(ALBANY, NEW YORK) - As Educators welcome students back to the classroom, around 130 Local New York State United Teachers’ Unions across New York State are beginning the new school year working under expired contracts. 
 
“As we have seen this year, workers across industries and across our country are standing up for their rights to fair pay and working conditions,” NYSUT President Melinda Person said. “It is well past time for districts to acknowledge the increasing demands of the education profession and agree to fair contracts that show they value and respect Educators as hard-working, dedicated professionals.  An investment in our Educators and public schools is an investment in our students and communities.”  
 
NYSUT represents approximately 1,600 Local Unions across New York State and reached agreements on hundreds of contracts with districts over the past year.

The fulfillment of the State’s promise to fully fund Foundation Aid and the Federal dollars from the American Recovery Plan helped foster a largely productive environment negotiating these contracts, NYSUT said. 
 
However, more than 100 Locals have still started the new school year working under expired contracts.

The most egregious examples include the Lawrence Teachers’ Association, which has now been working for 13 years under an expired contract, and the Poughkeepsie Public School Teachers Association, which has been working for six years without a new contract. 
 
As New York State and the Nation face an unprecedented Teacher shortage, it is more important than ever to make education an attractive profession through fair pay, benefits and workplace conditions, the Union said.

Since 2009, enrollment in New York’s Teacher Programs has declined by more than 50%.

Meanwhile, the New York State Retirement System projects that more than a third of New York’s Teachers are eligible to, or will soon be eligible to, retire.

Fair contracts are essential to attracting and retaining talented and capable Educators in our public schools, the foundation of our communities, NYSUT said.