Press

Thanks to NYSUT activism, Final Average Salary calculations were lowered  from five to three years for Tier 6 members. 

Recently, NYSUT President Melinda Person visited three public high schools that are part of the New York Performance Standards Consortium.  These schools emphasize hands-learning and evaluate students using real-world skills instead of standardized tests.  With a state waiver to forgo most Regents exams, these institutions are at the forefront of an educational shift towards preparing students more effectively for college, careers and life beyond school.  "We're showcasing schools statewide where both students and adults flourish, " President Person notes.  "This model not only excites students about education but also frames learning as a lifelong journey rather than a simple pass or fail.  This educational model exemplifies many of the recommendations  from NYSUT'S More Teaching Less Testing Task Force Report.

NYSUT President Melinda Person delivered testimony before a joint committee of the New York state legislature last week. In addition to highlighting the need for the state to fully fund Foundation Aid, Person detailed the difficulties districts face recruiting and retaining new teachers into the profession due to inequities in the current pension system; she called for improvements for Tiers 5 and 6, and she wasn't alone.  

The 2023 NYSUT RA was held in Albany April 28th & 29th. RA delegates elected NYSUT Officers and members of the NYSUT Board. Former NYSUT Executive Director and Political Director Melinda Person was elected president, and Jaime L. Ciffone, an educator of 21 years, was elected executive vice president. NYSUT Second Vice President Ron Gross and Secretary-Treasurer J. Philippe Abraham were both re-elected for three-year terms.

Americans pay the highest prices for prescription drugs in the world, and older and retired Americans, who take the most medications to stay healthy and live on fixed incomes, bear the brunt of this crisis. To help reverse the pharmaceutical industry's stranglehold on our health care system, on August 16, 2022 President Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act into law. It means lower prescription drug prices for millions of Medicare beneficiaries.