RESOLUTION ON TITLE I FUNDING

WHEREAS, Title I funding of established educational programs which have required the employment of thousands of paraprofessionals, school employees and teachers and which have provided valuable learning opportunities for children of low-income families are now in danger of serious budget cutbacks; and

WHEREAS, state educational officers and administrators have been indifferent to, or hostile to, federal funded programs and their implementations; and

WHEREAS, these state bureaucrats have demonstrated their indifference to the impact in collective bargaining agreements and their cutback proposals, and administrative guidelines they have drawn up; and

WHEREAS, so-called community groups have succeeded in gaining favorable court orders transferring control and distribution of Title I funds from a public school district to private "community" organizations:

RESOLVED, that this Convention of the AFT state its opposition to cutbacks in Title I funds by the unilateral decision of state and local administrators and the transfer of public funds by court order; and

RESOLVED, that federal funds shall be expended through public school systems and in uniformity with existing union contracts.