Media Advisory: Leaders of U.S. Teachers Unions Urge Support for Public Education in Haiti

Leaders of U.S. Teachers Unions Urge Support for Public Education in Haiti

To: Members of the Media
From: Randi Weingarten, president, American Federation of Teachers

In advance of tomorrow’s donors’ conference to mobilize international support for the recovery of Haiti, the president of the National Education Association and I wrote Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, calling on officials to make public education an indispensable element of Haiti’s revitalization.

In addition to simply rebuilding the thousands of school structures destroyed or damaged in the Jan. 12 earthquake, NEA President Dennis Van Roekel and I agree that the international community must allocate sufficient resources to enable a solid Haitian public education system to emerge from the rubble.

The United States and the United Nations will convene the International Donors’ Conference Towards a New Future for Haiti on March 31 in New York.

The full text of the letter to Secretary Clinton can be found at: http://www.aft.org/about/world/democracy-humanrights/letters.cfm.