With a number of key races in Ohio on Nov. 7, Opaluch is working with the Cleveland Teachers Union (CTU) and the Ohio AFL-CIO to rally other retirees behind labor’s endorsed candidates for governor and U.S. senator as well as a statewide referendum to raise the minimum wage. Retirees’ efforts in Cleveland have included neighborhood walks to talk to union members about the election, participation in the city’s Labor Day parade this year, and staffing phone banks to talk to other union retirees. The retiree phone banks typically are done during the day, when it’s a better time to reach retirees, while current union members staff the phones at night to reach the rest of the labor community.

Opaluch sees the governor’s race—which pits Democrat Ted Strickland against Republican Ken Blackwell—as the top priority this year. “We’ve just had a really bad situation in Ohio,” she says. “The Republicans have gutted the education system,” with the result being higher college tuition, less money for public schools, and the expansion of vouchers and loosely regulated charter schools. Opaluch also is concerned with what she sees as Blackwell’s plans to privatize many public services and much of the education system.

Strickland has enjoyed a comfortable lead in the polls, so Opaluch is optimistic. A much closer race is expected for the U.S. Senate, where incumbent Republican Mike DeWine is being challenged by Democrat Sherrod Brown.

Launched at the AFT convention in July, the union’s new cell phone text-messaging program is being expanded to include even more members and activists.

“Many of our members, particularly the younger ones, already are using text messaging to communicate with family and friends. We see this as an opportunity to use that technology as another way of communicating with those members,” says John Ost, director of the AFT’s political and legislative mobilization department.

Members already enrolled in the program received a series of mobile alerts in October, including messages about voter registration deadlines, opportunities to volunteer for political campaigns and the AFT’s school infrastructure initiative.

In Wisconsin, the AFT state affiliate has worked with the national union to establish a text-messaging program involving members of two of its higher education locals­­—the Teaching Assistants’ Association at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and the Milwaukee Graduate Assistants Association at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee. “These are some of our most tech-savvy members, and we’ve been using text messaging to keep them plugged into our political program,” says AFT-Wisconsin government relations specialist Scott Spector.

Members of the state federation’s executive board and the committee on political education (COPE), as well as local presidents, also are participating in AFT-Wisconsin’s text-messaging program, Spector says.

To register for the text-messaging program, send a text message to “AFT” at 35328 or visit www.aft.org/textme. Standard text-messaging rates apply.

This comment, made in the summer by a teacher from Miami, Fla., is just one of hundreds received by the AFT that illustrate the urgent need to modernize school buildings around the country—in districts large and small, urban, suburban and rural.

This fall, the union is launching a sustained response to these problems with an initiative to get the school infrastructure crisis on the national, state and local radar—and keep it there. The campaign will call attention to the many problems tied to the nation’s school infrastructure, such as overcrowded classrooms, air-quality concerns, lighting, ergonomics, security issues and their impact on learning.

The campaign will emphasize follow-up actions and long-range solutions. The union is developing a report on school conditions and a resource guide for locals tied to the school infrastructure crisis.  It will address how to mobilize members, how to get the necessary political and community support for improvements, how to design a school facility project wisely and effectively, and how to monitor progress once a project is undertaken.

The campaign will be linked into existing AFT political action initiatives, such as the Activists for Congressional Education (ACE) program and the AFT e-Activist network.

The AFT is collecting comments from frontline educators about how their jobs are affected by the facilities in which they work. The union also is seeking photographs of poor, unhealthy or unsafe conditions in schools.

If you would like to add your voice to the campaign or send photos, visit www.aft.org/psrp/leadershipsurvey.htm. You can upload photos at www.aft.org/psrp/sample_photos.htm.

Politicians bolted for the campaign trail this fall without extending a modest $250 tax credit that educators receive for the classroom supplies they buy with their own money. Congress also failed to extend a tax deduction of up to $4,000 for college tuition that millions of families rely on.

The willingness of GOP congressional leaders to skip town for the October recess without addressing these concerns infuriated Democrats, who blasted the current Republican leadership at a news conference in late September.

“When the average family sits around the kitchen table and asks what has Congress done this year, they probably can’t come up with an answer,” said Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.).

AFT member Dorothy Egbufor also spoke at the news conference, which highlighted the GOP majority’s failure to preserve modest tax help for working Americans—while consistently fast-tracking excessive tax cuts for wealthy individuals. Egbufor, a classroom teacher for more than eight years, most recently teaching kindergarten at Seaton Elementary School in Washington, D.C., said this tax relief made a difference to Americans in general and public school educators in particular.

“Over the past several years, I personally have spent well over $5,000 of my own money to help meet the instructional needs of my students,” she told reporters. Even though the current $250 federal income-tax credit covers only a fraction of the cost, educators continue to dig deep into their own pockets “so we can provide our students with the best possible learning environments,” she added.

The AFT member said Congress’ inability to extend the $4,000 deduction was a major failure. This benefits teachers and paraprofessionals who continue their education through graduate and professional development programs—and it is directly tied to their ability to “deliver a high-quality education to all of their students,” Egbufor stressed.