Editorials

This spring Mayor Eric Adams launched an ambitious $7.4 million literacy initiative targeting children with dyslexia. While it’s an admirable idea, there are still many more questions than answers.

In Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis has conscripted public school educators to push his anti-LGBTQ agenda. The Parental Rights in Education Law he signed in March prohibits classroom instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity in kindergarten through third grade.

With a bounty of federal stimulus funds for education, we have a once-in-a-generation chance to permanently strengthen New York City public schools. But with his proposed preliminary budget, the mayor is squandering that opportunity.

The UFT has joined with other unions and health care advocates in the Coalition for Affordable Hospitals. The coalition’s first action was to launch a petition calling on the heads of the five major hospital systems in New York City to agree to fair and transparent contracts with equitable and affordable prices for major employers, including the city.

The concept of mayoral control of the New York City public schools is a good one. The city’s highest elected official should be held accountable for policies that affect more than 850,000 schoolchildren. But that doesn’t mean the mayor should have the power to make unilateral decisions that shut out public school families from the policymaking process.

With the number of COVID-19 cases across the city on the rise, the increase in breakthrough infections and the threat of the new Omicron variant, in-school testing of unvaccinated students only was clearly no longer not enough. That’s why the UFT called on the city to resume testing vaccinated adults in school buildings.