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HAPPENING NOW: The AFT and @aaup.org are in Texas launching our new Nnational Higher Education platform ahead of the 2026 midterms. Read more in the release here, and follow along in the thread below. @afthighered.bsky.social

@ginafortexas.bsky.social: Our colleges & universities are our best hope for our young people to provide economic opportunities & shape participating citizens in our state. And yet, Governor Abbott is hijacking our colleges to play out culture wars. @afthighered.bsky.social @aaup.org

Todd Wolfson, @aaup.org: Let's be clear about what higher education does. It generates groundbreaking research, creates billions in economic output, anchors communities as employers, trains the next generation of workers & creates opportunities for a better life. @afthighered.bsky.social

The new platform from AFT & @aaup.org is focused on: 🎓Restored funding 🎓Freedom to learn 🎓Shared governance: Ensuring faculty and staff—not corporate administrators—make final decisions on curriculum, research priorities and institutional priorities. 🎓Labor reform

Right, @repcasar.bsky.social. In states like TX, you have extremist politicians trying to control what's being taught in the classroom while making college less affordable and accessible to working class students. With one voice, we say: Enough. @aaup.org @afthighered.bsky.social

Dr. Leonard Bright, Texas A&M AAUP: Higher education is not a luxury - it's a public good. Higher ed exists to advance knowledge. But our courses are being scrutinized & altered because of a small group of political actors. @texasaaup.bsky.social @aaup.org @afthighered.bsky.social

Dr. Bright (cont): My course was cancelled because I refused to confine discussions of race, sexuality, and other topics to one single reading or single day of instruction. This is a real threat. We can't leave our students underprepared. @texasaaup.bsky.social @aaup.org @afthighered.bsky.social

TX Rep. Donna Howard: Up until recently, lawmakers have made a bipartisan effort to strengthen higher education in Texas. But this last session was a Republican-led erosion of confidence in higher education. Critical thinking has been reframed as "indoctrination." @aaup.org @afthighered.bsky.social

@texasaft.org President @zephcapo.bsky.social: Today I'm here speaking as a Texan. We have policies in TX being decided by Twitter rants & temper tantrums. I don't think people realize the consequences of this when they're trying to get treatment. @aaup.org @afthighered.bsky.social

@khanna.house.gov: We need to think from a global perspective. The top 20 research colleges in the world, 14 are in the US. 2 are in China. It would be catastrophic if we continue what the Trump administration is doing, which is to underinvest in higher education. @aaup.org @afthighered.bsky.social

@rweingarten.bsky.social: If we're not teaching kids the "how" and "why," and not teaching them how to think critically, we're not doing our job. We have a moral responsibility to do this - and we're seeing autocrats and billionaires stripping higher education because they don't want that.

@rweingarten.bsky.social: We're fighting for investments in the right to teach, the right to learn, and the freedoms we fought for 250 years ago against the British. This is about innovation and making our country great. And to do that, we need a higher education system that befits that.