AFT GOALS FOR POLITICAL ENDORSEMENTS

WHEREAS, the teacher rebellions across the country demonstrate our collective power in the face of austerity to demand high-quality free public education for all, healthcare for all, pensions for all, a robust public sector, and taxing the wealthy to fund schools and public services; and

WHEREAS, economic policies that promote concentration of wealth among the richest 1 percent, healthcare inflation and a broken private insurance system continue to put downward pressure on the life standards of workers across the country; and

WHEREAS, the more than $1 trillion in college debt accrued by our students, just to make it in America, has burdened them with a lifetime of bank payments and reduced earnings; and

WHEREAS, burgeoning social movements like #BlackLivesMatter, #RedforEd, #DefendDACA, #55Strong, #MeToo, #MarchforOurLives and #NODapl have shown us all a path to transforming our society to benefit the vast majority instead of the wealthy few; and

WHEREAS, the United Teachers Los Angeles has demanded $20,000 per student by 2020 in its recent contract fight, and all our low-income students need double the per-pupil expenditures to fully fund Title I, IDEA (the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act) and a national sustainable community school model; and

WHEREAS, universal, full-day and cost-free child care and pre-K is increasingly unavailable in most of the country to the majority of working families; and

WHEREAS, the working people of America, whether citizens or not, create the enormous wealth of this country, while corporations and the rich profit from our labor and hoard our natural resources; and

WHEREAS, there is a dire need to alter course and implement a public sector solution to the problem of inequality and injustice:

RESOLVED, that the American Federation of Teachers will support a public investment strategy for healthcare and education infrastructure that includes the following aspirations:

1. Universal healthcare, whether single-payer healthcare or Medicare for All;
2. Free tuition at all public colleges and universities, starting with a focus on addressing student debt for all who are now being crushed by it;
3. Universal, full-day and cost-free child care;
4. Doubled per-pupil expenditures for low-income K-12 districts;
5. Full public funding of public colleges and universities, including funding for wage justice for adjuncts; and
6. Taxation of the rich to fully fund IDEA, Title I and state allocations to public colleges and universities; and

RESOLVED, that we call on our endorsed candidates to support these priorities, and toward that end we will embed these aspirations in our questionnaires to potential candidates seeking our support.