We are living in highly unusual and troubling times. And, while people too often claim an election is the most important in decades, this year it undoubtedly is true.
The election this November offers a stark choice with serious consequences for public education, people who work every day to support their families—and the future of our democracy.
Our shared union values compel us to look out for public education, working conditions in schools and, most importantly, the children we serve in those schools across the country.
We know you are bombarded with political information; we try always to share with you what you need to know to help you make informed choices and decisions.
Based on our platform of policy issues most important to us as AFSA members and school leaders, we are endorsing Vice President Joe Biden and Sen. Kamala Harris.
AFSA strives to always provide you with information that will help you make informed choices and decisions regarding your profession and the future of the schools where we work with our community of educators, parents and students.
Biden and Harris are the best advocates for public schools. They believe strongly that a well-funded public education system is vital to our nation. They understand this is not only key for the economic imperative of educating our children to thrive in the competitive global marketplace, but also from a social and emotional standpoint.
The Biden-Harris ticket knows our nation depends on the role public schools play in bringing together a melting pot of students to create a better understanding of one another, especially during these challenging and contentious times.
We appreciate that many of you don’t vote solely on what’s good for our profession or on bread-and-butter issues. You may prioritize other concerns facing you and our nation as more important. That’s your choice in our democratic process, and AFSA will always respect your value system.
But in this extraordinary moment, we ask you to review the candidates’ records on education. Think carefully about the impact your vote can have on the next four years, and on the future of our schools.
Since taking office in January 2017, President Trump along with Betsy DeVos, his secretary of education, have been on a crusade to break public schools and move money to private education corporations that have little accountability to communities, families and students.
On a grand scale, we have seen that model fail across the nation. Yet at every turn, they aggressively push vouchers and charter schools, and we all know how that agenda undermines our work in the communities we serve.
As we struggle with unprecedented challenges at the start of the school year—like nothing we ever imagined possible—we see clearly the tragic consequences of the mismanagement of the coronavirus pandemic in our classrooms and with our children.
The lack of investment in our schools during this COVID-19 crisis, and the demand that schools reopen in a normal fashion, shows just how out of touch this president is on how schools operate.
We have never had a president and education secretary so hostile toward public schools. We now have the opportunity to put champions for public schools in the White House.
Derek W. Black, a law professor at the University of South Carolina, punctuated this point this year when he wrote, “Trump’s ‘education freedom’ plan is an attack on public schools. That’s un-American. Trump and DeVos are peddling a dangerous vision of private education and individual freedom that undermines a fundamental pillar of our democracy.”
With Election Day just weeks away, we ask you to look at the candidates’ records. When you do, you will clearly see the difference on public education. With that knowledge, we urge you to vote for the Biden-Harris ticket.
Sent via ActionNetwork.org.
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