Fighting Back With Action

In a critical presidential election year, more than 9,000 delegates to the NEA Representative Assembly began showing what it really means to flex their political muscle.

Delegates at this year’s Annual Meeting and Representative Assembly (RA) showed they know how to do “activism” right. Preparing for one of the most important political seasons in the Association’s history, thousands heeded the call to mobilize before even leaving Washington, D.C.   

They signed up in droves to host house parties in September, part of NEA’s national effort to let people know what’s happening in public schools and get their help to make schools better.

NEA President Reg Weaver kicked off the call to mobilize with a down-home message in basic organizing. In his Fourth of July RA keynote address, he urged every NEA member to “give me five!”— recruit five new members, register five new voters, work five full days to elect pro-public education candidates, and spend five minutes explaining to a parent or community member what needs to be done to raise student achievement for all children in the nation’s public schools.

“Team NEA,” he roared, “we are the foot soldiers of democracy’s foundation—and we’re on the move.”

Delegates proved he was right.

On September 22, NEA members, such as Marion Perry of Franklin, Indiana, said they will be hosting parties in libraries, veterans’ posts, churches, public parks, schools—and hundreds of living rooms. The invitees will be educators, family members, neighbors, and anyone else with an interest in public education.

For her part, Perry, an English teacher, plans to invite local officials, church ministers, parents, the mayor, and the local newspaper editor.  “Many of our officials send their kids to private schools,” she says. “When they hear ‘private,’ a lot of people think that’s the best. We need to tell them about the good things happening in our public schools and why that’s where we need to invest.” She thinks her party can lead to better newspaper coverage and persuade more parents to volunteer in the schools.

Others will be sharing stories from their schools and classrooms about the real-world consequences of the so-called No Child Left Behind law (NCLB).

Tamara Bailey, a fourth-grade teacher from Omaha, Nebraska, says, “The only part of NCLB we know is the testing part—and that’s the part that stresses us out. They give us memos that say, ‘Don’t teach to the test,’ but then they tell us to teach the standards on the test and we really don’t have any time in the school year to teach anything else!” 

Delegates did more than compare notes with each other about this flawed legislation. Over the course of the six-day meeting, they sent more than 9,000 e-mails to Congress and state legislators, urging support for revisions to NCLB—and expressing concern about other issues such as IDEA, Social Security offset provisions, affordable prescription drugs, higher education, and the Patriot Act.

As always, members found fun and imaginative ways to raise money for political action. One of this year’s most popular fund-raising items was a CD recorded by NEA Secretary-Treasurer Lily Eskelsen entitled, No Child’s Behind Left and Other Random Acts of Music. Eskelsen teased the delegates with a taste of the CD, singing her “Ode to Adequate Yearly Progress,” part of which goes like this:

One test is all we need to know about
who’s above and who’s below…
Drill those kids like little robots…
If we have to test their butts off,
there’ll be no child’s behind left…

Delegates take up NEA policy, plot course for activist year

During four days of business, RA delegates set a yearlong course for an organization of 2.7 million preK–graduate school employees, retired educators, and Student Program members. Here’s a snapshot of some of the big issues tackled.

Teacher quality. Delegates gave an enthusiastic boost to the Association’s teacher quality agenda. They unanimously approved a new business item that puts NEA on record as opposing federal funding for the American Board for Certification of Teacher Excellence (ABCTE), an organization that wants all states to offer a teaching credential to anyone who can pass a computer-based test and federal background check.

At a briefing for delegates, John Wilson, NEA executive director, said ABCTE’s agenda sends the wrong message to parents, taxpayers, policy makers, and even those students considering a teaching career. “The message is that you don’t need any formal preparation to become a teacher,” he said. “You don’t need to be guided or assessed by experienced educators before you enter a classroom. Everything you need to know about child development, how learning occurs, content knowledge, content-specific pedagogy, and more can be summarized and gauged by a computer-based test. The message is that as long as you have not been convicted of a felony, we welcome you to the teaching profession.”

Achievement gap. The RA adopted a report calling for more study on issues affecting the achievement gap. The report by NEA’s Professional Standards and Practices Committee made the point that closing the achievement gap between many students of color and their white peers requires greater support for strategies that boost student achievement. These include smaller class sizes, teacher training, increased parental involvement, enhanced early childhood and after-school services, updated textbooks and materials, and adequate support for children and families outside of school.

Early childhood education, charter school accountability, and more. Delegates amended a policy statement on early childhood education to reinforce the Association’s belief that prekindergarten teachers should be fully certified, and they voted to support access to higher education, financial aid, and in-state tuition for undocumented students. Delegates also  approved resolutions supporting more accountability for charter schools and stronger anti-bullying policies and programs. 

Help for state affiliates. Delegates made a commitment to NEA’s fight for public education by extending a $5 special dues increase to help state affiliates with ballot measures and legislative crises and to support national and state affiliate media campaigns.  In addition, delegates voted to increase the dues support for these efforts by $1 per year for five years.

Inspiration. Delegates got it from the speeches of Teacher of the Year Kathleen Mellor, a middle school teacher from North Kingstown, Rhode Island; from ESP of the Year Allyson “Sunny” Story,  who works with special needs students in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and from Friend of Education recipient Marian Wright Edelman, founder of the Children’s Defense Fund.

Leadership elections. Three members of the NEA Executive Committee were elected.  Michael Marks, a high school dramatic arts and debate teacher from Hattiesburg, Mississippi, and Rebecca “Becky” Pringle, a physical science teacher from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, were each re-elected to three-year terms.  Mark Cebulski, a social studies teacher from Cedarburg, Wisconsin, was elected to fill a two-year term after being appointed to a one-year term in August 2003.