Kamala Harris to visit Houston Thursday for national teachers’ union conference

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Vice President Kamala Harris will visit Texas on Thursday to address the American Federation of Teachers’ national convention in Houston, an AFT source told The Texas Tribune.

The White House also confirmed that Harris is scheduled to give the keynote speech at the conference, which started Sunday and will conclude Thursday at the George R. Brown Convention Center.

The news comes just days after President Joe Biden announced he would not seek reelection and Harris’ subsequent announcement that she intends to seek the Democratic Party’s nomination to run for president. Texas’ Democratic National Convention delegates voted overwhelmingly on Monday to support Harris for the nomination.

Harris’ visit will also come a few days ahead of a visit from the president to Austin. Biden will speak at the Lyndon Baines Johnson presidential library on Monday to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act.

AFT, one of the nation’s largest teacher’s labor unions, represents more than 1.7 million members. AFT’s executive council voted unanimously to endorse Harris on Sunday, pending an official vote by convention delegates. The delegates officially cast their votes in support of Harris on Monday.

The focus of Harris’ remarks is still unknown. The vice president’s visit comes as schools throughout the state grapple with multi million-dollar budget deficits, largely stemming from inflation and the Texas Legislature’s failure to approve a significant boost to the base amount of money every school gets per student. Teacher pay is likely to be a major topic of discussion when lawmakers reconvene at the Texas Capitol in January.

Harris’ visit also comes at a time when state Republican leaders, notably Gov. Greg Abbott, have made passing school voucher legislation a top legislative priority. Other states have adopted similar programs, which allow parents to use taxpayer dollars to pay for their children’s private education.

Texas, along with several other Republican-led states, has also been at odds with the Biden administration over recent changes to Title IX, a federal civil rights law that prohibits sex-based discrimination at educational institutions that receive federal funding. The changes add protections for LGBTQ+ students. A federal judge temporarily blocked the rule from taking effect in Texas.

Harris and AFT have sounded the alarm on a conservative-backed plan to overhaul the federal government under a second Trump administration, widely known as Project 2025, an initiative that could have major implications for educational institutions across the country.

The plan calls for the elimination of the U.S. Department of Education, the agency responsible for administering and coordinating most federal assistance to education initiatives. It advocates phasing out the supplemental financial assistance provided to schools with high numbers of students from low-income families; rolling back protections for people on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity; and converting funds for children with disabilities to grants for individual states without strings attached.

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