AFT and Hispanic Federation on the 1-year anniversary of Hurricane Maria

WASHINGTON—AFT President Randi Weingarten and Hispanic Federation President José Calderón issued the following statements 12 months after Hurricane Maria made landfall in Puerto Rico.

The AFT’s Weingarten said: “While Hurricane Maria was a calamitous natural disaster, its tragic aftermath has been almost entirely manmade. One year later, Puerto Rico is still in crisis, hamstrung by the failure of President Trump to respect the lives of 3.5 million U.S. citizens on the island and the 2,975 who died there. While the president continues to see Maria in political terms—focusing on what advantage can he wring from it, how he can spin it—we see it in deeply personal, humanitarian terms.

“I have been to the island 12 times since Maria, working alongside our affiliate, the Asociación de Maestros de Puerto Rico, and the Hispanic Federation to rebuild schools and communities. Teachers cleaned walls and floors and removed debris to reopen their schools. Months before the Federal Emergency Management Agency arrived, teachers with no special equipment or protection were turning schools into distribution hubs for aid.

“That’s why the AFT and the AMPR partnered with the Hispanic Federation, Operation Blessing, and labor and community groups to raise $2 million to get 100,000 water filters to schools and communities after the storm as part of Operation Agua. Every school has safe water as a result.

“Children and teachers still take a risk each day, absent FEMA’s help to repair damaged schools. Hundreds of special education students have not had their first day of classes because of crumbling infrastructure. And Betsy DeVos’ Department of Education is missing in action, repeatedly failing in its mission to protect and support children, educators and families.

“Simply put, the federal government has abandoned its constitutional responsibility to ensure every child in Puerto Rico has access to an adequate public education. Meanwhile, Gov. Ricardo Rosselló and Puerto Rico’s education secretary have exploited the disaster by closing nearly one-third of Puerto Rico’s schools and opening unaccountable charters. Far greater accountability and congressional oversight is needed to ensure recovery money is used to rebuild public schools and is not diverted elsewhere.

“The AFT and the AMPR will continue caring, fighting and showing up to rebuild and revitalize Puerto Rico. And we will continue to hold the government to account for its lack of action, including at the ballot box in November.”

The Hispanic Federation’s Calderón said: “A year after Hurricane Maria, tens of thousands of Puerto Ricans remain displaced, with no homes, jobs or access to healthcare. Businesses remain shuttered, and, to make matters much worse, hundreds of schools have been closed.

“This is the reality of Puerto Rico today because we have a president incapable of empathy, decency and leadership. And it is the very reason why we’re so grateful to have the AFT at our side, fighting to rebuild and revitalize Puerto Rico and making sure our people on the island are not forgotten. The AFT’s commitment and leadership gives us great hope that justice for Puerto Rico will prevail.”