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Photo of AFT President Randi Weingarten addressing TEACH 2023

The AFT has always been a solutions-driven union, and our new campaign, launched during TEACH on July 21, proves it once again with a fresh, practical approach to strengthening public education. As AFT President Randi Weingarten pointed out during her keynote speech, the $5 million, yearlong campaign, “Real Solutions for Kids and Communities,” stands up against attacks on public schools and offers real-world solutions to build up, rather than break down, our communities.

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Randi Weingarten at a Massachusetts high school

Summer is upon us, and parents, children and teachers are winding down from what has been an exhausting and fully operational school year—the first since the devastating pandemic. The long-lasting impact of COVID-19 has affected our students’ and families’ well-being and ignited the politics surrounding public schools. All signs point to the coming school year unfolding with the same sound and fury, and if extremist culture warriors have their way, being even more divisive and stressful.

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Randi Weingarten and NYC teacher Tamara Simpson

Attacks on public education in America by extremists and culture-war peddling politicians have reached new heights (“lows” may be more apt), but they are not new. The difference today is that the attacks are intended not just to undermine public education but to destroy it.

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What unions do

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In AFT President Randi Weingarten’s latest New York Times  column, she describes what it is exactly that unions do. Though unions are the most popular they have been in decades, anti-union sentiment still thrives in red states and across the nation. “Several years ago, The Atlantic ran a story whose headline made even me, a labor leader, scratch my head: ‘Union Membership: Very Sexy,’” Weingarten writes in the column. “The gist was that higher wages, health benefits and job security—all associated with union membership—boost one’s chances of getting married. Belonging to a union doesn’t actually guarantee happily ever after, but it does help working people have a better life in the here and now.” Click through to read the full column.

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The application period for 2022-2023 scholarships is now open. Awardees will be notified by May 1, 2023

Click here to download the application.

AFT-Wisconsin has a long tradition of offering educational scholarships to support dependents of members in good standing who wish to pursue a secondary education. AFT-Wisconsin offers one $1,000 university scholarship and one $500 technical college scholarship. 

This year, an additional $500 technical college scholarship is being offered in memory of Phil Neuenfeldt, past president of the Wisconsin State AFL-CIO who passed away in November 2018. 

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Ilee Smith, daughter of members Kyle and Kim Smith of the Superior Federation of Teachers, Local 202, was awarded the first annual AFT-W Kathy Monaghan Memorial Scholarship.  Ilee plans to attend the College of Saint Scholastica to earn her undergraduate degree in a medical field before pursuing a Masters and possible Doctorate degree in a medical field.  Ilee is currently a member of the United Food & Commercial Workers International Union (UFCW), Local 1189 at Ecumen Lakeshore.  She has experienced the importance of unions firsthand in addition to all she has learned and experienced

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AFT-Wisconsin COPE has endorsed the following candidates for the spring 2022 election happening on April 5, 2022.  Now is the time to get involved.  Let us know how you'd like to get more involved!

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AFT-W VP of Higher Education Jon Shelton has sent a letter to Reps. David Murphy and Dianne Hesselbein opposing A.B. 413. The October 7, 2021 letter reads in part: "this bill would not only do the opposite of what it proposes to do—prevent stereotyping based on race and gender—but it would also threaten the promise of academic freedom and the pursuit of truth that has made our system of public higher education one of the best in the nation." Reps. Murphy and Hesselbein are respectively the chair and ranking delegate of the Assembly's Committee on Colleges and Universities.

Click here to read

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In a September 17, 2021 letter to the Assembly Education Committee, AFT-Wisconsin President Kim Kohlhaas testified against Assembly Bill 562. "The bill would encourage parents to opt their children out of gender identity and sexual orientation programs in our public schools," she argued. "Any legislation that discourages open conversation and the inclusion and well-being of all students is dangerous."

Read the letter in full here. 
 

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Solidarity with teachers and students in the Waukesha School District


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