AFT convention delegates overwhelmingly adopted a resolution that sets out the union’s action plan for fixing problems associated with the federal No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB).

The policy statement traces many of the ills of NCLB—including unsound school improvement interventions, chronic underfunding, inconsistent standards for “highly qualified” teachers and few resources for paraprofessionals—to inept, opportunistic implementation and broken promises from President Bush and his administration. It stresses that central to any long-term solution to these problems will be AFT efforts to elect John Kerry.

The resolution also pledges to lobby Congress to “address the defects in this law that harm children and the schools they attend and to fully fund the amended NCLB.” Additionally, the AFT resolution pledges to help affiliates use contract agreements and other tools to mitigate the problems with NCLB, wherever possible, and to lobby and communicate effectively at the local level about the need to change and fully fund the law.

AFT vice president Tom Mooney, who is president of the Ohio Federation of Teachers, called the resolution “a strong new position that outlines what needs to be done” to fix the law.

Healthcare reform called AFT’s duty

Resolutions aimed at improving healthcare and working conditions for healthcare workers were adopted by convention delegates.

One resolution reaffirms the union’s support for national healthcare reform, including universal coverage and access to quality care at a reasonable cost. The resolution calls for the AFT to continue to build coalitions with other organizations and educate members about healthcare costs and access until a national health insurance plan is adopted.

“It is the responsibility of our union to continue efforts to provide and extend healthcare coverage to all,” said Anne Goldman, the special representative for the Federation of Nurses/United Federation of Teachers and a member of AFT Healthcare’s program and policy council. “We have the compassion, will and desire to move the agenda,” even though “the reality is that the country wishes to have coverage but doesn’t want to pay for it.”

Thomas Murphy, a member of Health Professionals and Allied Employees in New Jersey, also spoke in support of the resolution, noting that “dedicated healthcare professionals must play a prominent role in shaping healthcare reform.”

Higher ed issues in the spotlight

Resolutions related to higher education adopted by the convention include one calling on the AFT to examine how accrediting bodies monitor institutions’ employment and treatment of part-time and full-time contingent faculty. Speaking in support of the resolution, Linda Evans of the Faculty and Staff Federation of the Community College of Philadelphia noted that the college employs 800 part-time teachers and 370 full-time teachers. Those part-timers “are exploited, overworked and underappreciated!”

In addition to monitoring accrediting agencies, the resolution calls on the union to propose best practices to improve the contingent faculty’s working conditions.

Another resolution takes on accountability in higher education. It directs the AFT to oppose federal legislation that would interfere with institutional autonomy by imposing standardized tests or a standard rate of graduation, no matter the type of institution or the nature of the student body.

Delegates also passed a resolution that takes aim at conservative groups’ efforts to control academic decision-making through their campaign to pass “intellectual diversity” legislation in the states. This legislation, which goes by the name of an “Academic” or “Student Bill of Rights,” is based on the flawed premise that the academy is dominated by left-wingers and that conservatives need affirmative action for their ideas to be heard.

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