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Unpacking the 89th Legislature: Your Right to a Secure Retirement
Texas AFT members at our 2025 Public Education Advocacy Day at the Capitol. One Socorro AFT member holds a sign with one of the 10 essential rights in our Educator’s Bill of Rights: the right to secure retirement. Texas educators deserve better than broken promises and one-time checks. Despite a historic push for pension reform this legislative session, the 89th...
Read MoreBiden’s New Executive Order Strengthens Educators’ Right to Safe Schools
In response to the escalating threat of gun violence in schools, with at least 50 this year, President Biden has signed a new executive order that directs federal agencies to combat emerging firearms threats and improve school-based active shooter drills.
Read MoreOctober 7th is the last day you can register to vote!
2024 is a presidential election year, with consequential down-ballot races across a Texas where: Public schools are struggling to survive without any new funding from the state since 2019. A flurry of bad bills from the 88th Legislature are now law, infringing on the freedom to learn and threatening our...
Read MoreSept. 27, 2024: Protecting the Freedom to Learn
Friday, Sept. 27, 2024 Protecting the freedom to learn It’s national Banned Books Week, though in Texas for the past several years, just about every week has been Banned Books Week. According to American Library Association data, in 2023, more than 1,470 titles were challenged in Texas, putting it behind...
Read MoreOur Advocacy Never Stops: Updates on Your Right to a Secure Retirement
Texas AFT continues to be busy at the Texas Capitol and before our state agencies advocating on a variety of issues. Continuing our coverage from last week’s Hotline, today we will focus on the Teacher Retirement System of Texas (TRS) joint budget hearing, interim House Pensions, Investments, & Financial Services...
Read MoreHigher Education in Focus: Senate Subcommittee on Higher Education Interim Hearing
After the Texas Senate Subcommittee on Higher Education covered Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) policies, combating antisemitism on Texas college campuses, and campus free speech in its May 2024 interim hearing, advocates were expecting the committee to take up the rest of its interim charges – including the second wave recently issued...
Read MoreOur Advocacy Never Stops: Updates on Your Right to a Secure Retirement
Texas AFT continues to be busy at the Texas Capitol and before our state agencies advocating on a variety of issues. Continuing our coverage from last week’s Hotline, today we will focus on the Teacher Retirement System of Texas (TRS) joint budget hearing, interim House Pensions, Investments, & Financial Services...
Read MoreSBEC Recap: Texas Teachers of Tomorrow Secures Agreement
The State Board for Educator Certification (SBEC) met in Austin September 19-20. Perhaps the most consequential event of the meeting came early Thursday afternoon.
Read MoreElection 2024 Spotlight: Preserving an Anti-Voucher Vote in HD 121
After the bruising battles of last year’s voucher-focused Texas Legislature and amid an equally unsettling back-to-school season, we know how critical this November’s election is.
Read MoreSept. 20, 2024: The Right to Academic Freedom
Friday, Sept. 20, 2024 The Right to Academic Freedom No. 6 in Texas AFT’s Educator’s Bill of Rights, our union’s agenda for the 89th Legislature, is the right to academic freedom. Our members have told us that ending classroom censorship by repealing book bans and limitations on classroom instructional materials...
Read MoreA (Very) Full Week at the Capitol
To say this was a busy week for interim hearing work at the Legislature would be an understatement. This week alone, and in addition to two statewide board meetings, Texas AFT was monitoring and providing testimony in the following committees: House Select Committee on Youth Health & Safety Senate Education...
Read MoreNew Poll Warns of Impending Faculty Crisis at Texas Universities Following Legislature’s Attacks on Higher Education
Texas AAUP-AFT, the Texas chapter of the American Association of University Professors, and the Texas Faculty Association (TFA) released a new poll of Texas university and college faculty, and the findings are clear and bleak.
Read MoreSBOE Recap: A Long Week with No Shortage of Controversy
The State Board of Education (SBOE) began what proved to be a very long meeting on Tuesday, Sept.10, in Austin. The most anticipated item was the public hearing regarding proposed materials for the inaugural instructional materials and adoption (IMRA) process, but there were significant decisions made throughout the week.
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