge — and as contentious — today as they were when he first aired them. Read More...
Finding common cause: The early years
The irony is stunning. As the UFT prepares to celebrate its 50th anniversary, the Department of Education announced its plans to close the school where the first stirrings of teacher unionism began almost a century ago. Read More...
