News and Advocacy

Chief of Staff Kia Banks addressed the Board with an open letter containing an emotional plea:

This victory belongs to EVERY SINGLE ONE of YOU.

On May 17, 1954, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously in favor of the plaintiffs. Chief Justice Earl Warren wrote the opinion, which stated that “separate educational facilities are inherently unequal.”

Right now, there’s a crucial struggle about to unfold in the Illinois Legislature that will impact every staff member, student, and family in Chicago’s schools. It’s about the struggle for fair, informed, and intelligent decision-making in Chicago Public School policy. One of the primary venues for school policy-making is the negotiation of union contracts and yet, the issue has generated almost no headlines despite its urgency and importance.

AFSA views the repeal of the Windfall Elimination Provision and the Government Pension Offset as an important goal for educators and other public employees who have been unfairly penalized.
The proposed legislation, which is intended to prevent foreign influence in U.S. elections, has raised concerns within the labor movement.
Our ability to mobilize and demand change through unions is essential to securing a fairer, more equitable future for Black workers.

When Zulema Naegele thinks of her childhood, she says being an educator was far from her mind. The eldest of five children raised in Mesa, Arizona, she never dreamed that one day she would teach and then become a high school principal.

“I’m the oldest of 30+ cousins and was always the one to line them up and help them all hit the piñata,” she says. “But I didn’t want to be their teacher!”