If you want to see the weary face of what ongoing state budget cuts to schools looks like, then look no further than  Rebecca Horwitz. An English as a Second Language teacher in Rondout Valley for seven years, she was laid off last year. Wednesday, she came to Albany to share her time and story [...]

Speaker after speaker at the Rural and Small City Advocacy Day decried the idea of turning school aid into competitive grants that pit school against school in a bizarre contest. Here’s one link from Gannet Newspapers and a brief from North Country Now. Here’s another from Your News Now. Here’s a Fox News report. A [...]

I’d like you to meet Jim Frenette. He’s more than my dad. He’s also a retired teacher. In Tupper Lake, where I grew up, teachers were — and still are — a respected profession. It wasn’t just me and my family who looked up to him, whether he was wearing his school shoes or his [...]

Book lovers take heart! School library disaster relief is available through a fund for public schools whose school library program has been affected by a disaster — such as last fall’s flooding that trashed many parts of New York, including homes, schools and businesses. The American Library Association, the American Association of School Librarians, the [...]

Right now beautiful, light snow is falling outside the windows. What a great time to go out for a walk or go skiing! How about those snowshoes you got for Christmas? I know there are a lot of teachers who run after-school downhill and cross-country ski programs for students, and they are loving this weather [...]

Worried about the impact of indoor air quality in your school? CNN is airing a piece this Sat. Jan. 14 and Sun. Jan. 15 about the impact of air quality on students and school employees. Among those interviewed are NEA Vice President Lily Eskelsen, who discusses how safety and health issues impact students and learning. [...]

The newly-released documentary “Dark Girls” – about color, gender and race – is being shown as part of the Martin Luther King Family Day Celebrations in Poughkeepsie and Albany.

Looking for a gift for a woman in your life who believes in unions? Workers rights? Who attends rallies or leads her colleagues? Or perhaps you need a gift for a speaker at one of your rallies, or for an award-winner at one of your union events? Check out the Coalition for Labor Union Women [...]

Tony LaMarca, a retired teacher from Gates Chile, and former president of the Teachers Association there, sends  along a great consumer tip. ” I read your column on “Made in USA” in the recent edition to the NYSUT paper. I would like know that there is an excellent book titled “How Americans Can Buy American“. [...]

How can you protect yourself and workers from the threat of workplace violence? It is the leading cause of serious injury and death in the workplace. To learn more, check out the session on “Understanding and Preventing Workplace Violence” being held Wed. Nov. 30 in Hauppauge (Long Island) from 5-7:30. Jeff Hyman, occupational safety and [...]