Real Solutions for Kids and Communities: Investments and Resources

In AFT Voices, special education paraprofessional William Schwandt explains why he’s deeply alarmed about federal money for public education, science and health programs being withheld by the Trump administration. He’s also deeply concerned about the funding cuts Congress pushed through last week—including reductions in Social Security Administration staffing, veterans’ care, rural internet access and family housing. These cuts will have serious consequences. However, his primary focus remains on education, where we are seeing a concerted effort to strip away federal support and accountability.

More than 100 AFT members fanned out across Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., July 20, visiting dozens of U.S. senators, representatives and congressional staffers to show elected officials just what life is like in our public schools—and urge them toward policies that will truly support their communities. Among their top issues: school funding, educator pay, over-testing and school safety.

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) shined a spotlight on the teacher shortage at the “Respecting Our Teachers: A Town Hall on the Teacher Pay Crisis in America,” held on Capitol Hill Feb. 13. With speakers including AFT President Randi Weingarten, National Education Association President Rebecca Pringle, Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and the people closest to this problem—working educators—the event laid out what Sanders calls the “unconscionable” working conditions that have prompted so many people to leave the profession.

In a Special Order of Business, delegates unanimously adopted a new report from the AFT Teacher and School Staff Shortage Task Force. Here Today, Gone Tomorrow? What America Must Do to Attract and Retain the Educators and School Staff Our Students Need examines the root causes of snowballing shortages and spells out practical solutions that will improve teaching, working and learning conditions. 

Public education requires money, and a lot of it. The commitment to provide good schools and quality instruction for every child between ages 5 and 18 has a real cost. The price rises dramatically when we further commit to educating all students, regardless of their needs. The promise to leave no child behind requires significant funding, so our citizens must be willing to make a commitment to our children through their tax dollars.

Since the American Federation of Teachers released a groundbreaking state-by-state report card on education funding, “A Decade of Neglect: Public Education Funding in the Aftermath of the Great Recession,” one year ago, there’s been some good news: The badly eroded finances of our nation’s public schools are improving. In 2016, 25 states spent less on public K-12 education on a per-pupil basis, adjusted for inflation, than before the 2008 recession. Today’s analysis shows that in 2017, the number of states severely shortchanging kids had dropped to 21.

A new, comprehensive research review from the Albert Shanker Institute shows definitively that increasing funding in K-12 schools improves student outcomes, while cutting funding hurts those outcomes. The third edition of the institute’s “Does Money Matter in Education?” reviews decades of high-quality empirical studies of school funding and student outcomes. The report’s findings stand in stark contrast to the current administration’s policies to defund public schools with a voucher system that drains crucial funds from the schools that 90 percent of American children attend every day.