Pre K - 12 & PSRP Public Education Issues Platform

Every two years AFT Michigan puts together our Issue Platform. The purpose of the platform is to list the issues we think are critical needs that should be addressed in the legislature and other state bodies. The platform is shared with all candidates for public office on the state level and from the platform we focus our legislative action.

Pre K-12
Public Education:
A Michigan Platform
download .pdf of Pre K-12 & PSRP Platform

Overview: What works for our children's future

Pollsters and the media tell us again and again that educators, parents and other stakeholders support academic standards. They want quality education for all students; they want "what works" in the public schools. They want schools where all children achieve; where there are high standards and high expectations; where all students are safe and secure; where there are smaller class sizes; where there are highly skilled teachers and support staff. Toward that end, the AFT Michigan, (AFT/AFL-CIO) outlines eleven major priorities for Michigan's public schools. These measures call for:

High academic standards	page 2
End to social promotion	page 3
Comprehensive reading programs	page 4
Smaller class sizes	page 5
High priority schools	page 6
Safe, orderly schools	page 7
Improved school infrastructure	page 8
Skilled teachers and support staff	page 9
Strengthened early childhood and pre-school programs	page 10
Strong special education programs	page 11
Necessary school funding	page 12

We believe that these priority components, taken together, form the core of real public school reform. We recommend that rather than using taxpayer dollars to experiment with more charter schools, vouchers, tax credits and privatization efforts, to name a few, we should focus our resources and our efforts on proven methods to affect concrete reforms that will raise the performance level in our public schools for all Michigan children. We hope that Michigan's elected leaders will not only support the kinds of standards-based reforms outlined herein, but take an active leadership role in promoting them, so that together we can help our schools match or surpass the accomplishments of the world's highest achieving nations.

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