Union supports candidates who support education

It was almost like summer school for politicians as scores of teachers and other NYSUT members gathered in Albany to see who made the grade and which candidates would receive the influential union’s endorsement in the fall election.

In the end, the NYSUT Board of Directors accepted all the recommendations of the Endorsement Conference participants, including several dozen UUP members. Those recommendations included one to hold off on a gubernatorial endorsement until after the Democratic primary. Comptroller H. Carl McCall defeated Andrew Cuomo in that race on Sept. 10; Cuomo had officially dropped out of the race about a week before the primary. Dennis Mehiel won the primary for lieutenant governor. The NYSUT board will meet this month to decide its position on the governor’s race.

The NYSUT directors did endorse incumbent Eliot Spitzer for attorney general and voted to back the winner of the Democratic primary for comptroller. In that race, Alan Hevesi beat William Mulrow.

NYSUT also endorsed candidates in 193 state legislative and 21 congressional races, backing both Democrats and Republicans who have been supportive of public schools, higher education and health care issues. The candidacies were reviewed and recommendations made to the full conference by the union’s regional and state political action committees.

NYSUT President Thomas Hobart said candidates covet the union’s endorsement because, according to surveys, NYSUT’s 480,000 members follow their union’s lead when they go to the polls.

It’s important for UUP and NYSUT to be involved in the political process, added NYSUT Executive Vice President Alan Lubin. One need only look to the results of the 2001-2002 legislative session to see that political action pays off, he said. Lubin cited more than 37 NYSUT-backed or -initiated bills that were approved by the state Legislature; of those, more than 20 had already been signed into law by Gov. George Pataki at Voice press time.

Yet, Hobart said, the endorsement is only the beginning of the process. He said NYSUT activists need to turn the support into votes through get-out-the-vote activities.

Lubin agreed: “In addition to financial support, NYSUT’s endorsement translates into thousands of volunteers out on the street. It also translates into support from the largest union phone-bank operation in our state. Our members work for — and vote for — candidates who support issues they care about: quality public schools, colleges and hospitals, and access for all New Yorkers to affordable health care.”

It wasn’t all politics at the Endorsement Conference. The three-day meeting included workshops on a number of educational issues. A higher education forum, facilitated by UUP Vice President for Academics Phillip Smith, drew a standing-room-only crowd of academic and professional faculty from SUNY and CUNY. Topics included the effectiveness of outcome assessments; federal funding under Title II; higher education’s role in teacher education; and the use and abuse of part-time faculty.

— Frank Maurizio