By Phyllis C. Murray

“In his Children First Brochure, Klein says, “Tenure is almost automatic. About 99% of teachers receive it after three years as a matter of course.” What Klein fails to mention is that only about 66% of teachers survive the first three years and reach the tenure point. This number is important because it shows the real problem isn’t that weak teachers get tenure, but that too many teachers leave. “Kleins Unfair Fudging” By Jackie Bennett Edwize.org

On May 7, 2004, this point was made quite clear in a City Council Survey of 2,781 teachers. In ‘Fleeing in Droves’ by Stephanie Gaskell and Carl Campanile the following statistics were reported in the NY Post:

*Over 70 percent of teachers with at least 25 years of experience were expected to retire within two years.

*29 percent of new teachers with less than five years of experience said it was likely they’d quit within three years.

* 26 percent of mid-career teachers were likely to leave within two years.

*Veteran teachers were most dissatisfied with salary and school discipline/safety problems.

*Rookie teachers were unhappy with lack of support, instructional materials, supplies, and large class sizes.

* The median city teacher salary was $47,3345 compared to $66,262 in Nassau County and $90,000 in Scarsdale.

* The Study recommended raising salaries, improving discipline and lowering class size.

Although the brain drain continues as NYC loses some of the brightest teachers and students, a solid core of over 100,000 UFT professionals have remained to fight the good fight. They have remained to become the best advocates for teachers and students. Since 2004, we have seen UFT initiatives to raise salaries, improve discipline , and lower class size. The UFT won support from a cadre of organizations that valued UFT initiatives. The Campaign for Fiscal Equity is just one of many clarion calls which was heard as the UFT waged a lobbying campaign with parent groups to win class size reductions for all grades. Lowering class size will become a reality. But, we must remain vigilant.

School discipline and safety concerns still exist as well as concerns about the escalation of violence in general throughout the five boroughs of New York City and throughout our nation. And lest we forget: the issue of adequate compensation for teachers remains… nationwide. “America, the richest nation on earth has never allocated enough of its abundant resources to build sufficient schools, to compensate adequately its teachers, and to surround them with the prestige their work justifies. We pauperize education.” Dr. King 1964

Our fourteen year fight for Fiscal Equity for New York City Public Schools shows us that we can fight the good fight, we can finish the course, and we can keep the faith that justice will roll down like a mighty stream.

Therefore when the UFT press reported that New York State Governor Eliot Spitzer and the State Legislature approved a state education budget on April 1,2007 that guarantees “meaningful class size reform” , Randi Weingarten, UFT President stated the following:
“This is a tremendous victory for public education in New York City. It is a great breakthrough for CFE and class size to be a part of the governor’s new foundation funding formula. We applaud everyone involved for getting it done.”

Today, as we continue the fight to ensure that raising salaries, improving discipline and lowering class size in New York City become a reality, we must seek to enlist the support of the Board of Education of the City of New York because history tells us…a house divided cannot stand.

Phyllis C. Murray
UFT Chapter Leader
District 8 Region 2

Jonathan