The teachers' union says Governor Andrew Cuomo is attacking its members and their profession, and on Thursday, the teachers geared up to fight back. NY1's Lindsey Christ filed the following report.
The teachers' union is acting like an organization under siege.
Last week, Governor Andrew Cuomo promised a bump in education funding in exchange for a series of changes the union has long opposed, like increasing the number of charter schools and making it easier to fire teachers. Then, the union unexpectedly lost its most powerful ally in Albany, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, who is set to be replaced after his arrest on corruption charges.
"You might say the chessboard's aligned against us," said Michael Mulgrew, president of the United Federation of Teachers. "But all I will say is, we're here because we chose to make a difference in children's lives, and we're not going to stop.
In a series of emergency meetings Thursday, union leaders tried to rally the troops - teachers, but also parents, sympathetic advocates and members of the clergy.
"We're going to have to do what we did before. We're going to go have a fight," Mulgrew said.
So when the city's Independent Budget Office put out a report Thursday morning saying charter schools do a better job of retaining students than traditional public schools, the union put out its own report in the afternoon saying charters, on average, don't serve as high a number of needy students as their district averages.
"They're back on their political heels, and they are not used to being there," said James Merriman of the New York City Charter School Center. "They're used to being in the driver's seat and telling Albany what to do."
One of the closed-door meetings was for teachers who represent every school in the city. They were asked to enlist parents as allies.
"We want to bring an awareness to our parents," said teacher Clifton Sherman. "The parents are the people we have to rely on because the parents have to believe in the educators."
It was a similar message at the meetings for clergy members, community leaders and parents: the best way to help the teachers' union politically right now is to spread positive news about teachers.
"I think teachers have been really too silent for too long, just kind of quietly going about our work," said teacher Jia Lee. "But it's gotten to a point where we can't take any more of this nonsense."
Teachers said the union president warned them that they may get hurt in this fight, but their aim is to hurt the governor more and win in the end.