Cara Matthews

Gov. Kathy Hochul signed state legislation at UFT headquarters on Sept. 6 to spur teacher recruitment, with a focus on increasing diversity, across the state. The state needs about 180,000 teachers in the next decade to meet workforce needs, she said.

The class trip for 1st-graders at PS 234 in Manhattan to Battery Urban Farm in lower Manhattan was a feast for the senses. The Battery Conservancy created Battery Urban Farm to teach students, residents and visitors about sustainable farming and healthy eating.



A new city Office of Healthcare Accountability will force all New York City hospitals to disclose what they charge for medical procedures and make it harder for them to engage in price gouging.

The Harbor Defense Museum at Fort Hamilton, with its collections of weaponry, uniforms and memorabilia from the American Revolution to World War II, is an interesting destination for a class trip.

Three-quarters of the UFT members who cast ballots ratified a new contract that raises members’ salaries by 17.58% to 20.42% when compounded and gives educators more say over how and where they spend their out-of-classroom time. The agreement marked the end of an eight-month battle for a fair contract.

From Si Beagle courses and social services to legal advice and supplemental health care, membership in the Retired Teachers Chapter offers many benefits. But membership is not automatic: You must enroll in the UFT’s Retired Teachers Chapter after you retire to remain a UFT member.


Brooklyn native Vanecia Wilson, a UFT special representative and 31-year veteran educator, continues her advocacy on behalf of teachers, students and school communities as the union’s new political director.

Following passage of a state budget that allows 14 new charter schools to open in New York City, the UFT and other public education advocates are demanding more transparency and accountability from the charter sector.

Senior citizens need to be wary of emails, phone calls and text messages designed to get them to hand over money or share personal information, an elder fraud expert told UFT retirees at the Retired Teachers Chapter membership meeting in May. Fraud is a booming business, said Anna Diao, chief of the Elder Fraud Unit in the Queens District Attorney’s Office.

Retired educator Dahlma Llanos-Figueroa has sought refuge in libraries and books her whole life, and now she is contributing her own works to libraries — historical novels that reflect the richness, complexity, beauty and brutality of her Afro-Puerto Rican heritage.