Eric Severson for VP of CTE

I am in my 19th year as a special education teacher at Clara Barton High School in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. During that time, I joined my colleagues in fighting administrative micromanagement and budget cuts from city hall. I filed and won a grievance for back pay earned in a summer program which got several teachers what they had earned. I was chapter leader from 2014-2018, where I voted and lobbied on behalf of fellow educators in my building, on the streets in campaigns, and at the delegate assembly where I witnessed and then fought complacency and corruption in leadership.

I was fortunate enough to join the UFT in 2006 when Tier IV retirement was still in effect, and I will fight tirelessly to ensure that all members get what they deserve. I filed and won many a grievance against excessive paperwork and for fair compensation for teachers working on SESIS, and will continue that struggle to ensure that special educators get the time, resources and support that they need. Our profession is under attack at every level from local to federal, and we must fight for ourselves and our students as though our lives depended on it, because they do.

For over six decades, the UFT has been under one party rule. Career bureaucrats who haven’t been in the classroom in years make decisions about our pay, health care, and working conditions and base those decisions of self-interest, not the interest of the members. A new and vibrant UFT must emerge which is led by those who do the work and know what fellow members want and need. Union transparency and democracy will make a more perfect UFT for us all, which will make our classrooms, our city, and our world a better place. I am proud to run with ARISE and I would be honored to have your support.