News from AFT Teachers Archive

Current Issue - June 2026

RioTECH teacher talks about trade school

At RioTECH, a career and technical education school in Rio Rancho, New Mexico, students can take classes at a local community college to earn a certificate in the trades. In an interview with the AFT, Tim Caffee, a math teacher at RioTECH, talks about the importance of career and technical education and how he tailors his classes to meet the needs of his students' educational paths.

AFT, NEA to Dems: Reject private school vouchers

AFT President Randi Weingarten and National Education Association President Becky Pringle sent a letter to Democratic governors, urging them to reject President Donald Trump’s private school voucher program, calling it a grave and urgent threat to the public schools that serve 90 percent of the nation’s K-12 students. “Rejecting the Trump administration’s voucher program helps to preserve and protect the future of public education for our students, families, and communities,” wrote Weingarten and Pringle.

Three African American teachers sit together on a table.

AI comes for critical thinking. Teachers fight back

AI can write students’ essays, solve their math problems and turn long texts into podcasts they never have to read. So what’s left for students to learn? According to AFT educators on the frontlines, everything that matters. At the AFT’s National Academy for AI Instruction, teachers are learning to redesign their lesson plans so students still have to think for themselves, find their own answers and engage in the productive struggle of learning.

A group of protestors old up a sign in the winter that says "WE KEEP US SAFE".

ICE gets $70B from feds. Teachers are afraid.

Congress advanced a funding bill that would inject ICE with about $70 billion over the next three years as part of the White House’s immigration crackdown. It’s a move that has left our nation’s public school teachers on the edge of their seats, wondering how much more harm ICE could do to their students and communities with more money.

Indiana fourth-graders meet Frederick Douglass

When Frederick Douglass went to Pendleton, Ind., in 1843 to share his abolitionist message, a mob attacked him and left him with a broken hand. Nearly two centuries later, Indiana fourth-graders gathered at the same site where Douglass spoke the day after the attack to hear actor Darius Wallace bring Douglass’ story to life. Afterward, students chose free books for their home libraries, thanks to the AFT’s Reading Opens the World initiative, AFT Indiana and the Anderson Federation of Teachers. For Sally Sloan, the day showed that children can handle honest history—and are eager to keep learning.