American Federation of Teachers' President states: "President Obama’s Budget Gives More Families a Pathway to the Middle Class"

For Immediate Release
February 2, 2015

AFT’s Weingarten: President’s Budget Gives More Families a Pathway to the Middle Class>

WASHINGTON—Statement from American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten on the president's budget for the 2015 fiscal year.

"Government can't do it all, but it can help level the playing field for working families. That's what the president's budget aims to do. By targeting investments in child care and paid sick leave, enabling more students to go to community college and helping battle America's worn infrastructure, it gives more families a pathway to the middle class.

"Nowhere is this truer than in the president's focus on children. With half of public school students living in poverty and more than 30 states funding public education at pre-recession levels, the president's proposed $1 billion increase in Title I funding will be a huge help. It will give all kids equal resources, including the computers, lower class sizes, and nurses and counselors they need, even when their communities can't afford to give it to them.

This was what President Johnson envisioned 50 years ago when he passed the Elementary and Secondary Education Act as part of his War on Poverty. Today, this investment is more important than ever.

"The investments the president proposes will help the middle class and grow our economy. The taxes he proposes simply ask those who have done very well to help others climb up that same ladder of opportunity. But unless Congress acts to both end sequestration and implement the president's proposals, it will mean nothing to working families who continue to feel left behind from an economy that increasingly benefits only the wealthy few."

Contact: Kate Childs Graham
202-615-2424
kchilds@aft.org
www.aft.org