ABOUT AEU

THE #REDFORED MOVEMENT

Arizona’s #RedForEd movement is about educators coming together in solidarity for students, schools, our colleagues, and our communities to fight for the schools our students deserve. From the very first moments, when AEU was nothing more than a Facebook group with a few members, the movement's mission has focused on educators empowering each other and their communities to fight for fully-funded public schools. Together, we built a powerful movement through close collaboration, engaging seriously with each other’s ideas and engaging in deliberate, direct action. In just a few short months of intentional and strategic organizing in 2018, Arizona Educators United (AEU) grew from just a few Facebook members to 50,000 members, with a small group of nine leaders serving as a statewide organizing committee. This core group developed an 8-week organizing blitz, in coordination with the Arizona Education Association (AEA), and successfully built escalating actions that were organized by over 2,000 volunteers and/or local union reps (liaisons) at 1,200 school sites across the state.

AEU commits to continuing to work inside, outside, and alongside the union to continue to help educate, engage, activate, and organize educators and their school communities. It is this legacy that educators— not just in Arizona but around the nation— have continued to build upon in the pursuit of strong public schools.

MISSION

Arizona Educators United (AEU) is a coalition of union and non-union educators and education support professionals, parents, and community members who are committed to creating schools and workplaces that advance economic, social, and racial justice, and fully funded public schools, by working inside, alongside, and outside the union. We call for equitable public education as a human right. We assert that school employees’ working and safety conditions are the learning conditions of their students and an essential element of public education. We also believe that the liberation of the communities in which our children live is as much a part of our mission as the work we do in our schools.

PRINCIPLES

Fully Funded Schools: Whereas public education is under attack from a well-funded group of business and special interests, politicians, privatizers and opponents of publicly funded public education, AEU seeks to defend publicly funded public education as the last bastion of democratic expression. We will do this by pushing progressive taxation on Banks and Corporations, advocating the end of tax cuts and incentives, organizing political education events, providing resources to organize the schools in their community, supporting pro-public education candidates in local elections, and opposing corporate/market-based approaches to education reform pushed by legislators affiliated with ALEC or other think tanks that push for “free-market solutions”.

Unionism: We believe the focus of Arizona Educators United is to listen, represent and respond to the voices of its members and partners. We believe that through our shared work we can play an important role in positively impacting the Arizona Education Association, American Federation of Teachers, Communications Workers of America, United Campus Workers, et al.(also known as The Union) while also assisting in creating the changes we wish to see within it.

• A member driven union: We believe in Rank and File members coming together to execute agency while ensuring they are driving the decision making process and actions of the union in order to strengthen the power of the union.

• Representative of the Demographics of All Educators: We believe union power comes from the voices of all Rank and File educators and should be representative of their diversity.

• Transparency and Accountability: We believe the policies, actions, elections and finances of the union shall be open to all members, as well as the ability for members to voice opinions and participate in discussions and debate on such measures.

• Solidarity: We believe that “an injury to one is an injury to all” and that the Rank and File members across districts, counties and state, must stand together for common interests, with a shared sense of solidarity.

Working and Safety Conditions: We believe that teacher working and safety conditions are students’ learning conditions. Certified and classified staff should work with an appropriate number of students in order to be able to complete their duties to the best of their ability. We believe that educators should receive support from other professionals. We believe that adequate paid planning and preparation time is necessary for all public school educators to meet the needs of their students. We believe that fair compensation is needed to attract and retain educational employees to our public schools.

• Class size: We believe that educators should have a manageable and reasonable number of students in each class in order to provide quality education to each student and increase student achievement.

• Support professionals: We believe that educators and students deserve counselors, psychologists, behavior interventionists, social workers , registered nurses and other professionals in order to address mental health, physical health, wellness and safety, and their impact on educators, students and our communities.

• Time: We believe that educators should have time to collaborate with others, be given adequate paid planning time, and receive relevant professional development that meets their needs.

• Compensation: We believe that years of professional training and working experience should be respected. Certified and classified staff should be compensated accordingly across the state for their commitment and loyalty to working in education.

• Safety: All educators, students and staff shall conduct a learning environment that protects ALL. During a pandemic or health and safety occurrence, all safety protocols shall be followed in accordance with Federal, State, County and City guidelines and recommendations by organizations such as OSHA, AZCOSH, ADOSH, WHO and the CDC.

Economic justice: We believe all students, families, workers, and community members deserve to live with economic security, respect and human dignity. We advocate for economic justice in the communities we serve, including a livable wage, affordable housing, food security, quality affordable healthcare, and P-tuition-free, high quality education for all.

• School staff deserve robust funding and paid working time for further education and training.

• School staff and parents shall never be required to fund school or classroom needs from their own resources.

Social and Racial Justice: Advocate and advance anti-racist, anti-imperialist, pro-Black, pro-Indigenous, pro-immigrant, pro-LGBTQ+, and pro-disability public education policies, staff development, community events, and recruitment/retention of underrepresented voices.

• Black Lives Matter at School: We fully support the demands of the BLM at School movement, including:

  • End Zero Tolerance. Focus our schools on Restorative Justice. We will promote training and philosophical buy-in for restorative justice and transformative justice practices at all levels of school and community leadership.

  • Black Teacher Pushout Ends Now! Hire More Black Teachers in our Schools. We will push for schools to hire and retain underrepresented and BIPOC voices, as well as create and fully fund mentoring programs for BIPOC staff and allies.

  • Black History/Ethnic Studies Mandated K-12. Our students of color and other underrepresented voices deserve to feel empowered in the classroom, by seeing themselves in the curriculum and reading materials. Black History and Ethnic Studies must be included in K-12 classrooms.

  • Fund Counselors Not Cops. Schools must divert funding from resource officers and police on school campuses, and instead provide counselors who have manageable caseloads that allow them to provide quality service to all students.

Stakeholders (Collaborators, Allies): We believe that the stakeholders of Arizona Educators United shall consist of all those who have a shared interest in upholding the sanctity of Public Education and recognize public schools are at the heart of our communities and cornerstone of democracy. We welcome the combined voices of union and non-union educators and education support professionals, parents, community members, unions and organizations, as our collective voice is our most powerful tool.