An effort by Eva Moskowitz and her Success Academy corporate charter school chain to elbow their way into two school buildings in southeastern Queens has met with unprecedented community opposition.

About 60 schools this year joined the UFT’s pilot partnership with MindUp, an evidence-based social-emotional learning program conceived by the Goldie Hawn Foundation to support educators' and students' mental health.

Just two of this school year’s grievances over excessive class sizes citywide remained unresolved by Thanksgiving — thanks to a powerful provision in the 2018 Department of Education-UFT contract.

UFT President Michael Mulgrew warned at the Oct. 12 Delegate Assembly that the UFT and its fellow unions are entering a fierce battle to protect their premium-free health care. 

The results of New York State’s standardized tests showed the pandemic took a toll on math education in New York City public schools that was in line with a national trend, even as student reading scores improved slightly in contrast to the declines elsewhere.

Gov. Kathy Hochul on Sept. 8 signed into law landmark legislation that will lower class sizes in New York City by a third over the next six years, closing a decades-long gap in class sizes between the city and the rest of the state.

Long before inflation made a comeback as a national political issue, the cost of health care was marching steadily upward, leaving unions that long ago recognized the value of good coverage battling to protect members from employer demands that they pay part of the premiums.

UFT President Michael Mulgrew told members at a virtual union town hall on Aug. 22 that one item that would not be on the bargaining table in contract talks expected to begin sometime this fall would be longer workdays in return for larger pay raises.

The following letter from UFT President Michael Mulgrew was issued on Aug. 11 to Mayor Adams, Chancellor Banks and Department of Education officials regarding the anticipated budget cuts for the upcoming 2022-23 school year.