[Our public schools shouldnt be pawns for politicians ambitions.
Or defunded and destroyed by ideologues. We are at a crossroads: Fear
and division, or hope and opportunity. A great nation does not fear
people being educated. ]
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WHY WE MUST DEFEND AGAINST THE GOP PLAN TO DESTROY PUBLIC EDUCATION
 
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Randi Weingarten
March 28, 2023
Common Dreams
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_ Our public schools shouldn't be pawns for politicians' ambitions.
Or defunded and destroyed by ideologues. We are at a crossroads: Fear
and division, or hope and opportunity. A great nation does not fear
people being educated. _

Randi Weingarten at 50 State Equity Strategy Rollout in 2014, US
Department of Education

 

_The following are the prepared remarks by American Federation of
Teachers president Randi Weingarten delivered on Tuesday, March 28,
2023 at the National Press Club._

I. THE PROMISE AND PURPOSE OF PUBLIC EDUCATION

Today, we once again grieve for families shattered by senseless gun
violence. Please join me in a moment of silence for the lives lost at
the Covenant School in Nashville, and for all victims of gun violence.

Today we renew our call for commonsense gun safety legislation
including a ban on assault weapons. This is an epidemic that our great
nation must solve.

There's a saying: You don't have to love everything about someone to
love them. I'm sure my wife doesn't love everything about me, but she
loves me. (I, on the other hand, love _everything_ about her.)
Nothing is perfect. Banks aren't. Congress isn't. And neither are our
public schools—not even our most well-resourced and
highest-performing schools. Those of us involved in public schools
work hard to strengthen them to be the best they can be. But only
public schools have as their mission providing opportunity
for _all_ students. And by virtually any measure—conversations,
polls, studies and elections—parents and the public
overwhelmingly like public schools, value them, need them, support
them—_and_ countless Americans love them.

Public schools are more than physical structures. They are the
manifestation of our civic values and ideals: The ideal that education
is so important for individuals and for society that a free education
must be available to all. That all young people should have
opportunities to prepare for life, college, career and citizenship.
That, in a pluralistic society such as the United States, people with
different beliefs and backgrounds must learn to bridge differences.
And that, as the founders believed, an educated citizenry is essential
to protect our democracy from demagogues.

Thomas Jefferson argued general education was necessary to "enable
every man to judge for himself what will secure or endanger his
freedom." Franklin D. Roosevelt said: "The real safeguard of democracy
… is education." And Martin Luther King Jr
[[link removed]]., in
accepting the United Federation of Teachers' John Dewey Award, made
clear, "Education is the road to equality and citizenship."

When kids go to school together, they become part of a community;
their families become part of a community. That community comes
together at school concerts, basketball games and science fairs, and
for shelter and comfort, when people are displaced by natural
disasters or, far too often, at vigils for victims of gun violence. In
good times and bad, public schools are cornerstones of community, of
our democracy, our economy and our nation.

But some people want that cornerstone to crumble—and they're
wielding the sledgehammers.

II. ATTACKS ON PUBLIC EDUCATION AND DEMOCRACY

Attacks on public education are not new. The difference today is that
the attacks are intended to destroy it. To make it a battlefield, a
political cudgel. After former President Trump lost re-election, Steve
Bannon, his key ally, declared
[[link removed]] that
their fight goes through school boards. In a speech last year, culture
war operative and Governor Ron DeSantis
[[link removed]]' appointee
Christopher Rufo put it bluntly
[[link removed]], "To get to
universal school choice, you really need to operate from a premise of
universal public school distrust." To this end, he says, his side has
"to be ruthless and brutal."

And, I would add, well-funded, which it is. The DeVos, Bradley, Koch,
Uihlein and Walton family foundations and others have poured
many millions
[[link removed]] of
dollars into anti-public education, pro-privatization groups like the
American Federation for Children and EdChoice.

The Betsy DeVos wing of the school privatization movement is
methodically working its plan: Starve public schools of the funds they
need to succeed. Criticize them for their shortcomings. Erode trust in
public schools by stoking fear and division, including attempting to
pit parents against teachers. Replace them with private, religious,
online and home schools. All toward their end goal of destroying
public education as we know it, atomizing and balkanizing education in
America, bullying the most vulnerable among us and leaving the
students with the greatest needs in public schools with the most
meager resources.

It's an extremist scheme by a very vocal minority of Americans. It's
hurting our efforts to do the work we need to do, which is educating
the nearly 50 million kids who attend America's public schools. And
the urgent work of helping kids recover from learning loss, sadness,
depression and other effects of the pandemic.

And it's not what parents or the public want.

Let's start with defunding: This year alone, 29 state legislatures are
considering bills to either create or expand existing voucher
programs.[i]
[[link removed]] This is on top
of the 72 voucher and tax credit programs in 33 states already
subsidizing private and home schooling, costing billions every
year.[ii]
[[link removed]] Voucher
programs are proliferating even though research shows that, on
average, vouchers negatively affect achievement—the declines are
worse than pandemic learning loss. In fact, vouchers have caused "some
of the largest academic drops
[[link removed]] ever
measured in the research record."

Proponents of vouchers used to argue that they were a way for
low-income and minority families to transfer out of low-performing
schools. No longer. Today most vouchers go to families who already
send
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kids to private schools. And private schools are not required to
follow most federal civil rights laws protecting students, so they
can—and many do
[[link removed]]—discriminate,
especially against LGBTQ students and students with special needs.

The universal voucher program signed by Florida Gov. DeSantis
yesterday will divert $4 billion
[[link removed]] from
the state's public schools. Florida ranks 44th in the nation
[[link removed]] in
per pupil spending, and 48th in average teacher salaries
[[link removed]].
DeSantis is sending taxpayers' dollars in the wrong direction.

And then there are the culture wars. What started as fights over
pandemic-era safety measures has morphed into fearmongering: False
claims that elementary and secondary schools are teaching critical
race theory; disgusting, unfounded claims that teachers are grooming
and indoctrinating students; and pronouncements that public schools
push a "woke" agenda, even though they can't or won't define what they
mean. Banning books and bullying vulnerable children. School board
meetings descending into screaming matches. This is an organized and
dangerous effort to undermine public schools.

Over the last three years, legislators in 45 states proposed hundreds
of laws placing public schools at the center of culture wars: laws
[[link removed]] seeking
to ban books from school libraries—even books about Ruby Bridges and
Anne Frank and Roberto Clemente; laws restricting what teachers can
teach and students can learn—particularly about about race, gender,
LGBTQ issues, current events and American history; and laws attacking
kids who are transgender. Students and staff should feel welcome, safe
and respected in school—but the culture wars are fueling hostility
and fear.

A torrent of enacted and proposed legislation targeting even the
mention of "controversial" topics—sweeping and open-ended
restrictions on what can be taught—has teachers teaching on
eggshells. In Florida, the Department of Education has threatened
teachers and librarians with felony prosecution if they provide
students with books that the state later decides are
inappropriate.[iii]
[[link removed]] If Florida
lawmakers have their way
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colleges will no longer have diversity, equity or inclusion policies;
or tenure; or academic freedom. And AP courses and the mere utterance
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LGBTQIA+ will be banned in all K-12 schools. And forget about facts.
Many laws and pending bills
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any individual to sue schools and teachers for perceived violations.
The intent and effect are to create a climate of fear and
intimidation.

This takes a toll on the quality of education teachers can provide our
students, and on the trust and connection that are so important.
Shouldn't teachers be free to talk with students who are withdrawn or
in distress, and to answer students' questions? Don't we want students
to learn both our nation's achievements that make us proud and the
failings that make us strive to do better? Isn't that our job?

Teachers should have the freedom to teach. And students should have
the freedom to learn.

These same governors who are pushing vouchers and culture wars are
also trying to defund and weaken teachers unions, so educators don't
have the wherewithal to fight back against censorship, attacks on
their academic freedom, threats to their livelihoods and criminal
prosecution.

These attacks aren't about protecting kids. If they were, they would
be working with us to address learning loss and the youth mental
health crisis. They would be working with us to take on social media
companies
[[link removed]] for
contributing to that crisis.

If these attacks were about protecting kids, they would be working
with us to fight against the leading cause of death for American
children—gun violence.

If this were about protecting kids, instead of putting LGBTQ youth at
risk and banning books about Black people and by Black authors, they
would give a damn about these kids' safety and well-being, including
the youth suicide crisis.

Forty-five percent of LGBTQ youth seriously considered suicide
[[link removed]] in the last year. And
the suicide rate among Black youth
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all sexual orientations has been increasing as well.

This is literally a matter of life and death. These attacks on public
education make it increasingly difficult to create the welcoming, safe
environment that our students need and deserve.

School climate and culture

It is a fraught time in our country. The effects of COVID-19; the
climate of conflict; drug abuse; gun violence; economic insecurity;
and the youth mental health crisis have all taken a heavy toll. Hate
crimes have surged against many Americans—Asian, Black, Latino,
Jewish and Muslim Americans.

School staff report a rise
[[link removed]] in
bullying, verbal altercations and physical violence among students, as
well as this behavior directed at them.

I recall a teacher saying that when her students are disruptive, it's
not because they are _bad_; it's because they're _sad_.

So many students have experienced isolation and trauma. They need
help. But there weren't enough mental health specialists before the
pandemic, and they are in critically short supply now.

The persistent demonization and disrespect of teachers—from
screaming matches at school board meetings to the former secretary of
state saying teachers teach "filth"—have contributed to a culture of
disrespect that seeps into our schools.

I just got a report from Florida. In Flagler County, a 17-year-old
student with special needs pushed a paraprofessional so hard she went
airborne and was knocked unconscious. A teacher in Osceola County was
monitoring students in the hallway when a student sucker-punched him.
And there are others. The educators who were hurt all cited lack of
staff in the schools and lack of mental health support for students as
the main reasons leading to the attacks.

And this crisis will only get worse as Gov. DeSantis' universal
voucher bill kicks in. What will the loss of $4 billion do to safety
in Florida's public schools? What will that do to the quality of
academics, to the condition of school buildings, to teacher pay, to
staffing shortages?

III. CRISIS IN THE TEACHING PROFESSION

Even before the pandemic, there were steep declines in teachers'
satisfaction. The percent of teachers
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were "very satisfied" fell from 62 percent in 2008 to just 12 percent
in 2022.

The stresses of the COVID-19 era—plus the culture wars, attacks on
teachers, inadequate pay, poor teaching and learning conditions, and
the threat of school shootings—have made recent years the toughest
in modern times for educators.

Despite it all, teachers have thrown themselves into the mission of
helping students recover academically, socially and emotionally. You
heard Tamara (Simpson). I witness these acts of teaching, of
nation-building, every day. Yet, according to our critics, we're
responsible for all the woes of society.

Even before the pandemic, nearly 300,000 teachers were leaving
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profession each year. Now, it's closer to 400,000.

And the teacher pipeline has collapsed as college students and
career-changers choose not to go into education. How are we going to
recruit and retain the staff schools need in this climate?

Our teaching profession is in crisis.

It's in crisis because of the poor teaching and learning conditions
created by inadequate funding for public schools. It's teacher pay,
which has been falling
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to other college graduates' pay for the last 40 years. It's giving
teachers all the blame and little authority. And it's the
de-professionalization of teaching that demoralizes an already
beleaguered profession.

I hear it all the time—teachers just want to teach.

IV. Strategies for Powerful Education

So where do we go from here?

The American Rescue Plan, and the programs it spawned, particularly
the tutoring programs, have really helped. And we are grateful to
President Joe Biden, Education Secretary Miguel Cardona and the last
Congress for the much-needed resources. Of course we will continue to
fight this defunding of our public schools and this dividing of our
communities. But we also must do better to address the learning loss
and disconnection we are seeing in our young people. And we can. We
can make every public school a school where parents want to send their
kids, educators want to work and all students thrive.

Four strategies can help transform our schools to realize the promise
and purpose of public education. Not just to overcome learning loss or
get back to normal, but to truly help us prepare all children with the
knowledge and skills they need for their lives, for college, for
career and for citizenship. These strategies can help us create safe
and welcoming environments and bring joy back to learning. And in
tandem, they have a catalytic effect. I have seen it work. But we need
to do these strategies at scale—for every child and in every school.
These four strategies are expanding community schools, scaling
experiential learning, addressing staff shortages, and deepening the
partnerships between families and educators.

Community Schools

First and foremost, we need to make sure our kids are OK. That's why
we need community schools, which are hubs for neighborhoods, combining
academics with extended learning opportunities, family and community
events, and an infusion of medical, mental health and other social
services. They are the best system I know to connect students and
families to the support they need to learn, live and thrive.

A recent University of Calgary study
[[link removed]] found
that youth suicide attempts increased 22 percent during the pandemic.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
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nearly 1 in 3 teen girls seriously considered suicide in 2021—up
nearly 60 percent from a decade ago. More than 42 percent of high
school students reported persistent feelings of sadness or
hopelessness.

What helps? The Calgary report found that "school connectedness,
defined as feeling close to people at school, has a long-lasting,
protective impact for adolescents well into adulthood."

Our schools must be equipped to support and connect with students, and
there is no better model for this than community schools. There is
another tragic reality in the United States: Half the students in
America's public schools live in poverty. Community schools mitigate
the effects of poverty by providing essential services right where
students are and where families can be.

Once kids' physical and emotional needs are met, they are ready to
learn, and teachers can focus on their primary role—which is to
teach.

A few weeks ago I went back to Wolfe Street Academy
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a community school in Baltimore, to see how they were doing.

Ninety-six percent of the students there qualify for free- or
reduced-price lunch. Since converting to a community school nearly 20
years ago, Wolfe Street has gone from the 77th-most successful
elementary school in Baltimore (out of 80) to the second-most
successful. And, like other community schools, when COVID-19 hit it
was a matter of ramping up services, not having to start from scratch.

Students have access to medical checkups, clothing and mental health
services. Families have food assistance, language support and legal
aid.

And this school is fun! Wolfe Street offers a wide variety of
after-school programs, including chess club, robotics club, Mexican
folkloric dance, orchestra, a soccer league and more.

And, by the way, Wolfe Street is a unionized public charter school.

There are successful community schools in rural and suburban areas, as
well.

The Rome (New York) Teachers Association started a community school
with help from the AFT in 2016. Today its Connected Model has spread
to 14 school districts and provides everything from access to mental
health services and dental care, to food packages for weekends and
holidays, and prom dresses!

A recent Rand Corp. study
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schools in New York City found positive impacts on both attendance and
graduation rates. In New Mexico, community schools in operation
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years have better-than-average student achievement growth and higher
attendance rates, and employed more highly effective teachers.
And Robeson High School
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Philadelphia went from nearly closing to a 95 percent graduation rate
after implementing the community school model.

AFT members have helped create 700 community schools across the
country, and we see how they meet kids' needs. From Kimball Elementary
School in Washington, D.C., to the Oyler School in Cincinnati, to
Roybal-Allard Elementary in Los Angeles. That's why the AFT is calling
for 25,000 community schools by 2025 and our call is gaining steam.
California just approved another $45 million to make 1 in every 3
schools in the state a community school. And President Biden's budget
doubles federal community school investment. We need to make this
happen everywhere.

Experiential Learning

Second, we can re-engage students through experiential learning,
transforming their educational experiences. Why do kids skip school,
or slump in the back of the classroom? They may feel unsafe or unseen.
Or just uninterested. We must do better. And we can.

Of course, fundamental academic subjects are important. But so is how
we teach them. Experiential learning engages students through
problem-solving, critical-thinking, teamwork, and learning by doing.
We need to help kids engage with the world, with ideas and with each
other—not just with their devices.

Experiential learning embeds the things that make kids want to be in
school: The excitement of learning that is deeply engaging, and the
joy of being together, especially after the isolation of the last few
years. The camaraderie and responsibility of working together on a
team.

And in the age of AI and chatGPT, this type of learning is critical to
being able to think and write, solve problems, apply knowledge and
discern fact from fiction.

Experiential learning can be applied to any content area from math to
computer science to social studies, and often weaves subjects together
in powerful interdisciplinary instruction. It can be adapted to any
grade level. It can take place in rural, urban and suburban schools.
And it nurtures kids' natural curiosity and creativity. That is what
robotics and debate teachers do all the time. It's what I did as an AP
government teacher at Clara Barton High School. These opportunities
need to be the norm not the exception.

This type of learning makes clear just how outmoded the standardized
test-based accountability system is. Of course, the country needs data
on how our kids are doing, but if we are talking about student
success, research shows classroom grades, not tests, are the best
predictor of that. And experiential learning takes the classroom to a
new level.

Experiential learning is assessed by teachers in their classrooms and
focuses on mastery of the skill. It can include capstone projects that
allow students to research a topic they're passionate about and
present it to their teachers and peers. It can include nature-based
pre-K, where youngsters learn by exploring natural surroundings while
building social skills with other kids. It can include students
working together to code and build robotics projects; service-learning
projects to support community members; and summer learning on a farm
caring for crops or animals; or reporting for and producing a
neighborhood newsletter. And it can start with field trips, during and
after school.

Experiential learning has long been embedded in career and technical
education programs where students use their minds and their hands to
learn everything from auto repair, to nursing, IT, graphic design,
welding, culinary skills and hospitality. CTE students learn skills
that give them a head start when they go to college or start their
careers. Shouldn't every student have that opportunity?

It's also a proven strategy. Ninety-four percent of young people
who concentrate in CTE
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school, and 72 percent of them go on to college.

Talk to any employer about the skills and knowledge they look for in a
successful employee, be it a plumber, a nurse or a lawyer, and you're
bound to hear similarities—employees who are creative,
self-starters, critical-thinkers, problem-solvers; have empathy; and
can build relationships. This type of learning provides every student
with more options to develop those skills and to find their passion,
their purpose and their pathway to good jobs and fulfilling careers.

Carpentry students use math when they're figuring out the right cuts
to make and how the pieces will all fit together. They're using their
hands and their minds to construct something. They're acquiring
literacy, technology and writing skills in developing business plans
or a website. They're building self-confidence and public speaking
skills when they explain plans and work with customers or their peers.
They have a sense of pride in the finished product. When a project
doesn't turn out as expected, they have to problem-solve what went
wrong and try a new approach.

On Governors Island in New York City, students attending the Harbor
School pursue industry certification in specialties like marine
science and oceanography. In Louisiana, the Teaching and Reaching
initiative is a two-year dual enrollment program that gives high
school juniors and seniors the opportunity to earn credits and get a
head start on pursuing a degree in education. In Peoria, Ill., CTE
programs are preparing students for green energy jobs. And the Rio
Rancho, N.M., public schools partner with the local college to provide
stackable microcredentials in robotics, coding and automotive
technology.

President Biden's remaking of the economy through the CHIPS and
Science Act, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, and the climate
provisions of the Inflation Reduction Act will create millions of new
high-paying jobs in renewable energy, broadband, semiconductors,
construction, cybersecurity, transportation, small business,
entrepreneurship and so much more. Then there's healthcare and
education, which have huge staffing crises right now. There are so
many incredible opportunities for our young people in the job markets
of today and tomorrow. They need to be ready to seize them. This
dynamic new economic vision requires a dynamic new workforce vision.

We are all in, but this requires more than educators. And doing this
at scale will require new approaches. We need to start by high school.
We need employers to partner with us, giving students internships and
apprenticeships, including paid opportunities so students who need to
work can afford to participate. That's why the AFT donated stipends
for high school kids in Newark, N.J.'s Red Hawks Rising teacher
pathway program. Teachers need experiential learning, too, and more
externship opportunities in industry.

The potential for all of this is in our grasp, but we all need to do
better on the alignment of people, preparation and professions. And it
means all of us making changes. That is why we are working with the
AFL-CIO, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, Education Secretary Miguel
Cardona, Acting Labor Secretary Julie Su, and the Bloomberg
Philanthropies on this work. We are reaching out to business groups
large and small, as experiential learning can take place in the
private sector, the public sector and nonprofits. The formula of
starting by high school and identifying school-to-career pathways,
including community colleges, partnering with employers, and ensuring
the opportunities are paid, can be replicated everywhere.

Revive and Restore the Teaching Profession

Third, for us to meet the needs of the 50 million children in our
public schools, we need to revive and restore the teaching profession.
That starts with addressing the teacher and school staff shortage
crisis. And taking care of the educators we still have.

We know how to solve this. At our 2022 convention, AFT members
unanimously approved the report
[[link removed]] our
Teacher and School Staff Shortage Task Force had been working on for
seven months. That report is a blueprint with scalable solutions that
every district and state in the nation can implement. But it boils
down to treating educators like the professionals they are, with
appropriate pay and time to prepare for classes, the chance to
collaborate with colleagues, the opportunity to participate in
meaningful professional development, and the authority to make
day-to-day classroom decisions. And ensuring they have the conditions
that help students learn like buildings in good repair, with safe
ventilation and smaller class size.

The Kansas City Federation of Teachers and School-Related Personnel
recently negotiated a new contract, and they used the AFT staffing
shortage report as their blueprint. Now, every first- and second-year
teacher will be mentored by an exemplary teacher, who will be paid for
serving as a mentor. The union secured the highest starting teacher
salaries in the region and increases to keep teachers in the
profession. They won paid family leave for any parent, making them the
first district in the state having this essential family benefit.
Where there's a will, there's a way. Thank you, Jason Roberts, the
KCFT president, for being with us today.

I'm really worried about the well-being of teachers and school staff.
We are working with groups like Educators Thriving on strategies that
address well-being. Their program has helped teachers reduce emotional
exhaustion, a leading indicator of burnout. And as a union, we are
providing a trauma benefit to all our members and have worked hard to
reduce student debt and make the bipartisan Public Service Loan
Forgiveness program work. That's been life-changing for those who
qualify. But I am asking politicians to do their part as well.

A word to politicians—rather than using educators as cannon fodder,
why not work with us? Like New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, who
enacted a $10,000 raise for teachers in that state. And Michigan Gov.
Gretchen Whitmer, who signed a bipartisan education budget that will
make the highest state investment in Michigan history, investing in
school infrastructure, teacher recruitment, school safety and mental
health resources. And Sen. Bernie Sanders
[[link removed]] and Florida Rep.
Frederica Wilson, whose bills would raise teacher salaries. And New
York Rep. Jamaal Bowman
[[link removed]], who has introduced a
bill to reduce federally mandated standardized tests.

Parents and Community as Partners

Fourth, the pandemic proved what we always knew: In-person learning is
essential for kids, and public schools are centers of their
communities.

It's beyond obvious that the school-family connection, the
parent-teacher connection, is vital to children's success. But as
others are trying to drive a wedge in that connection, we need to
deepen it.

PTAs are remarkable organizations; so are so many parent groups and
parent-teacher groups like Red Wine and Blue, Parents Together,
MomsRising and the Campaign for Our Shared Future. And we are honored
to work with them and others. But we know we need to create this
muscle of working together everywhere.

That's why the AFT created the Powerful Partnerships Institute, which
supports family and community engagement. In our inaugural year, the
institute has given out 27 grants to AFT locals across the country.
Montana is engaging thousands of public education-supporting families
and educators across the state. New Haven is working with educators,
families and students on fair school funding. And you just heard a
little about our partnership in Houston.

Let's be role models for how we deal with conflicts and disagreement.
During the pandemic, we met via Zoom with parent groups that often
disagreed with us on COVID-19 safety measures and school closures. We
heard each other out and talked things through. We need more of that
in America.

Two years ago, the AFT increased our legal defense fund, so we could
help if a member was put in jeopardy for teaching honest history or
answering a student's question. But in too many places, there are no
unions, or educational associations, or parent groups. People feel
alone and isolated. Teachers. Parents. Children.

That's why, in conjunction with the Campaign for Our Shared Future, we
are launching a new Freedom to Teach and Learn hotline for teachers,
parents or students to use if they need support. It's a place to call
if you've been told to remove a book from the curriculum or from the
library, or that there are topics that can't be discussed in your
classes, or that you cannot teach honestly and appropriately, or if
politicians in your district or state are targeting vulnerable student
groups to score political points. The Freedom to Teach and Learn
hotline number is 888-873-7227.

These four strategies are worthy on their own. Together, they are
transformative. Community schools will help young people not just
recover from these punishing years and the scourge of poverty, but
thrive. Experiential learning will prepare our youth with the
knowledge and skills to seize the opportunities in our changing
economy. To nurture and educate our young people, we need an educator
workforce that is supported, respected and compensated befitting their
vital role. And we need students' circle of care—family, educators
and community members—to be united in their support.

Conclusion

This is our agenda. But this can't just be the work of our union or of
school staff and schools alone. This is the work of a great
nation—to ensure that our children's basic human needs are met so
they are ready to learn to their full potential. To exchange outmoded
and test-driven ways of teaching and learning for effective and
engaging approaches that excite students and prepare them to live
their dreams and aspirations.

Our public schools shouldn't be pawns for politicians' ambitions. Or
defunded and destroyed by ideologues.

We are at a crossroads: Fear and division, or hope and opportunity.

A great nation does not fear people being educated.

A great nation does not fear pluralism.

A great nation chooses freedom, democracy, equality and opportunity.

All of that starts in our public schools. We are that great nation,
and we must act together—to defend, support and strengthen our
public schools. And we must do that now.

Our children deserve no less.

_RANDI WEINGARTEN is president of the 1.7 million-member American
Federation of Teachers, AFL-CIO, which represents teachers;
paraprofessionals and school-related personnel; higher education
faculty and staff; nurses and other healthcare professionals; local,
state and federal government employees; and early childhood
educators._

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