Tags Group
Don’t phone it in
Cell phones in schools distract from teaching and learning and can threaten students’ mental health by feeding an addiction to social media. Barring them from classrooms makes sense, but any citywide ban has to be carefully conceived and implemented...
Para-lyzing process
New York City schools, particularly in District 75, are in dire need of paraprofessionals, who provide essential support services for children with disabilities. The shortage won’t get resolved until the city Department of Education streamlines its...
Harris for president
Democrat Kamala Harris has earned our parent union’s endorsement because she is pro-public education and pro-union, as is her running mate Tim Walz, the Minnesota governor and a former teacher.
Pre-K, 3-K still a fight
Our #StartStrong campaign continues. The city and the DOE must do more to put our city’s youngsters on the path to educational success.
Don’t ‘short’ patients
In 2021, nurses and patients secured a hard-won victory with the passage of the state Safe Staffing for Quality Care Act. The law, among other provisions, set up safe and reasonable staffing ratios. But New York City hospitals routinely flout the law...
Pension choice
The roughly 5,500 UFT members who belong to the smaller New York City Board of Education Retirement System want the opportunity to switch to the TRS — and there is a bill in Albany that would give them that choice.
Past-due payments
One of an employer’s most basic obligations is to pay its employees in a timely fashion. Yet over and over again, the city Department of Education falls short in this regard.
Start strong
New York City led the nation when Mayor Bill de Blasio established free, full-day pre-kindergarten a decade ago and expanded it several years later to add 3-K. Sadly, Mayor Eric Adams is letting these vital programs wither.
Voting site concerns
Early voting has been a welcome development in New York City since it was first implemented in 2019. But for the educators and students at the 33 public schools in Staten Island, the Bronx, Brooklyn and Manhattan that serve as early voting sites...
Halt ‘congestion’ plan
In their zeal to implement a project that promises to generate about $1 billion a year in revenue, agency officials failed to consider how congestion pricing simply shifts who pays the environmental costs.