Texas AFT Pushes Legislators to Pass “Educator’s Bill of Rights”

The Texas American Federation of Teachers (Texas AFT) held a virtual news conference on Tuesday to unveil an “Educator’s Bill of Rights” stating the measures the union says it wants the Legislature to pass during the 2025 legislative session.

“These items are not on our wish list,” Rena Honea, president of Alliance-AFT in Dallas, said, adding: “They’re our rights as Texas educators.”

The document says that Texas educators expect to have the right to: 1) reasonable working conditions; 2) fair wages; 3) a secure retirement; 4) quality childcare; 5) healthy, safe and secure working conditions; 6) academic freedom; 7) meaningful training and development; 8) democratic representation; 9) organize and 10) freedom of religion.

Click the image for the specifics of each of the rights.

Texas AFT President Zeph Capo said it’s time Texas lawmakers increased the state’s education budget, untouched since 2019. “Please do not fall for the hype where they say they’ve put more money into public schools, because all of that money went straight out the back door and (into) a property tax cut,” he said.

KERA has more here.