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Retiree Issues in the Spotlight 

We continue to await news of the final outcome of the bipartisan effort in Congress to pass the Social Security Fairness Act and finally repeal the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) and Government Pension Offset (GPO) to ensure that public employees – including educators, firefighters, and VA nurses – receive the Social Security benefits they are due.

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Unpacking the Select Committee Report

Rep. Gina Hinojosa did not sign on to the House Select Committee’s report, instead releasing her own recommendations, outlined in the report’s appendices. Chief among her concerns: that teacher and school staff raises will once again be held hostage by private school voucher proponents. In June 2023, Speaker Dade Phelan...

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TEA Releases STAAR Test Results, Revealing Continued Post-COVID Improvements

This Wednesday, the Texas Education Agency (TEA) released results from the 2023 STAAR test, including data aggregated at the state, region, district, and campus levels. Overall, the data showed marked increase in math scores, which had dipped significantly in the years since the COVID-19 pandemic first hit. The data revealed...

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Get Out the Vote for a COLA with Texas AFT Retiree Plus on Tuesday 8/22

Texas AFT Retiree Plus has kicked off its efforts to win a cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) for retired educators at the ballot box this November. Retirees are fighting to pass Proposition 9, which will provide an increase to retired educators’ pensions.  Educators who have been retired for nearly two decades have...

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Do you know how your representative voted? Find out.

With a $33 billion surplus available, many educators across this state had high hopes for the 88th Legislature. Yet, here we are, one regular session and two special sessions later with no basic allotment increase and no guaranteed pay raises for teachers and school staff.  Given those results, as well...

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Retired Educator COLA set as Proposition 9 on November Ballot

Last Friday, the ballot order for the Nov. 7  statewide constitutional amendment election, which will include a vote on a cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) to retired educator pensions, was set by the Texas Secretary of State’s office. The order of the 14 propositions on the ballot this November was determined by...

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Texas AFL-CIO Demands Action to Save Workers’ Lives

Last week, the Texas AFl-CIO launched a new letter campaign to push Gov. Greg Abbott to include statewide heat protections for Texas workers in the upcoming special session call. This summer, Texas workers have been exposed to some of the hottest temperatures ever recorded in Texas. In these types of...

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Aug. 4, 2023: Houston, we have a problem

Friday, August 4, 2023 Alliance/AFT member and Dallas ISD teacher Rosie Curts attends a Houston community protest this summer against TEA’s takeover and Mike Miles’ appointment as superintendent. It starts in Houston. It doesn’t end there. We start this week with a message from Texas AFT President Zeph Capo and...

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Local Businesses Sue Texas over “Book Ban Bill”

Last week, a coalition of Texas-based book sellers and several bookstore associations filed a lawsuit against Texas over HB 900, the book ban bill passed during the legislative session. Under HB 900 by Jared Patterson (R-Frisco), private book vendors, not school librarians or elected officials, would assign ratings to these...

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Academic Freedom Under Fire At Texas A&M

The Texas A&M University System has been accused of making politically motivated attacks on the employment of two highly respected university professors.  These two separate cases of apparent political interference in the administration of one of Texas’ top public university systems comes in the wake of broad attacks against academic...

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AFT Releases New Report Connecting Social Media to Mental Health Crisis

Last month, the American Federation of Teachers, along with the American Psychological Association, Fairplay, ParentsTogether and Design It For Us, released a new, groundbreaking report pointing to social media companies as a “root cause” of the nationwide mental health crisis.  The report, entitled “Likes vs. Learning: The Real Cost of...

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AFT Represents At Texas AFL-CIO Convention

More than a dozen Texas AFT members and leaders attended the 2023 Texas AFL-CIO convention in support of a ‘Bigger, Broader, Bolder Labor Movement’. Educators are central to the labor movement in Texas and understand, as Texas AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Leonard Aguilar said, “Workers get that bettering our livelihoods requires new...

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