Date Posted

Message from President Cordelia Anthony

You may be feeling like February got here too quickly or that January went on for 73 days. Either way the second month of the year is here. As usual I am sharing some information with you as well as some Member Benefits you may not be aware of in this month’s President message. I must share with you my thoughts on recent national and local news-making items. Teachers unions locally, statewide, and nationally are continuing to watch and prepare to be proactive to protect our students, communities, public schools, colleges and universities, and union rights. Proposed plans and executive orders, although being challenged as they are signed, threaten to harm programs and institutions that get federal funding. Others threaten the health and well being of students we teach as well as the quality of the resources we are able to provide. Funding loss, some through grants, that help schools retain teachers, faculty, aides, and other support staff would affect class sizes as well as impact students with trauma, disabilities and mental health concerns. Having comprehensive services, specialists, and trained educators is essential. As I start to write this message on February 4th, as we knew ahead of time from the Project 2025 agenda, there is an executive order being written promising to eliminate the functions of the Department of Education. This would directly affect the public schools that 90 percent of students and 95% of disabled students attend. We all have to be vigilant and protect all our students by uniting through not only our unions, but other community allies that can help make sure our students and communities continue to get the resources and support that they need and also deserve. We have to fight against charters and voucher schemes that have only proven to hurt the public schools where those funds are siphoned from.

We need to be a part of protecting communities, public schools and unions on the Federal level. Here in New York, NYSUT will continue to advocate around things like fighting Child Poverty and Universal School meals. One in Five New York children live in poverty despite the fact that we have 135 billionaires and 340,000 millionaires. The fact is they are not paying their fair share of taxes. There should be no disagreement that hungry students can’t learn at their best. Distraction Free Learning is another item that you will see advocacy around because every educator should not have to waste valuable instructional time policing phones, earbuds, smartwatches each day. There should be enforceable district wide policies in place with consequences. Also a unique and promising state budget item revolves around the idea of free tuition at Community Colleges for students that would go into service professions, including education. Maybe this could help with our shortage of educators, especially those in certain certification specialties.

Lastly based on recent incidents, I also want to make sure that I remind us all that social media can be a great tool for connecting and advocacy but please remember that although we all have freedom of speech, as a public employee statements you make are held to district policies. School officials can take disciplinary actions when a teacher's speech or actions cause disruption to the school. Please be careful.