Featured News
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.
Read MoreRetirees Sound the Alarm on TRS COLA in Local News
The upcoming 88th Texas legislative session is poised to be a consequential one for retired teachers. No teacher who retired in the past 19 years has ever received a cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) to their TRS annuity. But after all these years, there is finally hope on the horizon for a...
Read MoreTexas Supreme Court Sides with Texas AFT on Commissioner Power, Charter Partnerships
In 2017, the Texas Legislature passed Senate Bill 1882, a bill designed to encourage charter school growth by allowing public school campuses labeled as “low-performing” to hand over operations to a charter operator; in exchange, the school would receive the per-pupil funding advantage that charters have over real public schools...
Read MoreThe American Teacher Act Would Set a $60,000 National Minimum Salary
Our union has documented in detail the staffing crisis in Texas public schools, but our schools aren’t alone. Across the nation, questions remain on how to address all the issues fueling teacher and staff shortages, but paying teachers more would resolve many. The American Teacher Act, introduced in the U.S....
Read MorePaxton Joins Lawsuits Against Student Debt Relief
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has joined onto multistate amicus briefs in two lawsuits challenging the Biden Administration and its student loan debt forgiveness program announced last year. President Biden’s executive order directed the Department of Education to take steps to expand relief for student loan borrowers by making more...
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