How de Blasio fell back on closing schools

Mr Mulgrew also sought to redirect anger over the mess of the union’s reopening effort to the mayor.

Now the union leader, long skeptical of controlling mayors, will fight to change that system of governance in 2022, when its current extension expires in the state legislature. Mr de Blasio, whose term of office is limited, will step down at the end of 2021. Mr Mulgrew does not want to return to a school board, but will push for a version of mayor control that gives more power to educators.

Mr Mulgrew’s position, which was not previously reported, illustrates how frustration with Mr de Blasio among teachers and principals has become so intense that it could have major implications for the rest of this season. hectic school year, for the mayor’s ability to implement political education during his last year in office – and even for how the next city mayor might govern.

Under the control of the mayor, the mayor and chancellor of schools, and not an elected or appointed school board, run the city’s 1,800 schools. The union had considerable influence over the Board of Education, which ran schools before the mayor’s control began in 2002, and lost some of its power under the new system.

Mr Bloomberg won the mayor’s control of the city’s schools after a campaign focused on the ineffectiveness of the school board and occasional corruption scandals. But now, Mr Mulgrew said, the union will no longer stay on the sidelines of the fight over whether the mayor’s control should be renewed by the Legislature, where the UFT enjoys enormous influence, in particular to the Assembly.

“No one should ever be responsible for our school system again,” said Mulgrew.

Mr Mulgrew’s position shows how disastrous relations between the town hall and the UFT have become in recent months, even as the union continues to be involved in major education decisions, as it has been doing this since 2014.

Indeed, at the start of his tenure, Mr de Blasio showed his allegiance to teachers by signing a contract that gave them more benefits and salaries – including a planned salary increase during the pandemic. Before that, the teachers had worked for several years without a contract after talks between Mr Bloomberg’s administration and the union broke down.