He’s the teachers’ pet.
The New York City teachers’ union on Monday overwhelmingly endorsed city Comptroller Scott Stringer for mayor.
The UFT’s backing of Stringer does not come as a surprise — particularly to rival campaigns — as Stringer has close ties to the union.
The UFT backed Stringer for Manhattan borough president in 2005, when he defeated Eva Moskowitz, CEO of Success Academy, the city’s largest charter school network.
The UFT endorsement is a big boost for Stringer, who has trailed rivals Andrew Yang and Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams in recent polls.
UFT president Michael Mulgrew and the union executive board recommended Stringer to the union’s delegates.
A convincing 90 percent of the deleg▨ates voted for Stringer, a union source said.
Stringer also recently won the endorsement of the left-leaning Working Families Party, so he has some momentum heading towa🃏rd th﷽e June 22 Democratic primary.
The UFT has nearly 200,🍃000 active and retired members.
The UFT endorsement resolution said Stringer has been in the union’s corner on key issues — including COVID-19 safety protocols for schools and opposition to charter schools — the privately managed, publicly funded alternative schools that are mostly non-union.
“While de Blasio couldn’t make up his mind about how to safely open schools, Scott was with us in demanding strong anti-COVID safeguards before school re-opened,” the resolution said.
By comparison, Yang initially criticized 💯the unio🐲n for preventing the reopening of schools.
“The next mayor needs to support an education agenda that recognizes the importance of funding, the benefits of lower class size, and the threat of charter schools,” the pro-Stringer statement said.
“Scott has been a consistent critic of charter schools.”
During a press conference with the candidate afterwards, Mulgrew also said Stringer’s vast experience and knowledge of the nuts and bolts of city government as comptroller made him most suited for the mayoralty.
“We’re going to need someone who knows how to get the job done,” Mulgrew said.
A clearly thrilled Stringer said the UFT’s support was a good omen.
“There’s some history here. When I get endorsed by the UFT, I win,” Stringer said.
“I will win the Democrati nomination. We are not going to have a government by twitter.”
Several teachers across the UFT’s political spectrum said there was no passionate backing of any particular candidate and Stringer was seen as a pragmatic and relatively safe pick , given his backing of public schools and progressive positions.
One Queens teacher said, “It’s been a really unstable period here for a long time. I think he’s seen as at least being competent and knowledgeable about the city. Beyond that, who knows. But that’s more that can be said for most of these candidates.”
UFT insiders said Yang’s criticism of the union involving school closings during the pandemic made him persona non grata.