Mayor Zohran Mamdani is doing the right thing in fighting the City Council\u2019s push to award teaching bonuses outside the collective-bargaining process.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The mayor is suing to stop the $10,000 grants <\/a>to special-education paraprofessionals because they\u2019d set a disastrous precedent.<\/p>\n City Council Speaker Julie Menin argues the move would save the city money on support it\u2019s legally required to give many special-needs kids, but it\u2019s an obvious long-term loser \u2014 an open invitation for every public-employee union to get lawmakers to award them gifts so to win union backing at the next election.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\tGet opinions and commentary from our columnists\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSubscribe to our daily Post Opinion newsletter!\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\tThanks for signing up!\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n We fear that last is why the council voted unanimously for the payment last month<\/a>, a veto-proof majority that left the mayor no choice but to head to court, arguing that the move violates state labor law.<\/p>\n Lawmakers can\u2019t reduce union-worker pay without collective bargaining; letting the council add pay would badly undermine a core mayoral authority. <\/p>\n \t\t\tMore From\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPost Editorial Board<\/p>\n Kudos to Mamdani for eating his campaign promise to support the bonus bill; it\u2019s a sign of good sense that he looked more carefully and thought better.<\/p>\n United Federation of Teachers chief Michael Mulgrew is furious<\/a>, naturally; tough.<\/p>\n The UFT inevitably gets almost everything it asks for, anyway.<\/p>\n