Jia Lee Endorsed Unanimously by New Action/UFT

The New Action Executive Board gave a resounding approval to the candidacy of Jia Lee, Chapter Leader of the Earth School for UFT President. Jia has been a leader of the Opt-Out movement. She opposes Race to the Top. She is a staunch opponent of the Teacher Evaluation system, which ties standardized tests to teachers’ ratings.

In contrast to this forthright opposition, the UFT has called for incremental improvements to the disastrous teacher evaluation system. They have not stood up to support Opt-out. And why didn’t they stand up against Obama’s Race to the Top? When a New Action/UFT member of the UFT Executive Board asked, a leading Unity Caucus member responded, “We were pressured into it.”

Jia Lee does not accept this. She has also been outspoken in her rejection of charter schools and for smaller class sizes (something the Unity leadership has failed to fight for in contract talks. She has no interest in bargaining away our rights, or bowing to “pressure.”

For these and many other reasons New Action/UFT and the MORE Caucus have formed an electoral alliance in the upcoming citywide UFT elections. It is time for a new leadership! We must fight the charter school advocates, the deformers and stand 100% with the rank and file members of the UFT!