UFT President Michael Mulgrew told the UFT Delegate Assembly at its meeting on Dec. 17 that the union is calling on policymakers in Albany to rely on facts and research when making decisions about public schools.

He noted that Gov. Andrew Cuomo based the new policy against fracking on findings by a panel of experts about the gas-drilling method. But, he said, when state officials consider education policy, hedge fund managers and other financiers who know nothing about public schools are often at the table.

“We want policy based on research and the facts of what actually works for children,” Mulgrew said. “Bring in the real experts” on education issues.

The union has, for example, put forward a proposal to significantly reduce class sizes in kindergarten through 3rd grade in New York City. Research is clear that small classes in early grades can greatly improve student achievement.

The UFT has also relied on research in proposing how to pay for smaller classes: Close property tax loopholes in New York City that allow absentee landlords of luxury condos and co-ops to pay the same substantially reduced tax rates as owners who live in the city.

Facts also help to counter propaganda put forward by the charter school industry that charter schools serve the neediest students in New York City, Mulgrew said. City data shows that the poorest children in each district attend district schools, not charters.

Mulgrew also warned that Cuomo’s recent pronouncement that the state may need to redo the law on teacher evaluation is based on corporate education reform ideology, not the facts of how teacher evaluation systems really work.

Corporate reformers want an evaluation system that sets a quota each year, such as that “no matter what, 10 percent of the teachers every year are rated Ineffective.”

Such an approach would violate what is supposed to be the real purpose of evaluation — helping teachers to improve, Mulgrew said. It would also put teachers in competition with each other, which is directly contrary to the approach now in New York City encouraging educators to work collaboratively.

In other news, Mulgrew told delegates that the union is working to make sure that Districts 75 and 79 are incorporated into any restructuring plan for city schools.

“If you move student achievement in Districts 75 and 79, you make a huge move in student achievement overall because those students struggle greatly,” he said.

Delegates approved two resolutions, one supporting the Justice for All march in Washington, D.C., on Dec. 13. The union’s Executive Board approved the resolution prior to the march.

The second resolution approved calls for the federal government to adopt a new, fairer formula for determining the annual cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) to Social Security that more accurately reflects the real living costs for the nation’s elderly.