PreK-12 Teachers
More than 1 million members strong, the AFT's Public Education unit has become a major force for preserving and strengthening a national commitment to reclaiming the promise of American education. It all began more than 100 years ago: A group of Chicago teachers, reasoning that theirs was a noble profession, organized themselves to share resources and build respect for the invaluable work they were doing. Those early efforts led to the birth of a national teachers union in 1916 that has been in the vanguard of every major advancement in American public education ever since.