Video, Audio, Photos & Rush Transcript: Governor Hochul Delivers Remarks at United Federation of Teachers Spring Conference

Earlier today, Governor Kathy Hochul attended the United Federation of Teachers Spring Conference and delivered remarks.

VIDEO of the event is available on YouTube here and in TV quality (h.264, mp4) format here.

AUDIO of the event is available here.

PHOTOS are available on the Governor's Flickr page.

A rush transcript of the Governor's remarks is available below:

Wow, I thought I was making history as the first woman Governor, but this even tops that, the first woman to speak at this conference. First Governor, first anybody. So Michael, thank you for making me feel so welcome as you always do, and to see your leadership in action. This guy is a pit bull. And you want to be on his side and not against him, because he knows the strength of his position, and he is the voice and the fighter that our teachers deserve. So let's give a round of applause to my friend, Michael Mulgrew.

And I just had a chance to spend a few more minutes with Andy Pallotta. We have traveled the state together. We are fighting to make sure we had the Red Flag Law in place in schools. We traveled on buses all over, a few years ago, and I want to thank him for his tireless leadership as well. Great to see, give Andy a round of applause. Dr. Betty Rosa, our great Commissioner, who is so passionate about the needs of our teachers and our kids and what an incredible leader she is as well. Dr. Betty Rosa. Let's give her a round of applause.

Randi here? Randi's here. Didn't have to travel so far, hopefully. When I reached out she's always flying in from somewhere else, but our great AFT President, so honored to call her a New Yorker. Randi Weingarten. And the entire leadership team, I know we just left the Mayor, I've been working very closely with him. Let's make history too: Governor working with Mayor, closely? That's another news flash, right? That's what we do. It shouldn't be so hard. Right? It's what we do.

But, this is amazing, I feel like there's a lot of energy out here. I feel like it's like teachers on Spring Break, right? You guys got a lot of pent up energy sitting in the classroom too much. Yeah. I can feel that. I can feel that. And I hope you're having a great time. I have been inspired by teachers. In fact, I was reminded just a little over a year ago. I went to the wake of a teacher who taught me when I was in eighth grade. And I went and told his wife, I said, "You'll never know the influence that Mr. Peter James at Hamburg Junior High had on me." He opened my mind as an impressionable 13-year-old to the power of politics and government, as we learned about American history. And I was hooked at that moment. Hearing how he talked about the great leaders of our nation and our state. And he had this thought, that he actually embraced me and said, "I think you can do this too." And no one ever thought I could do it. No one ever saw that path for me, but a teacher named Mr. Peter James. And the Japanese proverb is "Better than a thousand days of diligence study, is a single day with a great teacher." Oh, I believe that to my core.

And I'm looking out at a room full of not just teachers, but great teachers. So you may never hear the influence that you had on a child like I once was, but I'm telling you it's powerful. And you are the ones who have been called to do so much more than you ever dreamed during this pandemic. And the extraordinary sacrifice that we called upon you to do, which is to figure out how to turn on Zoom, how to plug it all in, how to recharge, how to be teaching children who are still looking to you as that anchor in the storm. That sense of recognition they had, that that's the person I trust. That's my teacher. And they had to learn from you remotely. And many times, I heard this from many teachers. I have teachers in my own family, they'd be teaching their students at one end of the kitchen table, and their own children are trying to learn at the other end. How did that even happen? But you did it, you persevered, you said "We'll do this for our kids because they need us." And then going into the classroom, and having to do testing and enforcing the mask rules, and all the things we put on you, my God, no wonder you needed this break. In fact. You deserve it. You deserve the recognition that should have been there your entire careers, but I'm here to tell you the State of New York does now finally recognized your incredible contributions.

And we're going to start making up for a lot of lost time here, my friends, that's ever going to do. And that's the opportunity that my very first budget gave me. I said, "So how much are we spending on education? Okay, that's nice. That's not enough. I want to break records here." I want to show our priorities because we need to invest the money in our teachers, our schools, because ultimately we're investing in our children, and that's what this is all about. You know that, that is the core of who you are. So, we have an historic level of funding. Need I say $31.5 billion, a 7.2% increase, $2 billion increase in one year, but also something known as foundation aid. Everybody else kind of ran away from that, or litigated in court for a long time. It was like, "Wait a minute, people are waiting for this money. What's the big deal?" Last Fall, as a pretty brand new Governor, I said, "Liberate it, settle a lawsuit and get the money out where it belongs." And I finally got that done as well.

Also, now we realize that while these investments should have been made a long time ago, but we needed to invest now more than ever, in mental health and support services inside the school. Because for far too long, you have had to be teacher, parent, social worker, and mental health counselor, all wrapped up into one. And you've done it beautifully, but how about giving a little more help to help those kids who still aren't the same as they would have been before the pandemic? And you see this, you see this in the children, you know this to your core and it wasn't their fault. It wasn't your fault. It's nobody's fault, but it's the government's responsibility to make sure you have the resources and the support in your schools and classrooms. And we are delivering that with an additional $125 million all toward to help that cause.

Also we have to get, I know New York City's covered, we don't have all day funding for preschool elsewhere. It is available in some of the nicer communities, the well-to-do communities, but I want to tell you, they're probably not the ones where they need it the most.

Let's invest that money in those places where the parents aren't out there hiring the tutors and getting all those fancy online education programs or playing opera music while the kid's still in the womb. I mean, that's all very nice, but a lot of people just can't do that because the moms and dads are out working. They're driving our trains and our buses, and they're working in hospitals and they're working on these hotels like this. They can't do that because, it's not that they don't want to, they actually have to earn a paycheck and those are the people we respect and we're going to make life a little bit easier for them because this should be happening in a school.

And I thank our parents for partnering with our teachers and understanding that this is all about the kids, but I, in government, am you're brand new, even better partner because I'm able to direct the money to help you do what you do every single day. And we're going to keep doing that and we're going to recruit more teachers.

We lost a lot of teachers. You need more in the ranks. I understand the challenge. We lost a lot during the pandemic and others who just said, you know, I have to do something else. But we had to bring up the next generation and inspire them just the way you were inspired at the start of your career. What brought you to this profession where you dedicate your time and your talents day, after day, after day?

We need to make other young people say, I want to be part of that, that core of people who are so dedicated to the lives of others. I want more teachers, I'm going to continue working together.

And also what we're teaching in classrooms. And Mike Mulgrew and I have had this conversation a thousand times. We need career and technical education, and I want New York State to lead the nation in how we invest in our young people and give them a pathway to not just a job, but a career. We can do that Michael, we'll get that done. We'll get that done.

I have so much more to tell you, but there's one more thing that's important. The environment that you're in, now how many of you are working at a brand spanking new fancy school? I didn't think so. I didn't think so. I go to a lot of schools. I was at a school yesterday in Brooklyn, they don't feel real new. And in fact, they don't even feel environmentally safe to me. Lot of strange things going on. So we have a Clean Green Schools initiative, where we're going to be making sure that we pass the Bond Act and I'm telling you this now, when you vote in November, there is a $4.2 billion Bond Act.

And part of that money is going to go to making the schools safer, cleaner, greener and getting rid of all those things that you really shouldn't be around right now nor should the students. So help us get that over the finish line. We're going to invest in buses that are electric, so our kids aren't standing at the corner, breathing in the fumes anymore and ending up with asthma. How about taking care of our kids like that?

So I want to thank the UFT and the teacher's unions, because it is a perfect marriage. Just as an aside, I know a little bit about a perfect marriage because I've got my husband here with me and I've been married to him for 38 years and it just keeps getting better, he often can't join me, but he is here today because he comes from a family of teachers. He also teaches at the university. He teaches crisis communication, something I feel like I could teach as well, but that's another story, but the UFT is a perfect marriage of harnessing the power of labor and the power of teachers.

So that combination is unstoppable and I pay a lot of attention because our interests are 100% aligned. We don't have to have conflict anymore because who among us does not have the same purpose of making sure that our children have the shot at not just the American dream, but what I spoke about when I first became governor was the New York dream.

It's even better. It celebrates our diversity, it celebrates the collectiveness of all the people from different walks of life and different backgrounds and different colors of their skin and different places of origin. That is the New York dream, that every child born here will get a world-class education and a pathway to a better future than perhaps their parents and grandparents had.

That is my commitment to you to make sure that that happens. And I will continue to support you in every way I can, but today I'm just here to honor all of you. I thank you. I thank you for what you do every day on behalf of thousands, millions of children across the state. You have my love. Thank you.