EQUAL EDUCATIONAL OPPORTUNITY FREE FROM SEGREGATION AND DISCRIMINATION

WHEREAS, democracy requires and American philosophy, heritage and practice support the right of every child to adequate and equal educational opportunity; and

WHEREAS, such opportunity requires an ending of segregation which leads to individual and group injustices abhorrent to those who believe in the dignity of man and in equal opportunity for all and which has been ruled inherently unequal and therefore unconstitutional by the Supreme Court of the United States; and

WHEREAS, equal opportunity requires equal educational facilities, instructional materials, faculty and staff of the highest quality; and

WHEREAS, the AFT is pledged through the signature of our president to the "Joint Statement of Union Program for Fair Practices" of the President's Committee on Equal Employment Opportunity and in our Bill of Rights for Teachers to do all in our power to implement fair employment practices in hiring, placing and promotion of workers without regard to creed or color:

RESOLVED, that the American Federation of Teachers call upon its locals and state federations to work for the immediate end of all forms of segregation in all schools and to uphold our traditional policy of insisting upon excellence and equality of educational facilities, instructional materials, related and supportive services and qualifications of professional staff to all pupils without discrimination; and

RESOLVED, that we call upon our state and local federations to work for the provision of such additional and special compensatory facilities and instruction as shall contribute to the equalization of opportunity for all socially, educationally, men­tally, culturally, economically and physically handicapped children; and

RESOLVED, that all locals be urged to make nondiscriminatory hiring, placing, transferring, and promotion of teachers a subject for negotiation in any collective bargaining contract or other general negotiation or presentation vis-a-vis their local school board; and

RESOLVED, that the AFT, upon request, shall furnish assistance to locals in their efforts to achieve the integration of professional staff and to solve other school integration problems; and

RESOLVED, that national, state and local federations recognize our professional responsibility for the development and selection of textbooks, other instructional material and curricula that present accurate information about all peoples and shall contact publishers and/or state boards or departments of education and local school boards, urging publication and selection of such textbooks, instructional materials and curricula; and

RESOLVED, that every AFT local be urged to organize a standing committee on Human Rights to work for integrated quality education, equal rights for teachers and civil rights in the local community; and

RESOLVED, that in this campaign for school integration and equal educational opportunity the statement of goals to be achieved found in our AFT publication, "Guidelines for AFT Involvement in Big City Integration," under the four topics of: integration of pupils; integration of school staff; compensatory education; and teaching integration, be the official policy of the American Federation of Teachers, and that the Executive Council will so inform all officers of state and local federations.