Educators and school workers deserve resources, respect, and thanks as schools return during omicron surge

K-12 staff and students throughout the state began returning to school this week with the omicron variant continuing to surge at increasingly rapid rates. While many districts were successful in providing adequate testing prior to the reopening of schools, and have worked to maintain proven COVID-19 mitigation strategies, others have struggled.

In an interview this week with KNX 1070 in Los Angeles (starting at the 6:58 mark), CFT President Jeff Freitas reiterated CFT’s commitment to do everything possible to keep our schools open while ensuring the safety of our members and our students. Part of that effort includes urging the Governor’s office to expedite their distribution of rapid tests and KN95 masks to schools and worksites throughout the state and supporting local unions as they hold their district’s accountable to safety.

“For the last two years educators have been working harder than ever, sometimes being appropriately recognized for their heroic efforts and other times being unfairly blamed for systemic failures,” says Jeff Freitas. “Educators and school staff are doing the best they can with the resources they have. And we need to not only thank them for doing it, but we need to stop attacking them and their unions and provide them the time and resources they need to ensure a safe educational environment.”

AFT virtual town hall, Tuesday, January 11: omicron, boosters, and schools

Join AFT President Randi Weingarten, US Surgeon General Vivek H. Murthy and leading national physicians for an AFT virtual town hall on omicron, boosters, and schools, next Tuesday, January 11 at 3:45 p.m PT. Tune in to the town hall on AFT’s Facebook page.

Take action to protect our democracy

As we mark the one year anniversary of the storming of the US Capitol this week, it is more important than ever that we stand up for our democracy and against efforts to dismantle it. Over the past year many states have passed or introduced legislation to make voting more difficult, with the “big lie” of a stolen election at the heart of that push.

Time is running out to pass laws to stop the disenfranchisement of millions of people before the next election. Please take a moment to write a letter to the editor of the publication(s) of your choice about why the fight for our democracy must be a top priority for the US Senate.

Online financial planning event for CFT members – January 13

All CFT members are welcome at AFT local 2121’s thirteenth annual financial planning conference on Thursday, January 13. Presented by the AFT 2121 retiree chapter, the online event will take place from 8:30 a.m. through 2:00 p.m. and will include a variety of workshops of interest to both new and veteran faculty and classified staff, both part-time and full-time.

For more information about the event, check out the draft workshop schedule. To RSVP, click here.