School budget votes are exactly one month away. This is another installment about what districts and their NYSUT locals are doing across the state to get budgets passed. Faced with having to eliminate programs for students, the Tully school board could only cut up to a certain point. On May 15 they will submit a [...]

Have you filed your taxes yet? You’ve got until Tuesday, April 17 this year. *The traditional tax return filing deadline is April 15 of each year, but April 15, 2012 is a Sunday and April 16, 2012 falls on Emancipation Day in the District of Columbia. What’s an appropriate percent for taxes? The debate has [...]

Liz Benjamin of Capital Tonight interviews the AFT’s Randi Weingarten about bullying and how teachers are dealing with the problem. Here’s the link to the show. It’s a 10-minute interview, unheard of on so many shows that are barely giving the topic two minutes. You can read more of NYSUT’s coverage of this graceful, yet [...]

In honor of Passover, Easter and springtime, there will be no Fight Back Friday today. Whatever you celebrate, may you truly have a Good Friday.

Full Screen | View All No matter what the symptoms, the prescription is the same in the health care profession: nurses, social workers, psychologists and therapists must get active in order to be sure their needs, along with those of their students and patients,’ are protected. “We get one opportunity, and one opportunity only, to [...]

That video was prepared by students in the Unatego schools in the southern tier. You may recall they are one of the rural, small schools fighting the budget cuts.

Sitting around a table at Meyers Center BOCES in Saratoga, students, teaching assistants, and teachers were busy crocheting. They weren’t making afghans or shawls– but rather, they were turning plastic into possibility. Little did they know they were also making history. Using plastic bags that many people throw away, students cut them into strips. Each [...]

Yesterday my son had a half day of school due to parent-teacher conferences. I was planning on spending the afternoon with him and doing something special because it was the first day of spring. I had heard about the solidarity rally at the Capitol and was very familiar with the fight for fair funding of [...]

If you’re wondering who is behind the relentless attacks on public employees and their unions, and the dark night of Tier 6 — it’s time to call on Toto. NYSUT President Dick Iannuzzi, speaking at a public rally today in downtown Albany, said it’s time for Toto, the cairn terrier from the Wizard of Oz, [...]

UPDATE: In addition to the tweets, we have photos from El-Wise Noisette and reports from Betsy Sandberg, Liza Frenette and Dana Fournier. NYSUT members and supporters rallied at the state Capitol Tuesday to demand adequate state resources for public education and health care. We’ve collected tweets from activists and reporters on the scene, so you [...]