Is Mike Mulgrew about to betray Mayor de Blasio?

United Federation of Teachers chief Michael Mulgrew this week reacted to The Post’s series on rising classroom chaos by agreeing, “Our current discipline system is broken.” Too bad he seems unwilling to do anything about it.

After all, the union boss has voiced public doubts about Mayor de Blasio’s discipline policies before — yet plainly hasn’t made it any kind of issue, even though the disorder puts his own members at risk.

We don’t doubt that Mulgrew’s been hearing plenty from his members for years. But this mayor has been generous with pay increases for teachers, and done his best to crush the charter schools that the union hates. So the UFT boss speaks up about discipline only when he’d look ridiculous staying quiet.

Even now, Mulgrew won’t question the basis for de Blasio’s watering down of discipline. He just pretends that “restorative justice” approaches will work with more funding: “We need the resources and training necessary to change school climate.”

Hah! That’s the UFT’s prescription for everything: Nothing can’t be solved by spending more on union members!

Then again, protecting de Blasio won’t always be important to Mulgrew: The mayor’s gone in just a few years.

In that light, note that the UFT didn’t show up for this week’s de Blasio rally for the renewal of mayoral control of the schools. The union’s power was more secure under the old Board of Education, when no politician could be held accountable for the schools.

Hmmm. State lawmakers are already talking about raising school safety concerns in this year’s hearings on mayoral control. Don’t put it past Mike Mulgrew to use this issue to betray an ally who will be gone in three years anyway.

Teachers and students may have to keep suffering from the breakdown in discipline, but the UFT will profit.

Source: Read Full Article