Q&A: UFT President Mulgrew readies his union for a “seismic shift”
United Federation of Teachers president Michael Mulgrew runs the largest teachers union local in the country representing the teachers of New York City. Like many teachers union affiliates nationwide, the UFT has been fighting with policymakers over issues such as merit pay, school closures and charter schools, which pose a threat to union strength and which union leaders argue harm public education. Even as some national experts predict that teacher union power is waning, the UFT has won victories and its political influence remains strong.The Hechinger Report and GothamSchools spoke with Mulgrew at the union’s headquarters near Wall Street in downtown Manhattan about the biggest challenges facing the union and what the future looks like for the UFT.What was the biggest challenge you thought the union was facing when you started this job? The ideological war on teachers and on public education. It’s pretty simple. We knew that the progress reports of New York City were driving the instructional practices of the schools, which were bad because the progress