WASHINGTON, D.C – In recognition of National Charter School Week, the American Federation of Teachers today reaffirmed its commitment to quality, accountable public education, pledging it will intensify its nationwide effort to organize charter schools.

 “Teachers in all public schools, whether traditional or charter, deserve the opportunity to bargain collectively for fair salaries, benefits and a voice in making their schools excellent. Students benefit when teachers and their unions are partners with their school districts,” said AFT President Edward J. McElroy.

“When Al Shanker came up with the idea for charter schools, he saw them as laboratories for new ideas that would lead to positive change for all public schools,” McElroy said. “Some of these charter schools have done exactly that, particularly in areas like increasing parental involvement, safety, smaller class size and a mission-focused culture. These are the very same things we have been fighting for throughout our history.”

Currently, the AFT represents teachers in a variety of positions in over 50 charter schools spread out over nine states. In those organizing efforts, charter school teachers said it was important to them to join an organization of educators. They also said they were interested in tapping into the AFT’s developing database of charter school contracts, which often differ from those for teachers at regular schools. They could include provisions involving extended days or years and taking on additional duties.    

Most recently, teachers in seven charter schools in Pembroke Pines, Fla., voted overwhelmingly to become part of the AFT—the first charter schools in Florida to be unionized. They are among a growing group of charter school teachers nationwide expressing a strong need and desire for union representation, McElroy said. 

“Being a part of a union will definitely have a positive impact on our students. We’ll be connected to a huge network of other educational professionals and will have access to high-quality professional development and the latest educational research,” said Khea Davis, a ninth-grade teacher at Pembroke Pines Charter High School in Broward County, Fla.

To that end, the AFT also announced it is organizing a charter school teacher network – the  Alliance of Charter Teachers and Staff, or ACTS – to represent the interests of AFT-represented charter school educators nationwide.

Former AFT President Albert Shanker introduced the concept of charter schools to the nation in a 1988 speech, seeing them as schools created by or with teachers who wanted to develop a new curriculum or teaching strategies to improve both instruction and student learning. 

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