Dear NEA members,
I am honored to serve as your president. United, we will reclaim public education as a common good and transform it into a racially and socially just system that actually prepares every student—not one, not some, but every single student—to succeed in a diverse and interdependent world. Onward!
Face to Face with NEA Members
This spring, my Joy, Justice, and Excellence Tour brought me to Cedartown Middle School, in Polk County, Georgia. In a state with some 4,000 teaching vacancies, this school had not one vacancy! The educators I met, including local president Dorothy Welch, credited their new four-day school week, which dedicates Mondays for teacher planning and student remediation. And, unlike other places that have rushed into four-day weeks for the wrong reasons, Polk’s schedule has not led to pay cuts for school bus drivers or other education support professionals. They’re even making sure to send meals home on Fridays. Student achievement is up, and so is educator wellbeing. And do you know what I love most about it? Everyone—union leaders and school district officials—came together to make it happen!
What I am saying about gun violence
In June, three days before I marched with educators who survived the shootings in Columbine, Colo., and Oxford, Mich., I addressed members of the U.S. House of Representatives on the gun violence epidemic. Here is what I told them: “Every single day that politicians fail to take meaningful action, every single day that politicians ignore the majority of Americans who want stricter gun laws, you are telling our children: Protecting your lives matters less to us than protecting the status quo. I ask you: Who are you serving?” That question is easy for us, as educators, to answer. We’re serving our students, every day. But we can’t help our students soar, while wearing body armor or carrying weapons. Please, I ask you— my fellow educators—to join me in demanding comprehensive, commonsense legislation so that not one more anguished parent must lay their child to rest. Visit nea.org/gun violence.
Three things to do for your students and your union!
Check your voter registration, ASAP!
Read a banned book.
