UFT President Michael Mulgrew has some explaining to do.
UFT President Michael Mulgrew has some explaining to do. (Hagen for News)

When the Daily News reported last week that United Federation of Teachers honcho Paul Egan was escorted out of an Albany restaurant by cops after huffing and puffing about an undersize portion of $40 quail, Egan complained:

"This has all been blown out of proportion."


You want to talk about proportion, Mr. Egan? Okay, let's talk about proportion.

Egan demonstrated his knuckleheadedness by pitching a fit over an $1,800 dinner for 24 reps. Yesterday, The News revealed that UFT President Michael Mulgrew spent $1.4 million on a union anniversary celebration last year.

That's 778 times more knuckleheaded; even kids at the William E. Grady Career and Technical Education High School, where Mulgrew taught and where only 1% of students get a 75 on the Math Regents, could figure that out.

Mulgrew's free spending also included a half-million dollars for 16 caterers, $114,870 for coffee supplies, $6,400 for a welcome dinner for Mulgrew (then newly installed), $8,300 to say goodbye to his predecessor and $75,000 for 25 parking slots in a Brooklyn garage.

These are the perks when you get to tap $126 million a year in union dues while drawing a salary that is $34,000 higher than the school chancellor's and six times the pay of a starting teacher. And, thank you to Mulgrew for showing the public his unrepentantly wastrel ways as parents and his members brace for the loss of 6,000 teachers. (See editorial above.)

What if you're a teacher who doesn't want to join the union? The UFT website volunteers this helpful Q&A:

"I have not joined the union. Why am I still paying dues?" "Ninety-six percent of all potential members choose to be union members. Those who do not still pay an 'agency fee' since the union represents them in contract negotiations and they are entitled to receive all the same benefits, salary and working conditions as the union negotiates for members."

So pay up, and party on.