November 9, 2023 – In red, blue, and purple states, voters across the country sent a clear and convincing message Tuesday rejecting an extremist education agenda, which censors our history, bans books, harms our students, stigmatizes trans students, LGBTQIA+ students, and educators, and students with LGBTQIA+ parents, and would give future generations fewer rights than […]
American Federation of Teachers
Posted inOp-Ed
American Federation of Teachers AFT Condemns Signing of ‘Don’t Say Gay’ Bill in Florida
WASHINGTON, March 28, 2022—American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten, AFT Executive Vice President Evelyn DeJesus and California Federation of Teachers President and AFT LGBTQIA+ Task Force Chair Jeff Freitas issued the following remarks after Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a measure into law, dubbed “Don’t Say Gay,” that bars educators from discussing sexual orientation […]
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Education Underfunding Tops $19 Billion over Decade of Neglect
PITTSBURGH, July 16, 2018 – Governments in 25 states have shortchanged public K-12 education by $19 billion over the last decade, with low-tax Republican states guilty of the worst underfunding, a groundbreaking report by the American Federation of Teachers, released yesterday, reveals. “A Decade of Neglect: Public Education Funding in the Aftermath of the Great […]
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AFT Severs Relationship with Wells Fargo over Guns
WASHINGTON April 19, 2018 – American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten announced today that the union would cut ties with Wells Fargo, after CEO Tim Sloan failed to follow up on meeting with the union to discuss the bank’s relationship with the National Rifle Association and gun manufacturers. Earlier this month, the AFT released correspondence from […]
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AFT Joins NAACP Lawsuit to Stop Trump’s Termination of DACA
WASHINGTON October 23, 2017 – The 1.7 million-member American Federation of Teachers has joined the NAACP’s landmark lawsuit against the Trump administration’s cruel and callous cancellation of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. Today, the AFT formally joined the suit as a plaintiff, filing an amended complaint in federal court to bring its organizational […]
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AFT President Randi Weingarten on the Withdrawal of Labor Secretary Nominee Andrew Puzder
WASHINGTON February 15, 2017 – AFT President Randi Weingarten released the following statement in response to the withdrawal of Labor Secretary nominee Andrew Puzder. “America’s workers won today because senators required real transparency from Andrew Puzder, and advocates for workers resisted and persisted. Puzder’s conflicts of interest and his troubling record of shipping jobs overseas, […]
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Randi Weingarten: Betsy DeVos will focus on privatizing, defunding and destroying public education in America
WASHINGTON, Nov. 23, 2016 — In response to President-elect Donald Trump’s nomination of Betsy DeVos to lead the Department of Education, AFT President Randi Weingarten issued the following statement: The president-elect, in his selection of Betsy DeVos, has chosen the most ideological, anti-public education nominee put forward since President Carter created a Cabinet-level Department of […]