In the Sept. 13 Democratic primaries, public school advocates backed by the UFT and NYSUT helped defeat a half-dozen challengers who had the financial backing of a super PAC promoting privatization and other schemes that siphon funding from public schools and harm working families.

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New Yorkers for Independent Action, funded by corporate education reformers, targeted six state Assembly and Senate races, including four in New York City. The super PAC spent $1.5 million to unseat the legislators in the Democratic primary; but despite being outspent 6-to-1, the union-backed candidates decisively won their races.

“Ordinary working people defeated a big-money super PAC out to pass an education tax credit, gut public education and derail reforms like the $15 minimum wage,” said UFT President Michael Mulgrew. “Our work in Tuesday’s primaries helped elect four legislators who put public schools and working people first.”

The victorious state lawmakers from New York City are state Sen. Gustavo Rivera (Bronx), and Assembly members Pamela Harris (Brooklyn), Latrice Walker (Brooklyn) and Phil Ramos (Suffolk County).

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Donors of New Yorkers for Independent Action include Walmart heiress Alice Walton and Peter Grauer, the chairman of Bloomberg LP. The PAC’s treasurer is Thomas Carroll, the president of the Invest in Education Foundation, a corporate education reform group.

In the Democratic primary to represent the 31st District in the state Senate, Robert Jackson, a former city councilman and longtime public school advocate, lost in a tight three-way race. UFT volunteers door-knocked in the district and made member-to-member phone calls on behalf of Jackson in the weeks leading up to the election.

Jackson, then a parent leader, was the co-founder of the Campaign for Fiscal Equity, the organization that sued New York State in 1993 for cheating New York City public school children out of their rightful share of state school funding.

The winner of the primary, Marisol Alcantara, is a protégé of Congressman Adriano Espaillat, who previously held the seat representing Washington Heights and part of the Upper West Side.