When I talk to parents, politicians or community members, I always tell them what teachers are experiencing in the schools.

As we negotiate a new contract with the Department of Education, the question is not whether the city can afford to give raises, but whether it can afford not to. And the answer is simple — it can’t.

We’ve got plenty to be angry about. Our challenge is to harness our anger and channel it in a productive direction as we fight for the changes we need.

We have always believed in the importance of quality early childhood education for all our children, but achieving it has not been politically feasible in the past. With our new mayor making pre-K his signature education initiative, the stars are aligning to get it done.

It will take years, but now is not the time to rest on our laurels. There are tremendous forces gathering to oppose us and our new mayor.

Bloomberg-style “drill-and-kill” standardized test prep has sadly become the norm for our students, and attaching high stakes to the tests has all but forced real teaching and learning out of our classrooms.

Our students and members should not be harmed by the botched implementation of the Common Core. That is what our call for a moratorium on high-stakes consequences is all about.

It is in a way pretty simple: If we are going to be evaluated on our teaching, then we are entitled to get what we need to teach.

We’re all coming together — members of all the unions in the Municipal Labor Committee — for a rally on June 12 outside City Hall to tell the mayor enough is enough.