News
Textbook Democracy, NEA-Style

Representative Assembly delegates elect new NEA leaders and tackle issues that touch your profession and your pocketbook.

I am amazed by your stamina and passion for a cause," National PTA President Shirley Igo told nearly 9,000 NEA Representative Assembly delegates gathered in Dallas in early July. "You come in early and you stay late. You must be teachers!"

These were teachers and education support professionals, higher education members, and NEA Retired and Student members. They were all elected by colleagues back home to select new national officers, set NEA policy, and approve action items and a two-year NEA strategic plan and budget.

This was truly textbook democracy, complete with secret-ballot elections and term limits, as outgoing NEA President Bob Chase stepped down after two consecutive three-year terms.

Delegates elected Reg Weaver, an Illinois middle school science teacher, as NEA's new president. Weaver has served as NEA vice president for the past six years.

In addition, the RA selected Arizona high school math teacher Dennis Van Roekel, NEA secretary-treasurer for the past five years, as the new Association vice president. And delegates elected Utah elementary teacher Lily Eskelsen, an NEA Executive Committee member, as secretary-treasurer for one year, the time remaining in Van Roekel's term.

In other voting, delegates gave three-year terms on the NEA Executive Committee to Mike Billirakis of Ohio and Marsha Smith of Maryland.

The RA also approved Association policies on issues ranging from distance learning to federal legislative priorities, and approved a biennial budget of $266 million in the first year and $275 million in the second year.

And the Annual Meeting offered visiting reporters an update on where NEA stands on issues such as:

• Vouchers. Just before the 2002 RA, a bitterly divided U.S. Supreme Court ruled by 5-4 that Cleveland's tuition voucher program does not amount to official sponsorship of religion, which is prohibited by the First Amendment of the Constitution.

  The court "can say that vouchers are constitutional-just as the Court said for 60 years that segregated schools were constitutional-but that does not make it right," Bob Chase told delegates. The truth is, he said, that high-quality private schools are highly selective and have long waiting lists, and that "for-profit schools that sprout up to chase voucher money have an appalling track record of incompetence, corruption, and outright abuse."

  Chase and NEA General Counsel Bob Chanin pledged that NEA will continue to challenge voucher programs in the courts of states that have rigorous church-state separation clauses in their state constitutions (For more, see Rights Watch).

• The Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA). RA delegates voted to allocate some $4 million to expand NEA member awareness of this federal law, help shape its implementation, and advocate for needed ESEA funding and improvements.

  The law, reauthorized and expanded last winter, calls for stringent student testing provisions, sanctions for schools that fail to display "adequate yearly progress," and strong quality provisions for teachers and Title I paraeducators.

  NEA Executive Committee member Becky Pringle stressed that ESEA "is good in that it spotlights education," but warned that it "sets up" resource-starved struggling schools for failure.

  "We need to maximize the good, minimize the bad, and eliminate the ugly" in the new law, Pringle declared. She said that NEA will help state and local affiliates contend with ESEA provisions, while assisting members in "navigating this confusing law."

• Health care costs. The RA reaffirmed support for a current joint program of NEA and the American Federation of Teachers to "promote affordable high-quality health care for members and their families."

  "Health care is becoming more unaffordable with each passing year, impacting the bargaining process with increased premiums and copays and lower levels of coverage," said Massachusetts delegate Richard Shea.

• Social Security offsets. RA delegates also voted to step up NEA's campaign for repeal of the Government Pension Offset and Windfall Elimination Provision, which reduce Social Security spousal, survivor, and earned retirement benefits of educators in 15 states where public employees do not pay into Social Security.

  The RA passed new business items calling for the creation of a GPO/WEP training/action cadre in each state and for coalition work with other public service unions to repeal these provisions.

• A voice in curricula. The RA reaffirmed NEA's opposition to "schoolwide curricular programs in which the local teachers' association is not consulted and the faculty of the affected school(s) does not vote." A new business item requires NEA to identify locally negotiated contract language that helps prevent district adoption of highly scripted programs that "discourage the exercise of informed professional teacher judgment."

  "When I started teaching, every day was a challenge that motivated me to reach the depths of creativity," said California delegate John Cromshow. But today, he said, too many teachers do simply as they are told, "working on a page of a teachers' manual written by someone who has not set foot in the classroom in recent memory and works far removed from any student."

• Quality educators, quality schools. Delegates passed quality-related new business items requiring NEA to initiate a program to encourage recruitment and retention of new teachers; develop "living wage" strategies for the retention of education support professionals; gather data about the employment status and working conditions of substitute teachers; and investigate "innovative efforts to recruit, train, and retain" quality subs.

  An underlying message: In public education, quality is everybody's business. "We must work as teams to improve the education of our students," emphasized 2002 NEA ESP of the Year JoAnn Falk, a central office secretary and local leader in Pueblo, Colorado (For more, see People).

  Another RA message: Quality education is for everybody's kids.

  "We must work within an environment that recognizes that we are one in the fight for a quality public education for all students, not just some," said Reg Weaver in his first speech as president-elect. "We will experience enormous success if we collaborate with others who are in support of public education. We can't do it alone."

Oklahomans Win Health Care

Working with the broad-based Oklahoma Education Coalition, Oklahoma Education Association (OEA) members have won legislation that finally provides fully paid individual health insurance for public education employees. Until this summer, educators received just $69 monthly from the state-and in some cases a little extra from school districts-toward their $227 monthly premium.

The new law, signed by Governor Frank Keating in May, raised state and district coverage to 75 percent of a teacher's individual premium on July 1, and will boost it to 100 percent on July 1, 2003. Education support professionals received 100 percent individual coverage as of July 1.

As the 2002 legislative session convened, Oklahoma's state budget deficit was the worst in 15 years and state agencies were bracing for double-digit budget cutbacks. Yet only four state lawmakers voted against the health care bill.

Small wonder. OEA's action plan included a sustained, escalating public relations campaign; intensive political organizing; and a series of town hall meetings, sponsored by the Oklahoma Education Coalition, uniting 12 highly respected education organizations.

Scores of reporters covered the town hall sessions, resulting in positive coverage from "border to border." More than 7,000 educators and supporters flocked to the meetings to show support and voice opinions.

Later, a successful Lobby Day attracted roughly 3,000 education employees from across the state. This group was present when the state House unanimously passed the initial version of the health care legislation.

"This victory proves that OEA members who become politically active can make a big difference," says OEA President Carolyn Crowder. "They have advanced the teaching profession for themselves and for their fellow members."

Press Clips

"Stop for a moment and take a look inside the minds of America's teachers-the people who spend more time with your kids than you do. More than 9,000 of them arrived in Dallas this week as elected delegates to the National Education Association, the nation's largest teacher union.

"Collectively, they fear that the growing voucher movement might make public schools poor. They worry that emphasis on standardized test scores robs the classroom of creativity.

"Individually, they love to talk about why they chose to teach and what motivates them to get out of bed each morning and face the parents and principals who demand so much of them.

"'It's not the money; it's my soul,' said Gail Washburn, a veteran art teacher from Louisville, Kentucky..."

--"Teachers Say Rewards Make Tough Job Worth the
Trouble," Dallas Morning News, July 4, 2002

Your Dues Did It

NEAFT September 11 Fund Report

Last autumn, NEA and the American Federation of Teachers created the NEAFT September 11 Fund to assist children and other affected family members of the victims of the September 11 terrorist attacks and their aftermath. Money was then raised from NEA and AFT appropriations, state and local affiliates, and the generous donations of individual union members.

By mid-2002, the fund's expenditures were winding down. As of June 11, the fund had disbursed $765,000 to 227 individuals and their families for basic expenses such as travel to funerals, grief counseling, financial planning, rent or mortgage assistance, health care, and higher education expenses.

Expenditures, for the most part, were divided equally among all recipients, with an initial check of $1,000 and a second payment of $1,825-for a total of $2,825. In addition, families of four union members who perished on two of the crashed airliners received another $2,500 in death benefits, making their total $5,325.

Other fund payments included $21,000 sent directly to replace photocopiers in blast-damaged New York City schools.

"All across America teachers and education support professionals did everything they could to shepherd our children and young people through this tragedy," said outgoing NEA President Bob Chase. "And the NEAFT September 11 Fund provided us with a unique opportunity to do something equally special for the children and the affected families of the victims."