After President Donald Trump was sworn in for a second term in January, American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten asserted she was “really sad” about the inaugural speech.
“Rather than unifying people and building on America’s best qualities, Trump delivered a speech that was laden with divisiveness, showing that he is the president of only some Americans,” Weingarten said in an inauguration day statement.
“Those of us in the labor movement and in public education are fighting for opportunity and dignity for all Americans.”
Perhaps not surprisingly, the AFT—one of America’s largest public school teachers unions—has participated in a deluge of lawsuits against the Trump administration policies. What’s more interesting is that several of the legal actions are seemingly at most education-adjacent, and in other cases have little or nothing to do with K-12 public education.
The AFT has sued regarding federal employees, immigration, and student loans for college students.
The AFT began as exclusively a teachers union, but has six separate divisions that also represents other public school employees such as teacher aides, custodians, and bus drivers, as well as health care workers and higher education faculty. The union’s website says it also represents public employees that includes federal and state employees.
