This October will be four years since the United Federation of Teachers contract expired.
The teachers of this city have continued to work under the auspices of the old contract, but it is now time for Michael Mulgrew, the UFT president, Mayor Michael Bloomberg and city Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott to stop the delays, sit down at the negotiating table and hammer out a contract for the teachers that is fair, affordable and acceptable.
Teachers work hard to educate their students, and under less-than-ideal conditions, with unsupportive administrators, difficult students, a lack of classroom teaching materials and overcrowded classrooms, which makes everyday teaching almost impossible.
But they rise to the occasion and come through. Now, enough stalling and bureaucratic infighting. Mulgrew, Bloomberg and Walcott: Get to work and come up with a much-deserved and well-earned teacher contract that is fair, affordable and decent for the more than 80,000 teachers and other UFT staff members of this city.
They deserve this much and much more.
John Amato
Fresh Meadows
