The AFT and other education groups in Washington, D.C., are preparing to participate in the Higher Education Act reauthorization process next year, even as all eyes are trained on war and homeland security issues.

In September, a task force appointed by the AFT higher education program and policy council met to identify issues the union will focus on in the reauthorization. The task force, chaired by AFT vice president William Scheuerman, heard from two veteran education lobbyists, Charlotte Fraas, AFT's director of legislation, and Becky Timmons, legislation director for the American Council on Education. Fraas discussed the process Congress will go through and urged the union to try to exert influence at the drafting stage of reauthorization. Timmons noted that the Bush administration has been clear from the start that it felt the federal staff was overly weighted toward the nonprofit institutions in the past few administrations. It is trying to "correct" that by giving a greater ear to the for-profit entities--not good news for the institutions where AFT members teach.

Some priorities emerged from the one-day meeting as well as from resolutions passed at the July 2002 AFT convention.

• Restore the federal funding balance between grants and loans.

• Resist movement to "frontload" grants by awarding them in the first two years of undergraduate study.

• Look for ways to reduce student indebtedness for those students taking loans.

• Evaluate effectiveness of campus-based aid.

On other parts of the Higher Education Act, the task force is concerned about program integrity and the accountability of distance education. It wants to make sure Congress considers expanding aid to serve immigrant populations, low-income college student parents who need childcare assistance, and minority populations.
 

Unions want workers' rights preserved

In September, the AFT joined the chorus of labor unions, political leaders and supporters urging Congress to preserve worker rights during the debate on legislation authorizing the new Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Senate Republican leaders and the Bush administration are insisting that 170,000 employees in DHS--created by merging parts of several existing government agencies--have no collective bargaining or civil service rights. About 50,000 of the employees currently are union members; the rest are protected by civil service laws. President Bush has threatened to veto any bill that protects these rights.

The union urged members of the U.S. Senate to support a bill sponsored by Sen. Joseph Lieberman (D-Conn.) and to oppose any amendments that would strip employees of collective bargaining rights and civil service protections. The Lieberman bill had been carefully tailored to allow presidential flexibility on collective bargaining rights for new positions involved in intelligence, counterintelligence or investigative duties directly related to the investigation of terrorism.

Federal employee unions have represented the vast majority of the federal work force for 40 years, and in that time there is not one example of union representation undermining our nation's security, in peacetime or during times of national emergency, notes the AFT.

For details, visit the AFL-CIO Web site.

[Barbara McKenna / AFT On Campus]

[November 22, 2002]