In his second inaugural speech, President Obama stated, "We understand that outworn programs are inadequate to the needs of our time. We must harness new ideas and technology to remake our government, revamp our tax code, reform our schools, and empower our citizens with the skills they need to work harder, learn more, and reach higher."

While New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg continues to vilify the striking drivers, bus matrons and the Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) as "greedy villains" bankrupting the city, New York Daily News columnist Denis Hamill paints a real-life picture in a recent column. He profiles Vic and Lucy DiBitetto—a school bus driver and matron on the same Staten Island bus route caring for kids with autism, multiple sclerosis and physical and developmental challenges.

AFT President Randi Weingarten expressed her support for the conclusion reached by a Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation study that calls for more effective evaluation of teachers. The Measures of Effective Teaching (MET) study shows teachers are the most crucial component of student success, and that current measures of teacher effectiveness fail to accurately recognize good teachers and show a pathway toward improving teacher and teaching quality.

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg already has shown he is willing to put the safety of schoolchildren at risk in forcing a strike by the city’s school bus drivers. Now, Bloomberg has shown he is willing to throw away $450 million in state and federal education aid by breaking off talks with the United Federation of Teachers (UFT) over a new evaluation system.

In a time of widespread calls for education "reform" that are little more than thinly veiled attempts at privatizing schools, the AFT has a new proposal that would actually help solve some of the problems American education faces. The AFT Teacher Preparation Task Force released a report, Raising the Bar—Aligning and Elevating Teacher Preparation and the Teaching Profession, that recommends the equivalent of a "bar" exam for teachers, similar to the tests that lawyers have to pass before they can legally practice.

After a long series of coordinated attacks on the collective bargaining rights of working families in states like Wisconsin, Ohio, Florida and elsewhere, union members and their allies in Michigan are being proactive. They have placed a referendum on the ballot, known as Proposal 2, which would make the right to collective bargaining part of the state's constitution and would ban "right to work" for less laws.

Students at the 19 schools in Jefferson Parish, La., are getting more than 50,000 new books and, best of all, those books are free. Last week, the Jefferson Federation of Teachers (an AFT affiliate), union and community volunteers began sorting the 2,000 boxes of books that will be distributed during the next month. The book distribution is part of a nationwide joint project between AFT and First Book, a nonprofit organization that distributes books to children from low-income families

Newark Public Schools (NPS) and the Newark Teachers Union (NTU) have reached a tentative agreement for a contract that prioritizes student achievement, promotes teachers’ professional growth and financially rewards teachers based on experience and performance, the two groups announced in a joint press release. The current contract expired July 1, 2010, and the new agreement will be in effect until June 30, 2015.

International Labor Organization (ILO) Director-General Guy Ryder says the world economic crisis has seriously affected teachers and students around the globe, causing teacher layoffs, cuts in funding, resulting in larger class sizes with fewer resources and reduced teacher salaries. In his World Teachers' Day message last week, Ryder said:

All this has resulted in a decline in the status of teachers. Sadly, it is a profession under siege. 

If you’ve been considering going back to school, why not take the next steps at the National Labor College (NLC). The NLC’s online degree programs make it easy to balance work, family and school.

2012 graduates Bruce Dantley of Plumbers and Pipe Fitters (UA) and AFSCME member Tina Davis did it. So can you.

Spring semester begins Jan. 7, 2013, and if you apply now, you can get 50% off the application fee.