Two UFT members will sit on the New York City Council in January 2022: Rita Joseph from Brooklyn and Eric Dinowitz from the Bronx. Joseph won her election to represent District 40 on Nov. 2, replacing term-limited Council Member Mathieu Eugene. Dinowitz was first elected to represent District 11 in a March special election and was reelected in November to serve his first full term.

Joseph is an English as a second language coordinator at PS 6 in Flatbush and has taught elementary school for 22 years. She was born in Haiti, came to the United States before the age of 2, and grew up in the Ditmas Park section of Flatbush.

She will be one of 31 women on the City Council beginning in January, giving the legislative body its first female majority. She says those women have already been building relationships.

“One of the cool things we’ve been doing is we meet, we talk, we go to events together,” Joseph said.

Though Joseph had been a community activist since she was 19 years old, she said her work as an educator helped inform her decision to run for public office.

“Coming into the school system, I saw a lot of needs, especially with the students I was teaching,” she said.

Joseph teaches English language learners and found they needed “extra support to close the gap” with their peers. “When they first enter the school system, they’re speaking survival English,” she said. “Basic things like, ‘Where is the bathroom?’”

When COVID-19 forced schools to switch to remote instruction, Joseph’s students were hit particularly hard. “The pandemic caused them to regress because language is socially acquired,” she said.

After years of working to help her students from within the school, she decided to run for the City Council and “take my lived experience with me” to get her community what it deserves.

“Being in the school gives you a perspective that most people don’t get to see,” Joseph said. “I know which of my students live in alternative housing, who’s eating and who’s not.”

Her experience as a teacher also gives her unique skills for her new job.

“I’d say, ‘Clap if you can hear my voice’ to get my students’ attention,” she said. “That will be used a lot in the City Council.”

Joseph will also bring her experience “getting funding for my school,” she said. “That’s one thing I know: how to get money.”

Dinowitz has already found parallels between serving on the City Council and being a teacher, a job he held for 13 years. He was a special education teacher and former chapter leader at the New Explorations into Science, Technology and Math HS in Manhattan.

“In order to be there for my students, I had to listen and know that what they’re saying is valid and make sure their needs are met,” Dinowitz said. “It’s no different as a Council member. People in the city, my constituents in the Bronx, all have needs, and they need to be heard and have their needs met.”

Dinowitz, a Bronx native who attended public schools in that borough, said education was always one of his passions. He pointed to his experience as an after-school tutor when he was a student himself.

He says reducing class size will be a key education priority in the City Council.

“Right now, we are trying to push the bill that will reduce class sizes for our schools, children and teachers,” Dinowitz said.

Joseph emphasized the need for the legislation. “I’m used to having 35 students sitting in front of me,” she said. “That’s just too many.”

Dinowitz said it’s important that educators are represented in public office.

“We can’t really talk about policies and agendas and initiatives,” he said, “without including the people who are going to be doing the work, like teachers, social workers and school counselors.”