First, a point of information and clarification that some in the news media can’t seem to get correct: the lowest-paid workers in a school building are those essential cafeteria workers and school aides represented by DC-37, a labor union, by the way, that I found, both as a principal and as a superintendent, to be progressive in its advocacy on behalf of children while also being a fierce advocate for the rights and interests of its workers.
Mayor Zohran Kwame Mamdani has the right idea: we need to permanently and substantially raise the annual salaries of paraprofessionals (UFT), cafeteria workers, health aides, and school aides so that New York City can be a realistic, livable, and economically viable place for them to pursue and sustain their careers.
These essential school workers need significant and permanent improvements in salaries and benefits—not one-time temporary financial gestures, or political stunts seeking to undermine the mayor. If we are sincere when we call these workers essential, then their compensation should reflect their essential contributions to the daily education, safety, health, and well-being of our children.
Finally, we also need to create a robust, tuition-paid high school-to-two-year CUNY community college pathway leading directly to paraprofessional employment in the New York City public schools. And that pathway should not end there. We should establish a CUNY 4-year college tuition-free Paraprofessional-to-Teacher Program that enables highly rated and proven successful paraprofessionals to earn the academic credentials and professional certification necessary to become classroom teachers.
This tuition investment should be contingent upon participants committing to work for the New York City Department of Education for a designated number of years following completion of the program, with the specific service requirement to be determined. Participants who voluntarily leave before fulfilling that service commitment would be required to repay an appropriately prorated portion of the tuition investment.
In this way, the program would represent a reciprocal commitment: New York City invests in the education and professional advancement of its school employees, and those employees, in turn, commit a meaningful period of professional service to the children and families of the New York City public schools.
Such a forward thinking-planning integrated career-development pipeline, would provide young people with an affordable and clearly defined pathway into the education profession, create meaningful upward professional and economic mobility for paraprofessionals already serving our children, and help address persistent staffing shortages in both the paraprofessional and teaching positions. This is the kind of strategic-thinking conceived, and long-term public investment that strengthens the workforce while simultaneously strengthening our schools.
