“A Decade of Neglect: Public Education Funding in the Aftermath of the Great Recession” details for the first time the devastating impact on schools, classrooms and students when states choose to pursue an austerity agenda in the false belief that tax cuts will pay for themselves. The comprehensive report offers a deep dive into the long-term austerity agendas and historic disinvestment that sparked the wave of nationwide walkouts this spring.
Lobbyists were banned, diversity reinforced and a three-year registration minimum added to the Senate’s prime redistricting bill Monday as it was prepared for a final vote by lawmakers.
AFT Pennsylvania President Ted Kirsch congratulated three AFT members who won their Primary Elections on Tuesday and pledged to work to elect pro-education, pro-worker candidates in November.
Governor Tom Wolf gave his fourth budget address today before the PA General Assembly and called on legislators to work together to increase PA's investment in education and programs that ensure that Pennsylvanians have "21st Century skills." His 2018-18 budget would invest an additional $225 million in education and make significant investments in workforce development.
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court threw out the Congressional District maps approved by the Republican-controlled legislature in 2011, ruling on Monday (Jan. 22) that the voting districts were gerrymandered to give GOP lawmakers an electoral advantage. "The court's decision is a huge victory that protects voters from being marginalized by a dominant political party. AFTPA is proud to have played a role in protecting the rights of thousands of Pennsylvania voters." AFTPA President Ted Kirsch said.
The omnibus school code bill, Act 55 of 2017, became law on Nov. 5, 2017. Despite concerns about the furlough provisions, Governor Wolf allowed the bill to become law without his signature to ensure that state funds would be paid on time to public schools and to protect other provisions in the bill, including extending the moratorium on Keystone exams, requiring opioid abuse education and ending “lunch shaming” of students. AFTPA opposed the school code bill because it changes the way layoffs are conducted, places emphasis on a flawed evaluation system and interferes with collective bargaining rights.
The Janus case is a blatantly political and well-funded plot to use the highest court in the land to further rig the economic rules against everyday working people. The billionaire CEOs and corporate interests behind this case, and the politicians who do their bidding, have teamed up to deliver yet another attack on working people by striking at the freedom to come together in strong unions. The forces behind this case know that by joining together in strong unions, working people are able to win the power and voice they need to level the economic and political playing field.
The 2018 budget proposal released by the White House on March 16 "takes a meat cleaver to public education" and ignores promised investments in the types of skills, training and other vital family supports that Trump rode to the White House in 2016, AFT President Randi Weingarten says.
A survey of Pennsylvanians by Terry Madonna's Opinion Research group found that 71 percent of Pennsylvanians believe the state needs to make a bigger investment in public education.