Always should begin with the good news, Mayor Adams’ announcement, the city would hire 3700 new teachers to comply with the Class Size Reduction law, in addition to vacancies created by retirement and resignations.
Now the disturbing news: The tornado funnel in the distance is closing in, the House just passed a budget, the Senate already passed a budget, both houses will reconcile and by the end of May we’ll find out how many billions NYS will lose.
The state legislature has been dawdling. bickering over a bell to bell prohibition in cell phones in schools, “discovery” in criminal proceedings, actually waiting for the Republican Congress to send a bill to the President. Meanwhile Carl Heastie, Speaker of the Assembly and the Governor are elbowing each other.
As first reported by WNYC’s Gothamist, New York Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie is proposing legislation that will continue paychecks to lawmakers if the budget is late and if the governor includes unrelated policy items in the spending plan.
“This is not about complaining about paychecks. The members are used to this. We go through this every year,” the speaker said. “I just don’t want governors to have this, to ever have an expectation that withholding a paycheck can be something that (would prompt) people to walk away from their principles.”
How will a revised state budget make up for tens of billions less in federal dollars? The Governor’s January preliminary budget is in the shredder. Over 7 million New Yorkers are insured through Medicaid,
New Yorkers have a lot on the line as the Republican-controlled Congress considers cuts to Medicaid that potentially total $880 billion over the course of the next decade, according to health care officials, lawmakers and policy experts.
“Even if Republicans pass a fraction of the cuts they’re pushing, it would devastate these communities,” Sen. Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, said after visiting nursing homes on Staten Island and Long Island earlier this month.
About half of the 8 million residents in the five boroughs are covered through the publicly funded insurance program, which pays for their doctor’s visits, hospital stays, and addiction and mental health treatment. It also pays for most long-term care for elderly and disabled residents, which is generally not covered by other forms of insurance.
The Medicaid cuts also translates into the loss of many thousands of SEIU union jobs and instead of a new Foundation Aid education funding formula schools may face reductions in state aid, and on and on.
Until the state budget is in place the city budget negotiations are stalled, and with a Mayor and City Council speaker with very uncertain political futures will the city be able to reach a budget by July 1?
And to complete an already chaotic world, ballots in the UFT election are in the mail on May 1.
How do we tame whirling tornado funnels? Mulgrew somehow managed to pass a class size reduction bill (2021) and averted ending the cap on charter schools (2022), he is wise in the world of the shadowy, twisting hallways of Albany politics while the opposition caucus candidates probably can’t find the Albany exit on the thruway. The current budget battle is just the beginning, in 1975, days before the opening of school the city laid off thousands of teachers and was preparing to declare bankruptcy, endangering contracts and pensions, only in the last hour did Al Shanker save the union and the city.
While the budget is the elephant in the room, other critical decisions are yet to be made.
At the membership Town Hall Mulgrew began,
I want to acknowledge the deep sense of unease that many of us are feeling right now. Never in living memory has a new president unilaterally attacked public services, public education and worker rights like is happening now. But no one should underestimate the strength and grit that it takes to be a public school educator in New York City. We will not allow the new administration to erode our rights and harm our students without a fight.Does the UFT endorse a mayoral candidate? or candidates, or stay on the sidelines? The candidates have agreed to spend a day in a school teaching classes.
The membership questions: Are layoffs possible? Will there be cuts to Special Education services? Are our pensions in jeopardy? The member questions defining the battle.
We are the foot soldiers, along with our allies, parents and public-school advocates, the battle will be long.
We must keep up the pressure, demonstrations, rallies, across the city, across the state, across the nation.
We must continue to build alliances with parents and like minded public school advocates.
It’s never too early to begin planning for the next election, the UFT is currently interviewing city council and citywide office candidates, you build politics from the bottom up. The interviewers are local chapter leaders and union activists.
Opposition caucuses throwing stones only empowers our enemies, it almost seems like the opposition are allied with Trump/Musk, their advovacy of “planning to strike,” is suicidal.
Mulgrew and his team are tough and experienced, exactly the qualities we need in the upcoming battles,
The UFT election ballots are in the mail May 1, check the Unity box and join the battle, come to rallies, contact your electeds, encourage friends to register to vote, and, don’t be discouraged, if we stick together, fight together, we will prevail.
Ed in the Apple: Blogging on the Intersection of Education and Politics Title 