Cara Matthews
New York Teacher Senior Editor/Reporter
Members lobby state lawmakers online
In the days following UFT Lobby Day in Albany, scores of UFT chapters held virtual lobby days in their schools to urge state lawmakers in emails and social media posts to fix Tier 6, update the state’s Foundation Aid formula and enact other UFT legislative priorities.
Candidates must walk in teachers’ shoes
Candidates for New York City mayor must fulfill a new prerequisite this year if they want to be considered for the UFT’s endorsement: They have to spend a day in a New York City public school classroom helping educators.
Money, power and ‘RESPECT’
More than 1,600 paraprofessionals and fellow UFT members came together from across the city on April 2 to call on the New York City Council to pass legislation to give paraprofessionals an annual “RESPECT check” of $10,000.
Bid to overturn Utah’s anti-union law
Weeks after Utah Gov. Spencer Cox signed a law prohibiting public employee unions from collective bargaining, a new labor-backed group called Protect Utah Workers is collecting signatures to put a referendum on the ballot to repeal it.
Education unions sue to save U.S. DOE
The AFT and the NEA filed separate lawsuits aimed at stopping the Trump administration from dismantling the U.S. Department of Education on the grounds that his executive order to close the agency exceeded his authority.
Federal union’s fight for survival
The National Treasury Employees Union has filed a lawsuit that seeks to block President Donald Trump’s March 27 executive order revoking the collective bargaining rights of hundreds of thousands of unionized government employees.
Striking a chord with lawmakers
Fixing Tier 6, providing adequate funding for public schools, banning cell phones in school and supporting union programs such as the UFT Teacher Center were the focus as about 1,000 educators and parents traveled to Albany for UFT Lobby Day on March 10.
Learning takes flight
Ninth-graders at NEST+m, a gifted and talented K-12 school on Manhattan's Lower East Side, took their science lessons to new heights during a class trip to the Intrepid Museum.
Having his ‘aha’ moment
Mohammed Hossain, a UFT CTE Award winner and engineering teacher at the High School for Construction Trades, Engineering and Architecture in Queens, found his way to a career in education after realizing he found joy in helping people have their own "aha moments" with challenging material.
HERstory celebration
About 175 members and guests attended this year's HERstory brunch in celebration of women’s role in the UFT and the broader labor movement.