WASHINGTON — Seeking to promote change in education, the American Federation of Teachers has set up the AFT Innovation Fund, to be funded by the 1.4-million-member union and philanthropies to support reform projects developed by teachers to strengthen public schools. The union will begin the fund with a donation of $1 million.

The goal is to work toward “giving each child a world-class education.”

“Our intention is to support innovations from the bottom up—and move away from the top-down corporate model,” said AFT President Randi Weingarten. “What we bring to the table with this initiative is built-in voice and built-in buy-in.”

The fund aims to provide consistent, high-quality instruction; help close the achievement gap by addressing out-of-school factors directly affecting student achievement; and foster collaborative relationships among educators, their unions, management, parents and communities.

“I’m very proud we’re doing this,” Weingarten said in an interview, adding that the goal is to build a fund of $10 million to pay for projects. “I think you’re going to see a bunch of ideas bubbling up from places like Ohio, Illinois and Missouri, because our leaders have good ideas.”

Within four to six months the project will be up and running, Weingarten said. “I want to start funding programs for September 2009. This is real bottom-up reform. It’s our way of sharing responsibility. Hopefully, it also stops the demonizing of teachers and the unions in its tracks.”

Teachers unions are a mainstay of the Democratic Party, and the AFT originally backed Hillary Clinton. It now has switched to Barack Obama.