Black, Indigenous, and other students of color have historically been marginalized, pushed out, and harmed by policing and the punitive systems within public education.  Black students are disproportionately impacted by punitive practices including behavioral interventions, dress codes, suspensions and expulsions, and police presence on campuses.  The consequences they face because of biased and unjust systems are far reaching and impact not only their educational outcomes, but their life trajectories as well.

Our Stance
As educators who interact daily with students in PreK-12 classrooms and higher education campuses across Michigan, we should play a role in disrupting and dismantling the policies, structures, and day-to-day interactions that lead to the criminalization of students and replacing it with a “cradle to college” pipeline that maximizes successful outcomes for all children and communities.  We need changes at multiple levels--from individual members learning about and interrupting their biases, to school districts, colleges and universities changing policies, to state government changing legislation.  

Our Work
Our goal is to complete concrete projects that will help educators work to  increase racial equity in our education system. We will begin with an Assessment Phase before moving toward recommending action steps to the AFT Michigan Administrative Board.

Who should Join?
The working group will bring together members from across our AFT Michigan constituency groups (paraprofessional and school-related personnel (PSRP), PreK-12 teachers, Special Ed/ISD, graduate employees, nontenure-track faculty, tenure-track faculty and academic staff) to build out paths for advocacy and resources that help support educators and school communities taking action at the state, institution, and member level.