AFT President Randi Weingarten: Explain. Educate. Engage. Empower.
This is how we cultivate change at the roundhouse and in Congress!
Action: Ask the ERB to Divest Our Retirement Funds from Private Prisons
In case you missed it, educators across New Mexico are asking the Education Retirement Board (NMERB) to divest retirement funds from private prisons. We know that these institutions promote the School to Prison pipeline and we believe our hard-earned money should not be used to fund these companies.
Currently, NMERB has only $1.4M in private prison companies out of an investment fund of $13 billion. So, this will not hurt our retirement funds. On the contrary, private prisons are one of the riskiest investments on Wall Street. Click here to read more!
You might have seen that the Albuquerque Teachers Federation (ATF) Fed Rep Council passed a motion calling on the ERB to take action. Click here to read more!
AFT New Mexico is calling on educators across New Mexico to sign on and ask the NMERB to re-direct our retirement money. Please sign the petition online now by clicking HERE!
Thank you for taking action!
In Solidarity,
Stephanie Ly
AFT New Mexico, President
Weingarten: Educators must save democracy
“Teachers have always had power,” AFT President Randi Weingarten told the crowd at the TEACH opening plenary Thursday afternoon. “We need to own our power. And we need to build our power so we can move our agenda—for our students and our families; for safe, welcoming and well-funded public schools; for affordable higher education; healthcare that is a right, not a privilege; a living wage; a decent retirement; a healthy climate and a strong democracy.”
Best economy ever?
In AFT President Randi Weingarten’s latest column in the New York Times, she writes that, despite President Trump’s claims that we have the “best economy ever,” his policies are harming working and middle-class Americans, many of whom are struggling just to get by. “Our political and economic systems are so weighted toward the wealthy that opportunity will only come through the power of collective action,” she writes, using “the surest vehicles to increase opportunity for ordinary Americans”—public education, labor unions and voting. Read the full column.
Early childhood support requires adequate staffing
Some of education’s biggest problems come with its littlest students. At a working breakfast for paraprofessionals in prekindergarten, early childhood and Head Start, members swapped strategies for solving problems. Their discussion came during the AFT PSRP conference last week in Las Vegas, where paras from all over the country zeroed in on professional development and adequate classroom coverage.
AFT launches massive national campaign to fund public education
The AFT’s long-time advocacy for public schools has just been turbo-charged, with a sweeping, multi-pronged campaign to fund the future of American public education. Amid the continuing wave of teacher activism shining a spotlight on massive shortfalls in education investment, the Fund Our Future initiative aims to take the teachers’ megaphone into Congress, statehouses and communities nationwide.
Never again
“A majority of American teens say they are worried about a shooting happening at their school. Let that sink in,” AFT President Randi Weingarten writes in her latest column for the New York Times. “Young people are demanding meaningful action beyond ‘thoughts and prayers.’ They know, as do law enforcement officers and educators, that there are effective ways to address gun violence.” Read more about the proven strategies that would enhance school safety and reduce gun violence.