Robert Jackson has had a storied career as a community leader, public school advocate and City Council member. Now he’s running to represent the 31st District in the state Senate, which covers a swath of Upper Manhattan, including Washington Heights, Inwood and Marble Hill.

Jackson is one of the candidates the UFT has endorsed — through its state affiliate, NYSUT — in New York’s primary elections on Sept. 13.

“Jackson is an activist who has dedicated his career as a public servant to public education and children,” said UFT President Michael Mulgrew.

Mulgrew also alerted UFT members living in the districts of Assemblywoman Pamela Harris (Brooklyn), Assemblywoman Latrice Walker (Brooklyn), Assemblyman Phil Ramos (Suffolk County) and state Sen. Gustavo Rivera (the Bronx) that a political action committee is pouring money into those races in an effort to get pro-charter challengers elected in the Democratic primary.

“Our familiar pro-charter adversaries have donated $2.7 million to this super PAC since January,” he wrote to these members in an email. “They want to change this election from one person, one vote to one dollar, one vote.”

In July, the New York Daily News reported that New Yorkers for Independent Action was contributing millions of dollars to state Senate and Assembly candidates who favor school privatization, charter schools and a tax credit that would benefit billionaires and siphon funding from public schools. The treasurer of the PAC is Thomas Carroll, the president of the Invest in Education Foundation, an education reform group. Other donors to the PAC include Walmart heiress Alice Walton and Peter Grauer, the chairman of Bloomberg LP.

At a Meet the Candidate session at UFT headquarters on Aug. 11, Jackson, the winner of the UFT’s John Dewey Award in 2012, spoke about the chronic and unconstitutional underfunding of the city’s public schools. In 1993, as a community school board member and parent leader, Jackson co-founded the Campaign for Fiscal Equity, which sued the state to fix a broken school-funding formula that cheated New York City children and won a court settlement that said Albany owned New York City public schools $16 billion. Ten years later, he walked 150 miles to Albany to refocus attention on the issue. During his 12 years in the City Council, where he served as chair of the education committee, Jackson battled the Bloomberg administration on school closings, forced co-locations and teacher layoffs.

Now Jackson wants to be elected to the state Senate to increase pressure on the state to comply with the court order on school funding, one of the UFT’s top legislative priorities in Albany. He is vying for the seat being vacated by Adriano Espaillat, who is running for Congress.

“I want to break the logjam in Albany and get the CFE money released,” Jackson told UFT members. “I’m going to fight like hell for the children of New York and their families.”

Peggy Girtman-Atkins, the chapter leader at PS/MS 161 on the Upper West Side, said she has supported Jackson in the past and will do so again. “I’ll be leafletting for him and working the phone bank,” she said.

Dennis Gault, the chapter leader at PS 19 in the East Village, called Jackson “a true champion for public schools.” He said, “He’s going to serve us well in Albany.”