Issues

AFT members work to address issues that affect the communities we serve. The issues that matter to us bind us in our mission to improve the lives of our students, patients and the general public.

Fund Our Future

Years of disinvestment have hurt our students and faculty and led to overcrowded classrooms; schools without nurses, librarians, guidance counselors and supports to ensure children’s well-being; deteriorating school buildings with outdated teaching materials and technology; and unhealthy, unsafe environments. The testing fixation, coupled with austerity, has meant the loss of instruction in the arts, music and other programs; and disinvestment has led to huge increases in tuition and student debt as well as fewer course offerings and full-time tenured faculty. Teachers want what students need. It’s time to make students and public education and public higher education a priority at the local, state and national levels. It’s time to Fund Our Future.

Fund Our Future website

Read the Fund Our Future brief

Student Debt

More than 45 million student loan borrowers owe student debt, a result of decades of disinvestment in public higher education that has shifted costs onto students and their families while leaving colleges and universities underfunded. Collectively, student debt is over $1.5 trillion, and this debt surpasses all types of household debt other than mortgages. We know that helping each other manage student debt is not enough; we need to join together and fight to change the terms of the debate about student debt.

Forgive My Student Debt website

Safe and Welcoming Workplaces

We are fighting for safe, healthy and welcoming environments in all our workplaces, for our members and for the people we serve. According to the New England Journal of Medicine, 80 percent of emergency medical workers experience violence during their careers, some reporting verbal assault and some reporting physical abuse. And the rates are rising. Between 2007 and 2017, rates of violence in hospitals grew by 123 percent. As a union of healthcare professionals, educators and public employee, we welcome efforts to make federal workplace-safety regulations a priority.

Freedom to Teach

De-professionalization strips us of the freedom to teach, and denies teachers’ expertise, experience, judgment and voice. AFT affiliates are using the tools of advocacy, legislation and negotiation to make the freedom to teach real.