New York City teachers were promised a valuable trade-off: in exchange for a two-year delay on fully meeting the state's class size law, the United Federation of Teachers negotiated bonus pay of up to $8,500 for teachers stuck with oversized classrooms. That deal was announced more than two months ago. School starts in weeks. And still, no one can say for certain who will actually get paid.

The city says a classroom only qualifies for a bonus if it has been granted an exemption from the class size caps, usually because a building lacks space or a school cannot hire enough teachers. But being in an exempt classroom does not guarantee the money. The Department of Education has refused to explain exactly how it will decide who qualifies, or how much has even been set aside to pay for this program.

That silence creates a real risk: bonuses could end up flowing mostly to teachers at wealthier, more crowded schools, while high-poverty schools that already struggle to keep teachers see none of the benefit. "I wish they were using strategic compensation to do the opposite: to try to retain teachers in our lowest performing, traditionally hardest-to-staff schools," said Evan Stone, CEO of Educators for Excellence. Teachers deserve better than vague promises and a wait-and-see approach that leaves them guessing until the school year is already underway.

Mayor Zohran Mamdani, the New York City Department of Education, and UFT President Michael Mulgrew should commit now, in writing, to two things: publish the exact criteria and budget for these bonuses before the first day of school, and guarantee that every teacher stuck in an oversized, exempt classroom gets paid, starting with the highest-need schools first.

Sign the petition to demand clear, fair rules for teacher bonus pay, before another school year begins in the dark.