My favorite teachers were my English teachers and one of my favorite books from high school was Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird. Maycomb, Ala., during the Great Depression, had few things in common with Hudson, Wis., during the 1970s. My father worked in a factory in Hudson and there were no interesting court cases. [...]

NYSUT members have been doing a great job educating their lawmakers about the problems with so-called pension reform. We currently have an online advertising campaign featuring NYSUT retiree Jim Frenette, putting pressure on Albany to say “no” to Tier 6.  We can’t really provide a link to that ad because it shows up on political [...]

Forgive me for not noting this earlier. Longtime activist Hobart Rhinehart passed away Thursday after a long illness. His funeral was yesterday in Cattaraugus. “Hobie” was a longtime leader in his region, in NYSUT and his central labor council and countless other organizations. Here’s what Tom Campbell, of WNYLaborToday had to say: It was sad [...]

Beverly Alves is technically “retired.” Yeah, right! Beverly taught special education for nearly 30 years at the Herkimer County BOCES, retiring in 2004. But this is one active retiree! A member of the Herkimer County BOCES Teachers Association, Beverly is a frequent visitor to Albany, where she advocates for NYSUT issues as part of the [...]

So I’m trying to learn about posting images into the blog. Bryan Thomas, the real brains behind how this blogs.nysut.org looks, isn’t around. And I’ve just got to see if I can do it myself. So anyway, this was at a workshop about the new health care law. Lots of good info, such as Under [...]

Take away those 10 words from a panel discussion this morning at the Retiree conference at the Desmond. Brian Bennett works in NYSUT’s Research and Educational Services department. He’s a whiz with all those numbers, and better yet, how they impact public policy. He explains to the more than 100 retiree delegates all bright-eyed at [...]

It’s almost noon, four days after the One Nation Working Together event and we’re still getting photos in! Look for the Tarrytown group photos from when they left Saturday morning. Somehow they got lost in the mix. Meanwhile, NYSUT life HAS continued. The ED 51-53 meeting (that means retirees) starts at 2 p.m. today Andrew [...]