Citing his record in both the city council and Albany, the United Federation of Teachers (UFT) and a number of elected officials rallied for State Senator Joseph Addabbo as the incumbent seeks re-election in November.
“We’ve had a very good relationship with Joe because of the work that he has done on the behalf of the community,” said UFT President Michael Mulgrew, outside of P.S. 62 The Joseph P. Addabbo School, named for Addabbo’s late father and long-time congressmember. “When he was in city council [he was] always making sure that the schools had a voice through his district and his leadership.”
This year was the first year in the last four that the school system had an increase in funding, said Mulgrew — who credited the increase to Addabbo and others in the senate.
Addabbo said moving forward in the senate, he planned to combine his experience as a father of children in the public school system with his experience in office dealing with a weak city budget in 2002, and a weak state budget in 2009.
“Now that I’m a father, a father of two in the public school system, I totally look at schools in a different way,” Addabbo said, adding he wanted to use “that experience as we go forward to make sure our students have the best technology available, the best classroom size available and the best teacher available.”
State senators and assemblymembers from throughout Queens, as well as assembly candidate Nily Rozic, spoke on Addabbo’s record of saving and increasing funding for schools in both the state and the city.
Assemblymember Mike Miller said he saw Addabbo as a mentor in the state legislature and highlighted Addabbo’s record of supporting funding and bills to better education.
“I’m here today to lend my support to my colleague and my friend Senator Addabbo,” Miller said. “He’s a leader on many of the issues that we all support; he’s been a leader of our community.”
