Improve the Schools- Build Back Better

We’re on the precipice of charting a bold new course for our country with the Build Back Better Act. With historic investments in school infrastructure, expanding access to high-quality healthcare, boosting our economy, expanding and making permanent the child tax credit, establishing universal pre-K, making college more affordable and accessible, supporting hospital and health center infrastructure, and more, we have an opportunity to set future generations up for success.

Now we all must do what it takes to help this important bill get passed. Click here to send a letter to your lawmakers and tell them to pass the Build Back Better Act.

The Build Back Better Act uses what we know, to fund what we need. We know that “building back better” is not only essential—it’s possible. We know that by asking everyone to pay their fair share, including the wealthiest earners and big corporations, we’ll have the resources we need to improve life for all working families. We know that scrapping the state and local tax deduction cap will help middle-class families and fund the local services we all depend on. And we know that investing in school infrastructure will create safe, welcoming environments for students to learn and thrive—not to mention creating more than a million well-paying jobs to make those upgrades.

The Build Back Better plan will help families, children, students, working Americans and communities by:

• Investing $82 billion in rebuilding and modernizing schools and $4 billion to support internet access and distance learning.
• Providing up to 12 weeks of universal paid family and medical leave for all U.S. workers.
• Lowering the cost of child care for all families, regardless of income, and making it easier for families to find available child care slots.
• Expanding access to healthcare for 4 million more Americans, reducing Affordable Care Act premiums by 7 percent, providing vision, hearing and dental benefits to seniors on Medicare, and improving elder and community-based care.
• Providing all 3- and 4-year-olds with access to high-quality, free universal pre-K classes, which will be inclusive for children with disabilities.
• Prioritizing paying child care workers and pre-K teachers a worthy, livable wage.
• Addressing the teacher shortage by funding “grow your own” programs, teacher residencies and teacher preparation grants.
• Securing better-paying jobs for workers with additional access to job-training programs.
• Giving 9 million more children access to free school meals, and expanding effective child nutrition programs.
• Making college more affordable for all students by reversing disinvestment in public higher education, increasing investments in historically Black colleges and universities and minority-serving institutions, and making two years of community college free.
• Replacing lead pipes to provide safer drinking water for communities.
• Reducing gun violence.
• Providing loan forgiveness for nurses working in communities with staffing shortages.
• Raising the corporate tax rate, and closing Trump-era loopholes to ensure the IRS has the resources it needs to make the ultra-wealthy and tax-dodging corporations pay their fair share.
• Addressing the climate crisis through developing an electric vehicle infrastructure, reducing pollution and toxins around schools, funding environmental justice initiatives and investing billions of dollars in incentives for clean energy.

We know what we need. We need to pass the Build Back Better Act. Write to your lawmakers here and tell them to pass it.

We have a plan. We know what works. And with everyone paying their fair share, we know how to pay for it. Contact your lawmakers today.

In unity,
Randi Weingarten

AFT President