Social Justice Activism is Forming a More Perfect (And Enduring) Union
Teachers and education support professionals are standing together in the fight for equal opportunity for all students.
Educators are driven by purpose. There’s the day-to-day purpose of helping students learn, but there’s also a higher purpose—a calling—to help improve students’lives, especially for the growing number who struggle with poverty. Educators refuse to stand by and ignore the gap between the equal opportunity America espouses and the
socioeconomic reality they see in their schools.
socioeconomic reality they see in their schools.
That’s why another generation of NEA members is fighting for equal opportunity for all students. Teachers and education support professionals are standing together to demand better for our schools and our children and for the common good of our communities.
They are NEA’s social justice activists.
“NEA members are organizing around issues that extend far beyond bread and butter concerns,” says NEA President Lily Eskelsen García. “They’re organizing and advocating for their students—from class size to adequate resources to family involvement. They are banding together to make their voices heard and demanding that the needs of all our students—including those in the most impoverished neighborhoods—be addressed.”
Social justice activism isn’t new. Rank-and-file union activists have advocated for social justice for years and it’s based on the same principles organized labor has always championed: Solidarity, equality, democracy, and justice.
But the country has entered a seminal moment, and this model of unionism could hold the key to preserving public education as a right for all Americans. As the income gap threatens to swallow the middle class, public school educators are being battered by a perfect storm of political, legal, and corporate attacks that would strip educators of their rights, ignore the needs of huge populations of students, and ultimately privatize education, further widening the income gap Social Justice Activism is Forming a More Perfect (And Enduring) Union - NEA Today: