February 7, 2019     Volume 1                       Rebuild America’s Schools Act Introduced in the House The Rebuild America’s Schools Act in the U.S. House of Representatives would authorize $100 billion in grants and bonds to construct, modernize, repair, renovate or retrofit public school facilities. Introduced […]

New national survey of principals finds schools struggling with the opioid epidemic, immigration enforcement and gun violence In his inaugural address, AFSA President Ernest Logan stressed the need for civics education: “We put citizenship and history on the back burner in our schools,” he noted, calling for AFSA to be the leading advocate to place civics education on the front burner. […]

Budgets are a statement of priorities. And, from the budget he sent to Congress last week, President Trump’s priorities are a big boost in military spending, a wall, deep cuts in domestic programs and years of trillion-dollar deficits. Public education clearly is not a priority. In fact, President Trump calls on Congress to cut the Department of Education’s budget by a […]

Administrators striving to safeguard their schools know that how quickly police arrive on the scene makes a critical difference. Every second counts in an emergency. Now, working with AFSA and local educators, New Jersey has enacted a law requiring public schools statewide to install panic alarms directly linked to local law enforcement. Called “Alyssa’s Law,” it is named in memory […]

As principals we know that virtually no institution rivals the importance of America’s public schools to our communities, economy and democracy. They bring neighbors together, set students on paths of opportunity and instill a spirit of civic engagement in each new generation. Yet, over the past decade, we have witnessed a ruthless campaign, at every level of government, to gut […]

The AFL-CIO will not be making an early endorsement in the 2020 presidential contest. “There will be no early endorsement of any of the candidates who have announced,” Lee Saunders, chair of the federation’s political committee, told People’s World, as he arrived in New Orleans for the 2019 winter meeting of the AFL-CIO Executive Council. The federation’s political committee met March […]

The wave of teachers’ walkouts and strikes for almost a year – forced on the workers by penny-pinching and tax-cutting GOP administrations and politicians – represent “successful examples” of community-based action where victories benefit everyone, says Teachers (AFT) President Randi Weingarten. That’s because those walkouts, in West Virginia, Kentucky, Oklahoma, Arizona, Denver, Los Angeles, Oakland, among Chicago charter school teachers […]

Greeted by constant roaring chants of “Run, Joe, Run!” from a capacity crowd waving signs urging him to go for the White House, former Vice President Joe Biden stopped just short on March 12 of declaring his candidacy for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination. Instead, his key lines to the hundreds of delegates to the Fire Fighters Legislative and Political […]

Statement of AFSA President Ernest Logan on President Trump’s 2020 Education Budget  The President may have been a month late with his FY20 budget owing to the 35-day federal government shutdown, but his proposed slashing of the education budget could have been predicted a year ago, maybe two years ago. That’s because it looks a lot like his FY18 and FY19 […]