The alliance between Mayor Zohran Mamdani and New York City’s powerful teachers union is showing signs of strain, with United Federation of Teachers President Mike Mulgrew publicly criticizing the administration’s literacy program after city students posted a sharp decline in reading scores.
Mulgrew took aim at NYC Reads following the release of state English Language Arts exam results showing troubling performance among public school students, including more than half of children in grades 3 through 5 failing to demonstrate reading proficiency. The criticism marks a notable break between the UFT and Mamdani just eight months into his mayoralty.
The dispute comes at an especially sensitive time for the relationship between City Hall and the union. Mamdani is separately deciding whether to sign or veto legislation granting thousands of school paraprofessionals a $10,000 pay increase — a measure he explicitly pledged to support last year when the UFT endorsed his mayoral campaign.
“The DOE [Department of Education] needs to make sure each school has a clear instructional plan,” Mulgrew said of the NYC Reads phase-in.
Mulgrew argued that the city needs to simplify its approach and reduce burdens on educators rather than continue implementing the initiative in the same manner.
“That means streamlining what schools are doing, making sure programs align, and eliminating unnecessary paperwork and assessments,” Mulgrew said. “We’re not going to support it if they want to implement it the way they did this past school year.”
The latest state testing results showed a 6% year-over-year decline in English Language Arts performance among New York City public school students in grades 3 through 8, leaving only about half of students rated proficient.
NYC Reads was originally launched during the administration of Mayor Eric Adams as an effort to overhaul literacy instruction throughout the public school system. Mamdani continued and expanded the initiative this year alongside Schools Chancellor Kamar Samuels.
Mulgrew, speaking separately to the Daily News, criticized supplemental programs that had been layered onto the city’s primary literacy curriculum, arguing that they had failed to produce the intended results. The Department of Education disputed that assessment.
Mamdani defended NYC Reads during a press conference Thursday, insisting that he remained confident in the program despite the disappointing test scores.
“I continue to be confident in NYC Reads. And it is developed with the real findings of what’s been effective across the country in mind,” Mamdani said.
“And we know that it is a critical thing that we equip our public school students with,” the mayor added. “We look forward to being in conversation with the UFT as we look to not only build upon the successes of the last few years, but to go beyond that.”
Sources suggested that Mulgrew’s public criticism was partly intended to distance teachers from responsibility for the declining scores and shift scrutiny toward the Department of Education’s instructional policies.
Education insiders also said the UFT president’s willingness to openly challenge Mamdani may have been influenced by another increasingly contentious disagreement between the union and City Hall — the battle over salaries for paraprofessionals.
The issue became a major political fight last year because of the roughly $32,000 starting salary earned by paraprofessionals. Mulgrew rallied outside City Hall in support of legislation that would provide a $10,000 increase separate from the traditional collective bargaining process.
Mamdani joined Mulgrew during the mayoral campaign when he accepted the UFT’s endorsement and publicly committed himself to supporting the proposed increase.
“I will be proud to continue to support the passage of Intro Bill 1261 …. that addresses the fact that there are too many open positions right now for paraprofessionals across the city because that job simply doesn’t pay enough,” Mamdani said then, with Mulgrew standing behind him.
The City Council approved the controversial $10,000 increase last month, putting the decision squarely before Mamdani.
Government watchdogs have warned that signing the measure could establish a significant precedent by allowing municipal unions to pursue compensation increases through the City Council rather than negotiating them at the bargaining table. Critics contend that other unions could attempt to use the same strategy to obtain concessions they were unable to secure through collective bargaining.
Following the council vote, however, a City Hall spokesperson said Mamdani now believes salary increases should generally be handled through collective bargaining rather than legislation — a position that represented a departure from the commitment he made while campaigning for mayor.
The administration also argued that the council-approved legislation directly conflicts with New York state collective bargaining law.
Mulgrew has rejected the change in position and is pressing Mamdani to follow through on his campaign commitment, arguing that the shortage of paraprofessionals is already having serious consequences for students and taxpayers.
“The school system can’t hire enough paraprofessionals; so our special needs students are not getting the services they are legally entitled to,” Mulgrew said.
“This is costing city taxpayers more than a billion dollars a year in lawsuits. We need to fix this, and we can.”
The two disputes — falling reading scores and the unresolved fight over paraprofessional salaries — have now placed visible pressure on a political relationship that was a significant part of Mamdani’s successful campaign coalition just months ago.
