AFT Convention 2024: Progress Is Possible, Not Guaranteed

This past week, Texas AFT welcomed the 88th biennial national AFT Convention to Houston. The five-day event is the highest authority of our union, and it was an honor to host 3,500 of our fellow educators, elected leaders, and public school allies from across the country.

It's difficult to sum up all that happened last week, but we've gathered some highlights from the nonstop action.

AFT Becomes First Union to Endorse Kamala Harris for President

Let's start with the biggest news of the convention first. On Sunday, July 20, President Joe Biden announced he would not continue with his re-election campaign, instead endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris as the Democratic Party nominee for president.

That same day, AFT's 47-member executive council passed a resolution unanimously endorsing Harris. On Monday, that resolution was ratified by convention delegates, making AFT the first union to endorse the vice president.

"This afternoon, 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," AFT President Randi Weingarten said in a statement after the ratification vote. "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."

You can read the resolution endorsing Harris on AFT's website.

But the endorsement news was not the only surprise in store. On Thursday, Harris herself joined the AFT convention for a closing speech to delegates.

"We see a future where every student has the support and the resources they need to thrive, and a future where no teacher has to struggle with the burden of student loan debt," Harris told AFT delegates.

Harris' endorsement and speech served as an important kickoff to AFT's nationwide efforts to turn out the vote this November for candidates who value and support public education and the well-being of those who work and learn in our schools.

The stakes couldn't be higher, a truth detailed at a diverse panel discussion of scholars at this year's convention. In a discussion moderated by President Weingarten, the trio of Dr. Eddie Glaude Jr., African American studies professor and bestselling author; Michael Kazin, history professor and Dissent magazine emeritus co-editor; and Steven Greenhouse, veteran labor journalist and Century Foundation senior fellow, outlined the real threat of authoritarianism within Project 2025 and a potential second Trump Administration.

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Texas educators know the stakes of this election well, as well as the importance of turning out voters in record numbers. Texas AFT President Zeph Capo made this point clearly in opening convention proceedings on Monday:

"No other state flipping their power structure would have more of an impact on this country.

Texas is the eighth-largest economy in the world. Last year, our state budget surplus was $32.7 billion, an amount larger than the entire budgets of 24 other states. Over 30 million people call Texas home, and nearly 5 million of them are right here in Harris County.

If it were its own state, Harris County would be the 25th most populous one in the nation. And it would be a diverse one. Nearly half of our households speak a language other than English at home. Immigrants comprise a larger share of the Houston population than of the nation overall.

Locally, Houston consistently elects pro-public education and pro-democracy officials.

That is exactly why our state government is on a special mission to suppress the Harris County vote. Every method our communities come up with to make voting simpler or more accessible is met with immediate legal challenges and new legislation to disenfranchise us instead. That's why they are so hot to take over our schools.

If we can get Harris County to the polls at levels like other states, everything changes. As goes Harris County, so goes Texas. And as goes Texas, so goes the nation."

Because of that very reality, Texas AFT partnered with Jolt Initiative and the Harris County elections department to host a Volunteer Deputy Voter Registrar training on site at the convention on Monday.

Every member who attended the training left with the information necessary to register voters in their communities. This is a free and effective way for any Texas educator to increase voter registration and turnout in their neighborhoods.

Expert Panels Outline Real Solutions for Thriving Public Schools

While a major focus of this convention, the organizing theme of this year's convention, and our national union's campaign, was "Real Solutions for a Better Life." In panel after panel, AFT convened experts on our public schools - most notably, educators and parents themselves - to offer those real solutions.

Those discussions began Sunday, with a panel hosted by Texas AFT and moderated by The Texas Tribune CEO Sonal Shah, focused on the threats to public schools and the solutions desperately needed by educators, parents, and students.

The twin threats of continued underfunding of public schools and the further drain on their resources from private school voucher programs dominated the conversation, as Dr. Josh Cowen, a leading education policy expert, recounted voucher experiments in states nationwide.

When asked about the harm of vouchers, panelists agreed that not only are vouchers not a solution for improving student outcomes, but they are a strong-arm tactic to wrestle democratic voice away from parents and communities. Look no further than the poor results and financial strain in states that have implemented universal vouchers. Arizona, Florida and Ohio, for example, are now each putting approximately $1 billion of public school funding toward putting kids through private school.

"If you thought budget fights were difficult now," Cowen said, "wait until next year when $1 billion is already spoken for."

Elsewhere, delegates also heard from union leaders and elected officials from Chicago and New York on the transformative effects of partnering for the public good.

In a breakfast discussion Wednesday, panelists from the United Federation of Teachers (New York), the Ohio Federation of Teachers, and North America's Building Trades Unions (NABTU) extolled the importance of high-quality career and technical education that sets up students for good-paying jobs, whether they choose to attend college or not.

Likewise, a major focus of our union's solution-driven agenda is the implementation of true community schools nationwide. Community schools have been shown to improve student and staff retention, decrease absenteeism, increase graduation rates and improve morale. Leaders from the United Federation of Teachers and the Albuquerque Teachers Federation relayed their experiences implementing community schools, and AFT's community schools expert Dena Donaldson, a former Texas AFT organizer, walked delegates through the sometimes daunting implementation process.

Higher education was also well-represented at this year's convention, the first since AFT's formal affiliation with the American Association of University Professors (AAUP). Just prior to the convention, AFT launched its multiyear Real Solutions for Higher Education campaign, and higher education delegates gathered for a discussion of implementing the campaign in their home states and communities.

For more information on the Real Solutions for Higher Education campaign and dozens of resources to help locals model contract language, policy guidance, communications and more, visit aft.org/realsolutionsforhighered.

In terms of our union's commitment to finding and implementing real solutions for public school employees, no resolution proposed at the convention garnered as enthusiastic support as the one avowing our union's full support for a PSRP Bill of Rights.

After the resolution was approved unanimously by delegates, AFT President Randi Weingarten said that our job now is to "move heaven and earth" to elect politicians who will pass the same bill at the state and national levels to ensure our paraprofessionals and school-related personnel get the rights, privileges and benefits they deserve.

You can signal your support for this vital national legislation by sending an e-letter to your Texas senators and representative today.

The "Real Solutions for a Better Life" motto also came through in a series of community events throughout the week.

On Sunday, a group of AFT members descended on Houston's historic Fourth Ward Freedmen's Town, a once-thriving community founded by formerly enslaved families, to preserve its important and challenging history.

"We're doing this community service project because not only is it important as educators and union members to teach the ABCs and the 123s but also to ensure that students have the wealth of knowledge and history necessary to become critically thinking citizens," Texas AFT President Capo told volunteers. "It's important that we teach where we are and how we got here, and that's been cut out of our history books. We're coming into this community to maintain, restore, and preserve historic treasures that are right here in our backyard."

Among the projects undertaken by volunteers at Freedmen's Town were preparing historic buildings for fresh paint and renovations (left) and restoring the outdoor prayer labyrinth (right). Photos by Mariana Krueger, CCR Studios.

Simultaneously, AFT, Texas AFT, and our Houston area local unions partnered with the Texas AFL-CIO and community organizations to host a free citizenship clinic for permanent residents seeking to apply for U.S. citizenship.

Like the thousands of others who have gone through similar labor-sponsored Texas clinics, participants walked out with an application ready to put in the mail. Once those are accepted and participants pass their citizenship test, they will be able to register to vote - one common incentive to apply for citizenship, as this moving AFT Voices blog post describes.

Citizenship is inextricably linked to a sense of community. Alongside the clinic, our unions hosted a community fair with live mariachi music, food, children's games, and a book giveaway featuring bilingual selections and multiethnic characters - part of AFT's Reading Opens the World initiative. The community fair also included health screenings and a job fair.

AFT and AFL-CIO volunteers assist citizenship applicants with their paperwork, including with translation services from Texas AFT Secretary-Treasurer Wanda Longoria (left) and McAllen AFT President Sylvia Tanguma (right). Photos by Mariana Krueger, CCR Studios.

It would be impossible to support the Houston community, our hosts for this national convention, without discussing the recent turmoil wrought by Hurricane Beryl. Texas AFT has activated our Disaster Relief Fund to help members in need of damage repairs, as well as food assistance, in the weeks following the hurricane.

As we've noted in previous Hotlines, the Disaster Relief Fund relies on generous donations from our members and allies. While we have been able to meet the needs of many affected by Hurricane Beryl, we have been concerned about sustaining donations to the fund throughout the upcoming hurricane season.

Our union siblings with New York's United Federation of Teachers heeded the call for donations in a big way. On Tuesday, July 22, at Texas AFT's celebration of our 50^th anniversary, UFT leaders and members joined us to deliver a check for $10,000 to restock our Disaster Relief Fund.

Finally, you cannot talk about real solutions for public schools in Houston without acknowledging the other great harm done to that community this year: the state takeover of B-rated Houston ISD by the Texas Education Agency.

On Wednesday, AFT delegates gathered outside the convention center to rally in support of the Houston Federation of Teachers and of several parents and students who spoke out against the "reforms" instituted by state-installed Superintendent Mike Miles.

The rallying cry: No More Harm.

Houston ISD parents and students (left) gathered on the lawn of Discovery Green in Houston to rally against appointed Superintendent Mike Miles and his proposed bond package, the largest in state history. Providence Teachers Union President Maribeth Calabro speaks about the disastrous effects of the state takeover of public schools in Providence, Rhode Island. Photos by Mariana Krueger, CCR Studios.

You can show solidarity with Houston ISD educators and families by signing up with the community's No More Harm campaign.

Texas AFT Celebrates Its 50^th Anniversary

This convention and its many activities were a fitting celebration for a Lone Star State milestone: the 50^th anniversary of the formation of Texas AFT. At a party on Tuesday, we celebrated the first 50 years of our union and honored the organizing efforts of those who came before us in Texas.

In 1910, six years before AFT itself was founded, San Antonio teachers organized a union, affiliating directly with the AFL. In 1919, one year after the end of World War I, Houston educators chartered for the first time with AFT. Houston educators would charter a union again in 1959, just in time to confront and succumb to McCarthyism.

The third organizing efforts was the charm, when locals in Austin, San Antonio, and Houston charted again in the early 1970s, building the foundation for Texas AFT today, 50 years strong.

We were thrilled to ring in a half-century of our union alongside our AFT siblings nationwide, as well as our own homegrown unionists. Among the members we honored Tuesday were three important groups.

First, leaders from our two newest local unions - Brownsville Educators Stand Together and Spring AFT - chartered this spring, were able to participate in their first AFT convention. Also attending were several of the K-12 and higher education members who completed our summertime Thrive Fellowship, where they learned the advocacy and organizing skills needed to support our Educator's Bill of Rights, the agenda Texas AFT plans to bring to the 89^th Legislature.

To commemorate the anniversary, we've added several special 50^th anniversary items to our online shop at store.texasaft.org. Remember: Every purchase from our store acts as a donation to our Committee on Political Education (COPE), our state union's political fund. In this momentous and harrowing election year, truly every bit helps in supporting candidates who will support educators.

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