State legislators looking for the best returns on budget investments should focus their efforts on education spending, according to a new report issued by the Economic Policy Institute.

Individual retirees and two major unions representing city workers in Detroit are among those who have challenged the city’s declaration of bankruptcy and its attempt to cut workers’ pensions.

A Coney Island principal repeatedly accused of bullying parents and staff and sent for sensitivity training by the DOE after making offensive racial remarks has been ordered to stop “harassing or otherwise discriminating” against union members lawfully exercising their rights.

The union movement at New York City charter schools gained momentum with the signing of three new contracts at the end of the school year. During the last 10 days of June, educators at a French-immersion charter school in Harlem and an elementary school in Queens both entered into their first contracts while a unionized charter school in the Bronx ratified its latest contract.

Basketball stars Drew Gooden of the Milwaukee Bucks and Iman Shumpert of the New York Knicks had some lessons to share with students attending a three-day workshop at UFT headquarters this summer.

While Tricia Moses, the teacher featured for her courage and caring in the May 16 edition of the New York Teacher, continues to wait for a life-saving lung transplant, the New York Daily News has chosen her as a finalist for its Hometown Heroes in Education award.

Philadelphia’s public schools will have enough funds to reopen on time this fall because of a last-minute plan for the city to loan the school district $50 million. But students will return to schools that have been mostly stripped of arts, extracurricular activities and support staff.

Despite plummeting test scores and mounting pressure to meet the higher academic demands of the new Common Core Learning Standards, the DOE is asking the state to waive requirements for school librarians. Angry parents, librarians, teachers and community leaders are demanding that the state reject the request.

Bill Thompson, the UFT’s choice for mayor, released a new 30-second TV ad featuring testimonials from family members, parents and teachers.

Bill Thompson campaigned with educators on Staten Island on Sept. 4, starting with a trip on the 7 o’clock ferry from Manhattan, where he greeted passengers, and ending with a tour of neighborhoods still suffering the effects of Hurricane Sandy.