August 12, 2010: Global March was delighted to learn of a major victory for members of the US Child Labour Coalition, the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) and the National Education Association (NEA), in terms of protecting education access and quality for American children. The US House of Representatives recently voted to approve new legislation that will inject more than US$10 billion in aid to states and school districts to save education jobs that were previously threatened by budget cuts across the country.
Recent figures from the US Department of Education estimate that 161,000 educators who had received redundancy notices, will instead be heading back to school in the autumn thanks to this law. Moreover, the passage of this Senate-approved bill will benefit students by ensuring that class sizes do not dramatically increase and that programmes like art, music and summer school are not cut.
This major victory is a result of sustained and successful campaigns run over several months by AFT and NEA. They have developed an impressive track record of persistent advocacy work to mobilise their members and draw the attention of entire communities of students, teachers, parents, politicians and media to achieve a common goal of avoiding educator layoffs and preserving the quality of education in these critical economic times.
AFT President, Ms Randi Weingarten, said: “We can’t ‘race to the top’ if the bottom is falling out for school districts across the country. Make no mistake about it – for every layoff, for every day that’s cut from a school week, for every course or programme that’s dropped, children are hurt. That is why we are so grateful that the Senate demonstrated its support for kids and their education.”
NEA President, Mr Dennis Van Roekel, added: “Some critics of this legislation first complained that it wasn’t paid for. That is not true. This legislation is fully paid for, and the Congressional Budget Office analysis shows that it will actually reduce the deficit over the next decade. Others claimed that this legislation will benefit ’special interests’. Since when did the needs of our nation’s students, the health of low-income Americans, and the safety of our communities become ‘special interests’?”
The bill will now be signed into law by President Obama, and it will hopefully create an historic precedent of how education can become the solution, and not the problem, in a time of global crisis. Global March feels that this victory in the US through sustained campaigning and pressure from teachers’ organisations is a positive example for other organisations around the world trying to deal with public spending cuts that will affect the education sector and hopefully send a message out to other governments about the importance of education and the need to maintain and improve access and quality, particularly in a situation of economic crisis.
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