Featured News
Nov. 7, 2025: 2025 Elections
Friday, November 7, 2025 We Take Care of Us Across Texas and the rest of the nation, federal workers are missing paychecks, and millions are waiting to see if they’ll receive any SNAP benefits at all amid the government shutdown. The fate of those benefits remains up in the air, with courts ordering the Trump Administration to fund them...
Read MoreTexas AFT members fight to bring benefits of HB 2 to their districts
House Bill 2, the Legislature’s school finance bill, went into full effect on Monday, Sept. 1. Even before enactment day, though, Texas AFT members and organizers have been hard at work in districts across the state to make sure the funding increases from the Teacher Retention Allotment (TRA) and the...
Read MoreCourt Battles & Confusion as Texas Ten Commandments Law Takes Effect
Texas’s new Ten Commandments law, Senate Bill 10, officially went into effect on September 1, but implementation is unfolding unevenly across the state.
Read MoreSBOE Preview: Social Studies Redux
The State Board of Education (SBOE) will convene in Austin on Monday, Sept. 8, at 1 p.m. CT. The board is set to meet throughout the week, ending on Friday, Sept. 10, and will take up several important items, most notably, a framework for the anticipated social studies content area...
Read MoreSB 12: The ‘Parents’ Bill of Rights’ Deep Dive
On Friday, June 20, 2025, Gov. Greg Abbott signed Senate Bill 12 into law. The law took effect on Monday, Sept. 1, 2025, and aims to reshape public school practices related to parental rights, educator responsibilities, and the role of diversity and identity in pre-K-12 schools.
Read MoreHouse Bill 2 provides needed pay increases for educators at the start of the 2025-26 school year
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Sept. 2, 2025 CONTACT: Nicole Hill, press@texasaft.org Educators welcome much needed pay raises but lament bottom line for schools AUSTIN, Texas – Today, Texas AFT celebrates the enactment of House Bill 2, which partially went into effect on Sept. 1. Portions of the bill that were effective...
Read MoreAug. 29, 2025: Labor Day
Friday, August 29, 2025 This coming Monday is Labor Day, an annual recognition of union members who make up the American labor movement and who have worked tirelessly over decades to build a fairer, safer, and better country for all. This year, we feel a profound sense of urgency...
Read More89th Legislature in Review: Your Right to Organize
This summer, RGV AFT members in Hidalgo ISD organized and won raises for teachers, certified staff, and hourly employees, above and beyond what was guaranteed by House Bill 2 from the 89th Legislature. Empowered educators produce engaged students. History consistently shows how unions can raise the bar for all of...
Read MoreHouse Bill 8: Goodbye, STAAR. Hello, Who the Heck Knows?
The second special session call was a rinse and repeat of Gov. Greg Abbott’s priorities for Texas, including entertaining a bill to “eliminate the STAAR test.” While that phrase might earn lots of hearts on social media, the reality of what transpired in the Legislature over the last week paints...
Read MoreLouisiana, California Pass PSRP Bills of Rights
The Texas Legislature failed to act on meaningful workplace improvements for our paraprofessionals and support staff (PSRPs) in the 89th Legislature, allowing bills that would have addressed the working conditions of custodians (House Bill 1573) or established a minimum wage requirement for bus drivers (HB 419) to wither on the...
Read MoreUniversity, Community College Systems Decide the Fate of Faculty Senates
Texas AAUP-AFT members, faculty, and students wait to testify against Senate Bill 37 in a committee hearing of the 89th Legislature. After Senate Bill 37 was signed into law by Gov. Greg Abbott on June 20, university and community college leaders were given only two months to completely restructure long-standing...
Read MoreAug. 22, 2025: The Ten Commandments
Friday, August 22, 2025 The Ten Commandments There is never a back-to-school season without chaos, at least not lately. But this year, the number of policy changes and overall uncertainty that educators, parents, students, and districts are contending with is off the charts. One source of that uncertainty has...
Read MoreTexas Special Session, Week 5 Recap
The Texas House this week approved a mid-decade redistricting plan that could significantly reshape the state’s congressional delegation. On Aug. 20, lawmakers passed House Bill 4 in an 88-52 vote, sending the measure to the Senate for final consideration this afternoon, though Houston Senator Carol Alvarado indicated she intends to...
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