Teaching Assistants' Association
UW- Madison

TAA POLITICAL PLATFORM

Approved by members 3/06/07

The TAA Political Platform is a document to broadly express the political values of the TAA. Members voted to create the platform to guide TAA policy on legislation and choosing what messages we communicate to the public. Furthermore, the platform will guide the Political Education Committee’s recommendations on candidate endorsements as well as the kinds of questions asked of candidates. At the meeting that approved the original version of the platform, the 2005-2006 Wisconsin State AFL-CIO State Legislative Agenda was also adopted.

ECONOMIC DIGNITY

• Every person should have access to the basic necessities of life including food, safe and affordable housing and a strong social safety net that ensures these necessities
• Every worker deserves living wages, paid sick leave and paid family and medical leave Everyone has the right to a safe workplace
• Communities should invest in adequate public transportation
• Every worker has the right to organize a union, and guarantee its security, including the right to strike
• Every Person has a right to employment without regard to immigration status

UNIVERSAL COMPREHENSIVE HEALTHCARE

• Every person has a fundamental right to access quality healthcare and the government has an obligation to ensure it.

PERSONAL DIGNITY AND CIVIL RIGHTS

• Society should actually enforce existing laws that protect civil rights
• Legislation should streamline the reporting process and protect victims and whistleblowers from retaliation
• The public must establish and fund proactive enforcement initiatives to supplement complaint-based enforcement of civil rights
• Society must both amend and reform institutions to promote respect and inclusion of all persons in public life as well as abolish institutionalized oppressions
• Same-sex couples must have equal access to civil marriage
• Schools and professional sports teams must cease the use of racist mascots
• It is important to educate the public about oppression as a means to its end

PUBLIC EDUCATION PUBLICALLY FUNDED (PRE-K - PhD)

• Every person has a right to an education
• The marks of a strong educational system are access, quality and affordability
• There should be adequate funding for continuing, technical and vocational education for adults to enable lifelong learning
• Public schools at all levels must receive equitable and adequate state and federal revenues
• A progressive income tax, not the property tax, should be the primary source of school funding
• Vouchers, privatization and corporatization are antithetical to education in a democratic society

ENSURING QUALITY EDUCATION

• Education, especially at the primary level, should be culturally appropriate, use inclusive pedagogies and curricula and address multiple learning strategies
• Curricula at all levels should include issues of diversity, labor history and education on the role and responsibilities of citizens in a democracy
• Adequate, paid continuing teacher education, including paid diversity training for all staff should become an industry norm in elementary, secondary, technical, vocational and university education
• Every student has the right to responsible and scientifically-based age-appropriate education about human sexuality
• The arts are an integral part of a quality education and should be funded accordingly; arts education should be free in primary and secondary education
• The Student Achievement Guarantee in Education (SAGE) program should be a funding priority in primary education and smaller class sizes should be promoted at all levels of education
• Affirmative Action must be maintained in admissions and hiring in higher education
• Science education should be based on science, the scientific method and the peer-reviewed findings of the scientific community
• Collective bargaining for all instructional and support staff is integral to ensuring quality education

WAR

• The TAA is opposed to military actions for the purposes occupation and imperialism

THE ENVIRONMENT

• Corporate tax policy should punish pollution and reward renewable resource use and innovation
• Land use and environmental policy should promote equal access to a safe and clean environment
• Every person and community has a right to clean water and air that is sustainable and responsibly managed.

GOOD GOVERNANCE

• All elections should be run in a transparent and accessible manner, including preserving the right of citizens to observe all aspects of the process
• All elections should produce a voter-verifiable paper trail and a permanent record of votes cast
• Voting should not be limited by burdensome ID requirements and registration should be permitted at the polls on election day
• All elections should include an automatic audit and recount of random precincts to ensure the absence of voting irregularities
• Non-citizens should be permitted to vote in municipal and school district elections for jurisdictions in which they reside
• No person should be denied the franchise based on a felony conviction
• Financing of campaigns should be conducted in a transparent manner: all campaign finance records should be disclosed and available for public inspection and any group contributing to an election, including through issue advocacy and in referendum campaigns, should be required to disclose its funding source
• The expenditure of money does not constitute free speech and a corporation is not a person
• All elections should be publicly funded in order to preserve all citizens' rights to stand for office and electors' rights to viably select a candidate of their choosing
• UW student elections should maintain at least the same standards of accessibility, impartiality and public notice that state and municipal elections follow
• The University of Wisconsin System, the State of Wisconsin and all other public entities should engage in socially responsible investment practices that take into account fair labor standards and responsible environmental practices
• The University of Wisconsin System, the State of Wisconsin and all other public entities should not invest and should divest from companies that provide material aid to military associations around the globe in the form of weapons, equipment, and support systems used to perpetrate human rights abuses against innocent civilians, and where knowingly continuing this support implicates these companies in practices that violate international humanitarian law