HOUSTON—Future progress in the U.S. for students, parents and families “is possible” if the country unites to defeat Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, the autocracy he trumpets and the “demagogues and dictators” he represents, AFT President Randi Weingarten says.
“These extremists see it “—politics—as a zero-sum game,” Weingarten declared to the AFT convention, meeting in Houston. “To seize power, they must subvert ours.
“So they remake the judiciary, roll back freedoms,” especially reproductive freedom, “reduce taxes on the wealthy, rig democracy, wreck public education and restrict unions—because we the people stand in their way,” Weingarten said in her July 22 keynote address.
But before turning to the potential dark days ahead, New York City civics teacher Weingarten first described a positive future for the nation’s schools, where parents want to send their kids, kids love to learn and teachers love to teach.
That positive picture includes wraparound social services based in schools, a longtime AFT cause. It’s needed to help still-struggling families achieve upward mobility and for their kids to realize their full potential through innovative programs, projects and solving problems—not, as the right wing demands, teaching to the test.
But all that and more is under threat from the radical right, headed by Trump. The right opposes the very concept of public schools and pushes so-called charter schools and public-paid vouchers for parents of private school kids, Weingarten warned.
Aiding private schools via taxpayer dollars, pushed by Trump Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, a GOP big giver who hated public schools, their students and their teachers, harkens back to the days of Southern resistance to integration, the AFT leader said. She called such taxpayer vouchers “a fixation of the religious right.”
“Proponents of vouchers used to argue they were a way for low-income and minority families to transfer out of low-performing schools. Research shows vouchers, on average, negatively affect achievement. Vouchers subsidize wealthy families who already send their kids to private and religious schools. Privatizers fund those giveaways by defunding and destabilizing public schools.”
But the vouchers and the privatizers are just a symptom of the tyrannical threat to U.S. freedom, a threat Weingarten told her listeners teachers can and must counter. The right-wingers, she said, seize on “fear, doubt and despair” to move their tyrannical agenda.
One way is through resistance in the classroom—Weingarten gave examples–and campaigning outside of it, for Vice President Kamala Harris. Since Democratic President Joe Biden, whom Weingarten lauded, withdrew from the race, Harris is now the party’s de-facto presidential nominee.
Has enough delegates
Harris has enough pledges from delegates to ensure that she will be the Democrat to combat Trump, Trumpism and his allies, using, among other tools, her “prosecutorial skills and chops,” said Weingarten. AFT delegates at the convention endorsed Harris.
“We heard loud and clear from our members across the country—from Ohio to Montana, and New York to California—that they are all in for Kamala Harris,” said Weingarten after the endorsement decision. “The educators, bus drivers, nurses, public employees, higher education workers, correctional officers and doctors of the AFT stand with Kamala. We are fully committed to this fight: united, mobilized and ready to vote in this year’s election.
“Why do these extremists want to destroy public education? They fear what we do–the teaching of reason, of critical thinking, of honest history, of pluralism–because their brand of greed, of power, of privilege, cannot survive in a democracy of diverse, educated citizens,” Weingarten said of the radical right in her convention address..
“They oppose democracy itself. The extremists want to cement their power and prevent others from having it. So they’re going after educational opportunity. They’re going after economic opportunity. They’re going after equal opportunity. They’re going after the legitimacy of elections.
“For all of you who live in states like California, Illinois, and New York who think ‘It can’t happen here,’ these billionaires and extremists have their sights set on you too,” warned Weingarten.
“In case you think I’m exaggerating, the enemies of democracy have helpfully written down exactly what they intend to do. It’s called Project 2025. It’s a 900-page extremist wish list, coordinated by the Heritage Foundation, that they intend to implement in the first 180 days if Donald Trump wins.
“Here’s a taste of what they’d do: Cut Social Security and Medicare. Let employers stop paying overtime. Strip healthcare protections for people with pre-existing conditions. Allow the government to monitor pregnancies and prosecute people if they miscarry.
The extremists would also “replace thousands of federal workers with ideologues, dismantle civil rights protections, end efforts to combat climate change, cut taxes for the wealthy, and weaponize the National Labor Relations Board against workers.”
Weingarten called right-wingers’ plans for public schools, which teach nine of every ten elementary and secondary students in the U.S., “equally draconian.” Their playbook for a Trump regime, would eliminate federal Title I aid to schools which serve kids from low-income and working class families.
That elimination would swell class size and eliminate paraprofessionals. And “educators and public librarians could have to register as sex offenders if they disseminate anything the Heritage Foundation considers pornographic.
“And their holy grail—limitless funding for private and religious schools—leads to the end of the separation of church and state and of public education as we know it.
“It’s a path to autocracy.”
Later convention sessions featured guest speakers, workshops, and election of AFT officers.
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