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Photo of AFT President Randi Weingarten addressing TEACH 2023

The AFT has always been a solutions-driven union, and our new campaign, launched during TEACH on July 21, proves it once again with a fresh, practical approach to strengthening public education. As AFT President Randi Weingarten pointed out during her keynote speech, the $5 million, yearlong campaign, “Real Solutions for Kids and Communities,” stands up against attacks on public schools and offers real-world solutions to build up, rather than break down, our communities.

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Randi Weingarten at a Massachusetts high school

Summer is upon us, and parents, children and teachers are winding down from what has been an exhausting and fully operational school year—the first since the devastating pandemic. The long-lasting impact of COVID-19 has affected our students’ and families’ well-being and ignited the politics surrounding public schools. All signs point to the coming school year unfolding with the same sound and fury, and if extremist culture warriors have their way, being even more divisive and stressful.

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What unions do

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In AFT President Randi Weingarten’s latest New York Times  column, she describes what it is exactly that unions do. Though unions are the most popular they have been in decades, anti-union sentiment still thrives in red states and across the nation. “Several years ago, The Atlantic ran a story whose headline made even me, a labor leader, scratch my head: ‘Union Membership: Very Sexy,’” Weingarten writes in the column. “The gist was that higher wages, health benefits and job security—all associated with union membership—boost one’s chances of getting married. Belonging to a union doesn’t actually guarantee happily ever after, but it does help working people have a better life in the here and now.” Click through to read the full column.

May 12, 2022

PFT President Jerry Jordan at the "No More Excuses" rally at FS Key School:

On March 29, 2019, so many of us here today stood outside this very school, the oldest school building operating in the school district of Philadelphia, to launch the Fund Our Facilities Coalition. 

We stood here then, just as we do now, to demand more for our children, our educators, and our school communities.  In the time since our coalition launched, we have grown in strength. 

We have secured millions of dollars in remediation efforts. 

We have fought for changes small and large in the approach to a toxic

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April 7, 2022

PHILADELPHIA--"I am simply thrilled that the US Senate has voted to confirm a remarkable jurist, Justice-designate Ketanji Brown Jackson, as the next justice of the United States Supreme Court. Our country will be better off with Justice Brown Jackson on the bench of the Supreme Court.

"Justice-designate Brown Jackson is immensely qualified, and her confirmation represents an historic moment. Representation matters, and diversity is strength.

"For so many Black Americans, particularly women, this day, when the first Black woman is confirmed to the Supreme Court, is especially

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April 5, 2022

This afternoon, Representative Elizabeth Fiedler hosted a policy committee hearing on the topic of Toxic Schools. The hearing took place at the Seafarers Union Hall in Rep. Fiedler's 184th District.

PFT environmental scientist Jerry Roseman presented testimony on the ongoing facilities crisis. He joined Dr. Akira Drake Rodriguez, Assistant Professor, University of Pennslyvania Weitzman School of Design; Iggy Fletcher, Instructor, ATEI IBEW Local 98; and Edy Lai, 9th grader at Furness High School.

Prepared testimony can be accessed here.

Read a thread from the hearing right here.

Durin

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Join us Wednesday, August 25 at 7pm!

Register here.

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Join us as we partner with PHA at two fun back to school events!


Details:

August 19, 11am-2pm | Lucien E. Blackwell Community Center

August 20, 11am-2pm | Vaux High School

Please share these flyers with your school communities!

Download the Blackwell Community Center Flyer right here.

Download the Vaux High School Flyer right here.

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6-26-21

This afternoon, PFT President Jerry Jordan shared the following with PFT members:


Dear PFT Members,

Our fight for fair and equitable education funding continues. And this year's budget, finished by the State Legislature last evening, did very little to get us there. It was a woefully inadequate budget that, amidst a $10B surplus in the state's coffers, passed up this potentially once in a lifetime opportunity to make serious investment in public education.

Instead, elected officials decided to put more money in their coffers to save for a 'rainy day.' This is an abject failure, and to call

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