Yang blames UFT for in-school stall

Mayoral candidate Andrew Yang accused the city’s politically powerful teachers union of standing in the way of kids getting back in schools amid the COVID-19 crisis.

“I will confess to being a parent that has been frustrated by how slow our schools have been to open, and I do believe that the UFT has been a significant reason why our schools have been slow to open,” Yang told Politico in an interview published Friday, referring to the United Federation of Teachers.

The businessman — who is leading the race for the Democratic nomination in some polls and has raised more than $2 million — is the parent of a specialneeds elementary-school student.

Yang is not alone in his frustrations. Some families have complained that many students who have been taking in-school classes are getting just a few hours per week back in classrooms, where much of the instruction is still delivered virtually.

Mayor de Blasio has hinted publicly he would like to bring more students and teachers back to classrooms, but it’s unclear how forcefully he is pushing for the expansion amid stiff opposition from UFT chief Mike Mulgrew.

Mulgrew this week declined to back new recommendations by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, made official Friday, that would reduce social distancing required at schools from 6 feet to 3 feet — arguing that prematurely relaxing safeguards could trigger a COVID outbreak.

Those spacing requirements have come under scrutiny because they severely limit the number of kids who can be in a building at the same time, slashing in-person learning capacity.

Parents and some politicians have also begun to argue that fully vaccinated teachers should be ordered back to classrooms.

Roughly 20,000 of the DOE’s roughly 75,000 teachers were granted yearlong medical exemptions due to the pandemic and are not required to teach in their buildings, even if they’ve received the COVID vaccine.

Officials at the DOE and the UFT were not immediately able to say how many teachers with exemptions have been jabbed.

The [United Federation of Teachers] has been a significant reason why our schools have been slow to open.

— Andrew Yang