Publish Date: December 12, 2024 5:13 pm Author: Texas AFT
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Friday, Dec. 6, 2024
Finding common ground
We have a mental health crisis among our kids. This much we know; both the data and our experience as teachers and school staff agree.
The reasons for it are many and varied, but one that has escaped regulation for too long is the social media industrial complex that has created a generation of “chronically online children,” as The Texas Tribune reports.
A 2023 advisory from the Office of the Surgeon General reported that up to 95% of young people ages 13-17 use a social media platform, with more than one-third saying they use social media “almost constantly.” Nearly 40% of kids ages 8-12, meanwhile, use social media, despite the minimum age requirements.
We are living the consequences now. Adolescents who spend more than three hours a day on social media face double the risk for symptoms of depression and anxiety, according to a joint report from AFT, the American Psychological Association, and other partners last year.
Bills addressing social media use among children and adolescents have already been filed for the upcoming Texas legislative session. We welcome the opportunity to work with lawmakers on bipartisan solutions that prioritize our kids’ well-being.
And we remind them that one of those bipartisan solutions should be funding our schools to support the nurses, counselors, psychologists, and social workers they need to keep our kids healthy and safe.
In this week’s Hotline:
An expert Q&A on a new report showing the fiscal harm of charter schools and voucher programs
A legislative update on one plank of our Educator’s Bill of Rights: high-quality, affordable childcare
A big advocacy win for our members in Socorro AFT
The latest on an academic freedom fight at the University of North Texas
Despite a resounding defeat in the 88th Legislature, private school vouchers will return as a major issue in the 89th Legislature, which begins Jan. 14. After pouring money into Republican primary races to defeat anti-voucher incumbents, Gov. Greg Abbott claims he has the votes he needs to pass a voucher program; meanwhile, both he and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick continue to claim they will do so alongside increased public school funding and educator pay raises, despite evidence mounting from other states that vouchers inevitably drain state budgets and hurt public school funding.
But don’t take our word for it. We asked the experts: Dr. David S. Knight, associate professor at the University of Washington and co-director of Education Policy Analytics Lab and the Center for Early Childhood Policy and Equity at the University of Washington College of Education, and Dr. David DeMatthews, founder of the Texas Education Leadership Lab and professor in the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy at the University of Texas at Austin.
In our 2023-2024 Texas AFT member survey, 45% of educators who needed regular childcare said they had trouble accessing or affording it. Additionally, more than half of Texas counties are considered childcare deserts.
This is an issue that impacts the entire workforce, but disproportionately affects women. Many working parents, including school employees, find that their income does not keep pace with the costs of childcare, if that care is even available, and many educators will make the choice to exit the profession rather than face an untenable financial equation.
This data tells a compelling story and begs the question: If our teachers and school staff can’t find or afford quality childcare for their own kids, how can they stay in the classroom taking care of our students?
When someone asks what “the union difference” is, you can tell them to look out West toward El Paso, where teachers and school staff are showing the meaning of local advocacy.
With over 1,300 petition signatures in hand, Socorro AFT members brought forward a resolution to their school board in support of Texas AFT’s Educator’s Bill of Rights. And in a unanimous November vote, spurred on by testimony from Socorro AFT President Veronica Hernandez, the Socorro ISD Board of Trustees approved that resolution.
The University of North Texas administration has made sweeping changes to over 200 course titles and descriptions in its College of Education, removing references to race, class, gender, and equity in what Texas AAUP-AFT leaders are calling an extreme overreach that threatens academic freedom.
“Censoring course content is a clear violation of academic freedom,” said Dr. Brian Evans, president of Texas AAUP-AFT. “Faculty must have the freedom to teach without political interference so that students can have the freedom to learn.”
The changes, which affected 78 graduate and 130 undergraduate courses, were imposed despite Senate Bill 17 – the state’s so-called “DEI ban” passed in 2023 – explicitly exempting academic course instruction and research from its restrictions on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives.
📖 What Trump 2.0 Could Mean for Public Education. Houston native and education expert Diane Ravitch urges a fight for “the future of Texas, and for the future of the children” under President Donald Trump’s proposed reforms. (Texas Observer, Dec. 3)
📖 The politics of school vouchers.Despite no hard evidence that they work, school voucher programs are still gaining steam. Josh Cowen, professor of education policy at Michigan State University, joins host Krys Boyd to discuss why “school choice” is such a hot-button issue, the influential people behind its growth, and why this push is signaling distrust of public schools. (KERA Think, Dec. 2)
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