Teachers union still draws support, money from retired members
At a synagogue in Surfside, Fla., last month, about 40 former teachers gathered for cupcakes, cheesecake and a PowerPoint presentation by a pair of union representatives from New York. The teachers were members of the United Federation of Teachers (UFT) retiree chapter, and the representatives had been sent by the UFT and New York State United Teachers to pass along information about budget counseling, Medicare, and pet insurance. Ken Goodman, the UFT Florida retiree chapter leader, called the meeting to order by announcing updates about the following month’s annual retiree luncheon. Buses would pick the members up from Surfside and ferry them to the event in Boca Raton, where UFT President Michael Mulgrew would deliver the keynote address just weeks before his re-election bid. Despite being out of the classroom—in many cases, for decades—retirees make up a