Today, Governor Edwards announced that K-12 teachers and school employees will be eligible to receive the COVID-19 vaccine beginning Monday, February 22nd. As most of you know, LFT members have urged the Governor’s office to grant educators priority access to the COVID-19 vaccine since the State first began assembling its vaccination rollout plan.
COVID-19 RELIEF FUNDING
Louisiana school districts are poised to receive nearly 4x more COVID-19 relief funding under the latest federal relief plan. This aid does come with restrictions in how districts may allocate the funds, but it is a much needed and long overdue step towards a reprieve for our educators and students who have been ‘making it work’ for far too long. We are excited about the possibilities this funding presents, but it is vital that teachers
COVID-19 RELIEF FUNDING
Louisiana school districts are poised to receive nearly 4x more COVID-19 relief funding under the latest federal relief plan. This aid does come with restrictions in how districts may allocate the funds, but it is a much needed and long overdue step towards a reprieve for our educators and students who have been ‘making it work’ for far too long. We are excited about the possibilities this funding presents, but it is vital that teachers
Patience—counseled by former Vice President Joe Biden all election week as Americans waited for votes to be counted—finally paid off Nov. 7, four days after Election Day, when Biden won in Pennsylvania and gained enough Electoral College votes to acquire a new title: president-elect. AFT President Randi Weingarten says the union’s leaders and members “can’t wait to get started” on the work ahead “with an administration that will embrace and fight for the values we hold dear.”
AFT President Randi Weingarten today delivered a major address on the crisis hollowing out the teaching profession—massive disinvestment in public education and deprofessionalization. In her speech at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., she called for reinvestment and freedom to teach. It was followed by two panels featuring education leaders who laid out pragmatic solutions.
AFT President Randi Weingarten’s latest column outlines the urgency of using our voices—our votes—in this life-changing election, when we will make a choice “between President Donald Trump, who has trafficked in chaos, fear, lies and division, and former Vice President Joe Biden, who seeks to reverse Trump’s failures on COVID-19 and the economy, and to unite and uplift the American people.” Besides the four crises we face—a pandemic, an economic crisis, racism and a climate emergency—democracy itself is on the ballot, as Trump continues to cast doubt on the legitimacy of the election.
In her September New York Times column, AFT President Randi Weingarten says that going back to school has never looked like it does now. Weingarten explains that because of President Donald Trump’s response to the coronavirus, which has been chaotic, contradictory and inept, and the lack of federal guidance and funding, we’re seeing a patchwork of school reopening plans across the country.
The story of George Floyd’s murder at the hands of Minneapolis police officers is all too familiar. Just in the past couple of months, we have seen Ahmaud Arbery in Georgia, Breonna Taylor in Kentucky, Tony McDade in Florida and Modesto Reyes in Louisiana, killed by police. These senseless killings of Black people must stop. In addition, President Trump, and many other politicians have stoked the fires by encouraging violence in the language of white supremacy. He has called to crush the protests using military force, and the increased militarization of police forces across the U.S. is a danger to the lives and freedom of all Americans. All this must stop.
