The AFT and the Council of the Great City Schools have sent a joint letter to House and Senate leaders urging immediate financial assistance to restart school operations in school districts hit by Hurricane Katrina, including capital costs of repairing and building schools and support services for school districts receiving students and families from evacuated areas.

The Sept. 9 letter from AFT president Edward J. McElroy and CGSC executive director Michael Casserly asks Congress to provide a "sizable and dedicated source of funds to the U.S. Department of education and sufficient authority for the education secretary to address the immediate needs of children, teachers and schools." The New Orleans school district, in particular, has been almost completely destroyed and will need "sizable, immediate and sustained aid," said the two leaders.

The letter was sent to House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.), House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.), Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and the chairman and ranking member, respectively, of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, Michael Enzi (R-Wyo.) and Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.).

While damage to school facilities is still being assessed throughout the Gulf Coast region, "we already know there will be long-term costs in school districts that will require much more federal assistance," they noted, urging the Congressional leaders to play a leading role in ensuring that the total resources needed to begin the recovery process are provided by the federal government in the most flexible and expeditious manner."

McElroy and Casserly also urged immediate assistance "to the many schools that are already accepting students who cannot attend their own schools because of Hurricane Katrina" and to address the needs of teachers, paraprofessionals and other school-related personnel who are now unable to work because their districts are not operating.