As a CFT member, you have access to the CFT Staff who advocate for you, answer your questions and help you resolve conflicts and issues at your work site. You also have access to member benefits through the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), our national union. On an even larger scale, you will be helping us to advocate for your profession and for public education on local, state and national levels.

There are many ways you can get involved in CFT. You can attend our many professional support programs. As educators, we need to be able to analyze and reflect on our practice to refine and improve our instruction. Acquiring this knowledge and developing our practice requires the sharing of knowledge among our fellow educators. Unique to the world of education, we know that teachers teaching teachers is the most powerful professional learning.

One of the most important ways members can become involved is to make a voluntary additional contribution to the Committee on Political Education (COPE). By law, union dues cannot be used for political endorsements or campaign contributions; however, in Ohio, much of our funding for public education comes from the state legislature. It is IMPERATIVE that we have education-friendly legislators. The COPE committee interviews candidates and makes recommendations based on their stance on public education and working families issues. The committee financially supports our endorsed candidates’ campaigns, and more importantly, we work to elect them. We invite you to join CFT COPE with a regular contribution of your choice and get active to support political candidates that support us.