NEA: "Defeat Bush! (oh, and vote for Kerry)"

July 07, 2004

The nation's largest teacher's union, the National Education Association (NEA) has been a politically partisan organization for some time now, and at times it seems the Democratic Party is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the NEA. The vast majority of their political donations go to support Democrats, and the Democratic Convention before every presidential elections has more delegates from the NEA than from any other organization.

Yet one-fourth of their rank-and-file members are Republican.

No matter, at the opening of the NEA's national convention (which ostensibly is supposed to be about education) the political rhetoric flew, mostly against President Bush and his Secretary of Education, Rod Paige, and the "No Child Left Behind" act.

They didn't mention that more Democrats voted for NCLB than Republicans.

In his speech NEA president Reg Weaver had some interesting comments:

Team NEA, we are going to begin by energizing and mobilizing our 2.7 million members to elect a pro-public education President--and to elect a pro-public education Congress--and it doesn’t matter to us if the candidates are Democrats, Republicans or Independents--what matters is that they are pro-public education.

Actually, it does matter to which party the candidate belongs. Democrats are in, Independents are out, and Republicans, heck, we won't comment on them out of consideration to the sensitivity of our readers.

And cloaking themselves in the banner of "public education" sounds very egalitarian, but actually is code for "government monopoly schools." Remember, charter schools (which provide parents with a choice where often there is none) are also public schools, but the NEA doesn't support them. The NEA, being a labor union, is all about having a captive audience.

President Weaver continued:

. . . there were folks who chose to disrespect us, but we maintained the high ground--even when they choose to be confused between teachers and terrorists. 

Um, Reg, no one is confusing teachers and terrorists. The comparison was between teacher unions and terrorist organizations.

Speaking of which, in discussing the danger of militant Islamist terrorists, it has been noted that their mindset is quite twisted, not being one of life, but rather one of death. They don't want to live, they simply want their enemies to die.

We couldn't help but be reminded of this when on the first day of the NEA convention, the tone was "Defeat Bush" even before they'd even taken a vote on who to endorse in the Presidential election. It seems their emphasis is defeating their enemies, rather than endorsing their allies.

For the record, they did endorse Kerry for president, although he was a no-show for his scheduled appearance, and Hillary Clinton filled in, but breathing not a word of education policy, interestingly enough. The Education Intelligence Agency (EIA) has been covering the story with some mighty droll commentary. Here's a bit on Hillary's speech:

Clinton gave a 15 minute stump speech in support of the Kerry-Edwards ticket, and brought roars from the crowd with such lines as “It’s an exciting day in Washington. We’re one day closer to the end of the Bush-Cheney administration.” Which, if you think about it, is undeniable.

Priceless.

As reported by Number Two Pencil and Joanne Jacobs, the NEA has spent a considerable amount of time addressing either non-educational issues, or bashing testing and legislation such as No Child Left Behind which mandates testing. They've also been getting personal. EIA reports on some of the "New Business Initiatives" that were up for discussion:

NBI 40, which called for the immediate removal of Ward Connerly from the University of California Board of Regets, was withdrawn.

NBI 41, which directed NEA President Weaver to ask Congress for censure of U.S. Secretary of Education Rod Paige, was withdrawn.

It is interesting that they'd attack Ward Connerly, being that he has no connection whatsoever with K-12 education. He simply proposes a color-blind method for doing business (such as college admissions and hiring). This really gets the "Diversity" crowd in a lather.

Now while it's true that Rod Paige made that "terrorist" joke (which was pretty funny, although we'd prefer a Mafia analogy), the NEA clearly has no sense of humor, no thought of what would provoke Dr. Paige to make such a remark.

If the NEA were more focussed on actually improving education rather than proving itself to be just another hard-headed, radical-Left group steeped in partisan politics, then maybe folks would be able to take them seriously.

Respect must be earned.