Delegates Go Home Ready For Action
July 6, 2009
On the fourth and final day of new business, a delegate stands in line to ship a box home from the 88th Representative Assembly.
Photo by Rick Runion for RA Today
Delegates headed home from the Representative Assembly to a nation that is led, for the first time in nearly a decade, by an education-friendly White House and Congress. Hopes for the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) run high.
One of the first pieces of business delegates tackled at the RA was the adoption of an action plan for promoting a new ESEA that works. “We have the opportunity to realize our great audacious vision: a great public school for every student,” NEA President Dennis Van Roekel told delegates in his keynote address.
But they also returned to the most difficult economic environment in decades. As the nation attempts to climb out of a devastating financial crisis, NEA affiliates face cutbacks in funding, layoffs, attacks on pensions and health benefits – a tough negotiating environment.
Despite the difficulties, delegates resolved not to let state and local governments balance budgets on the backs of educators and students.
Delegates also directed the Association to mobilize members in support of long-needed health care reform that will finally provide high-quality, affordable health care for all, and to support efforts in Congress to pass the Employee Free Choice Act to level the playing field for workers attempting to form unions.
President Van Roekel pledged to keep the dialogue with delegates going throughout the year leading up to the next RA on a new Web site—D2D, Dennis to Delegates. Sign up at www.nea.org/rasurvey.
