Higher Education

A 50-year trend of public disinvestment in our public colleges and universities has fueled higher tuition and fees for students and forced institutions to rely increasingly on adjunct faculty. By relegating much of the higher education workforce to flat income growth, decreased benefits and little employment security, colleges are now balancing their budgets on the backs of students and educators.

The AFT believes that defending academic freedom and campus free speech is fundamental to the development of new knowledge and strengthens our democracy.

The AFT believes improving job security for faculty and staff and working toward the ending of contingency is the path forward to creating a better system of higher education. 

The AFT is committed to diversity and equity in higher education. We are standing strong in combating the most recent extremist attacks that seek to reverse decades of progress toward racial equity in access to higher education and prohibit educators from teaching the truth about our country’s history of racial injustice.

The United States is witnessing profound economic changes that have eroded the foundations of middle-class families and threaten our prosperity. To compete on a global level, Americans must come together to develop our most important resource: young people.