The head of a New York teachers union that endorsed Zohran Mamdani during his campaign now is blasting the mayor’s literacy initiative after more than half of the city’s public school students failed their reading proficiency exams.
United Federation of Teachers (UFT) President Mike Mulgrew criticized the “NYC Reads” program after students in grades 3-5 made the embarrassing showing on their state English Language Arts exam, revealing “a rift with the labor group and the democratic socialist mayor eight months into his term,” the New York Post reported.
“The public salvo also comes while Mamdani weighs whether to sign or veto legislation to boost the pay of thousands of paraprofessionals — a promise he explicitly made at a press conference last year when the UFT endorsed him in his run for mayor,” the tabloid reported.
“We’re not going to support [NYC Reads] if they want to implement it the way they did this year,” Mulgrew told the New York Daily News earlier this week. “If this administration wants to continue to waste everyone’s time and not get the better results that we know we need, then we’re not going to support it.”
“We like the idea,” he added. “We’ve been supporting it from the beginning, but somebody’s got to put them in check.”
Reading scores, already deplorable in past school years, saw a six percent drop over last year for students in grades three through eight.
The NYC Reads program actually started under former Mayor Eric Adams. Mamdani and New York City Public Schools Chancellor Kamar Samuels extended it.
During a Thursday press event, Mamdani defended the reading program.
“I continue to be confident in NYC Reads. And it is developed with the real findings of what’s been effective across the country in mind,” said the Democratic Socialist mayor.
“And we know that it is a critical thing that we equip our public school students with,” the mayor added. “We look forward to being in conversation with the UFT as we look to not only build upon the successes of the last few years, but to go beyond that.”
Sources told the Post that Mulgrew’s preemptive strike is an attempt to get ahead of the fallout from the declining test scores in an effort to deflect blame from unionized teachers.
“In addition, education insiders said Mulgrew might have bitten his tongue if he didn’t have a separate, smoldering tug of war with Mamdani over pay for paraprofessionals,” the Post wrote.
Paraprofessionals’ $32,000-a-year base pay, meager by New York standards, became a hot-button issue last year with Mulgrew backing a bill to raise it with a $10,000 bonus.
Mamdani appeared to be entirely on board with that effort during the campaign.
“I will be proud to continue to support the passage of Intro Bill 1261… that addresses the fact that there are too many open positions right now for paraprofessionals across the city because that job simply doesn’t pay enough,” Mamdani said at the time, with Mulgrew standing behind him.
The council passed the $10,000 pay bump last month, but Mamdani appears to have reversed his position on the proposal.
A city hall spokesperson said it was the mayor’s position that raises belonged in the collective bargaining process, not through legislation, which directly violates the state’s collective bargaining law, the Post reported.
The mayor has yet to sign the measure into law.
In July, Mulgrew promised an “all-out war” with against Mamdani if he does not support the $10,000 bonuses.
The powerful union leader’s criticism of the reading program appears to be consistent with that promise.
Breitbart contributor Lowell Cauffiel is the best-selling author of the Los Angeles crime novel Below the Line and nine other crime novels and nonfiction titles. See lowellcauffiel.com for more.
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