BUILDING A NATIONAL MOVEMENT FOR THE PUBLIC SCHOOLS ALL OUR STUDENTS DESERVE WITH THE ALLIANCE TO RECLAIM OUR SCHOOLS AND THROUGH ESSA REAUTHORIZATION

WHEREAS, the American Federation of Teachers has waged a strong fight back against efforts to privatize public education and have achieved important victories in recent years, including the recent Every Student Succeeds Act legislation that removed the worst aspects of No Child Left Behind, the election of pro-public education mayors, the expansion of community schools, and efforts to increase charter school transparency and accountability; and

WHEREAS, despite those victories, the right continues its effort to dismantle public education and the labor movement; and

WHEREAS, the last five years has seen other major social movements, including the Fight for 15 and Black Lives Matter, impact the national debate and realize major achievements for racial and economic justice; and

WHEREAS, ESSA now charges the states with the responsibility to determine parent and community engagement, school action policies, testing regimens, accountability systems, and most frameworks that will positively or negatively impact the world of public K-12 education; and

WHEREAS, previously, states were forced into a federal competition known as Race to the Top, where school districts around the country were required to administer high-stakes testing tied to teacher evaluation schemes and school closings and turnarounds; and

WHEREAS, since these terrible policy prescriptions were imposed, a growing resistance has emerged represented by the Opt Out movement, community-teacher alliances fighting back against school closings, a myriad of legislative initiatives designed to increase the accountability of charter schools, campaigns to democratize school boards where they are appointed or controlled by emergency managers, and efforts to increase the equitable funding of schools; and

WHEREAS, the AFT has highlighted the need to work with community as a major priority to promote and defend public education; and

WHEREAS, one of the AFT’s highest priorities is member engagement, and one of the strongest pathways is with the community; and

WHEREAS, states, districts and communities are now increasingly influential in shaping and implementing federal education guidelines with the rewrite of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act and NCLB; and

WHEREAS, the AFT has forged community-union coalitions around a shared vision for educational justice in many cities across the country; and

WHEREAS, the Alliance to Reclaim Our Schools (AROS) was formed out of these local coalitions, with the AFT playing an important leadership role, and is now a national community-union alliance for educational justice; and

WHEREAS, organizations and individuals in AROS have coalesced around “The Principles That Unite Us,” which the AFT has endorsed and which includes:

Full funding and support for neighborhood-based community schools: don’t close or privatize them;

• More teaching, less testing;
• Positive discipline policies and an end to zero tolerance;
• Quality, affordable education from early childhood through college, including for undocumented students; and
• A living wage that lifts people out of poverty; and

WHEREAS, AROS has initiated a national campaign, the Public Schools ALL Our Students Deserve, and has organized two nationally coordinated school walk-in events that have involved 100 cities, 1,500 schools and 65,000 people around the issues of full funding and support for community schools, more teaching and less testing, and holding all schools that are publicly funded to the same high standards; and

WHEREAS, AROS lifts local fights into the national spotlight by coordinating actions in solidarity; and

WHEREAS, in each successive day of action, there have been more cities, more organizations, more local unions and more people engaged:

RESOLVED, that the American Federation of Teachers will support the AROS national campaign for the public schools all our students deserve and encourage its K-12 locals to affiliate or participate in AROS, which could include participating in its national mobilizations, joining the national committee to help plan strategy, passing local resolutions in support of the AROS national campaign, and organizing local community-union coalitions; and

RESOLVED, that the AFT will support the next major AROS nationally coordinated walk-in event, to be held on a day in early  October, which will lift up our vision for public education and ensure it is part of the 2016 election season; and

RESOLVED, that the AFT will mobilize a minimum of 100 locals/towns, 1,000 schools and 50,000 people and ensureit is part of the October walk-in; and

RESOLVED, that the AFT will continue to support affiliates by providing the tools and resources needed to organize and promote local- and state-level ESSA campaigns throughout the country, including but not limited to 10 to 15 of our most at-risk cities/states where there are already established or emerging parent, community and teacher alliances; and

RESOLVED, that the AFT will seek the input of all affiliates—with special attention given to the unique experience and knowledge of those also belonging to AROS—in the development of the tools and resources needed to shape, frame and encourage community/teacher coalitions, and harness the surging influence of our popular positions to implement the five pillars of sustainable community schools, namely to curb the use of excessive testing, halt the use of high-stakes tests in teacher evaluations, stop racist school closings and school actions, invest in our schools with progressive revenue solutions, end charter proliferation and address racially disparate school discipline policies, among others; and

RESOLVED, that the AFT will set a goal of 500,000 one-on-one conversations with parents, students, community residents and members to participate in and plan the October walk-in.