Time magazine’s ‘Heroes of the Front Lines” features local union food service workers
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Topic: Alliance-AFT
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Dallas members keep the pressure on in fight against unfair compensation system
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Dallas union members continue their fight against pay based on student test scores
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We are three teachers benefiting from higher salaries, but we need to reveal the ugly side of pay for test scores
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Most districts fare well in local bond elections, while one key school board remains undecided
School district bond elections were mostly successful in Saturday's local elections, with 40 of the 50 measures on the ballot passing. Meanwhile, one key race for Dallas ISD's School Board remains undecided and headed to a runoff. Members of our local affiliate--Alliance AFT--worked for the re-election of incumbent Bernadette Nutall with thousands of phone calls and door knocks in Dallas...
Read MoreCommunity schools update
By Dena Donaldson Texas AFT Community Schools Coordinator Since 1990, the school transformation framework known as “community schools” has become a nationally recognized way of strengthening neighborhood schools. Today, over 5,000 schools nationwide identify themselves as community schools. Texas AFT currently has four locals actively pursuing community school initiatives in their districts, with many other locals and districts interested in...
Read MoreEbola-related Training and Preparedness—Key Components of “Safe Schools Week”
Texas AFT issued a press release today marking the occasion of “Safe Schools Week” with a call for Ebola training and preparedness. Here is the text of today’s release: October 19-25 is Safe Schools Week—an initiative of the Texas Education Agency and the Texas School Safety Center to “to develop robust emergency operations plans for a wide range of possible...
Read MoreLocal Coalitions Announce Push for Community Schools in Austin, Dallas, Houston
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Message to Texas Lawmakers: Say No to the Hostile “Home Rule” Takeover of Public Schools
Private and corporate interests targeting Texas public schools for a hostile takeover have an experiment under way right now in Dallas ISD. And you have a big stake in the outcome, no matter where you live and work in Texas. The Dallas experiment features the use of a long-dormant state law authorizing the transformation of a public school district, in...
Read MoreA Win in Dallas ISD for the Community Coalition Fighting Corporate Takeover
A school-board runoff election in Dallas ISD on June 21 produced a big win for the community coalition (including our Alliance-AFT affiliate) that has been fighting a corporate takeover of Dallas ISD schools. The takeover has been cloaked in the guise of “home rule.” But it would really usher in even more control over district policies by elite interest groups...
Read MoreJudge Finds Dallas Home-Rule Process Illegal, Potentially Harmful, But Lets it Proceed; Local Texas AFT Affiliate Appeals to Higher Court
A state district judge in Dallas confirmed today that Dallas ISD’s process for choosing classroom teachers to serve on a home-rule charter drafting commission violated state law, as alleged in a lawsuit filed by our Dallas affiliate, the Alliance-AFT. Members of a district-wide advisory committee, who by law are entrusted with naming four classroom teachers to the commission, were not...
Read MoreTexas AFT’s Dallas Local Wins Court Order Blocking Formation of Home-Rule Commission
The previous Hotline reported that Texas AFT’s local affiliate in Dallas ISD had filed a petition for a temporary restraining order to bar the school district from proceeding with illegal appointments to a “home rule” charter commission. This commission would have the authority to propose sweeping exemptions from statutory safeguards that protect students and teachers. Today we can report that...
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