Put an End to ‘Broken Promises’

Delegates to the NEA Representative Assembly send a strong message to lawmakers—do your part by funding great public schools.

by NEA Today staff writer

They sent thousands of e-mails to members of Congress, raised more than $1.3 million to support pro-public education political candidates, and marched two miles to the office of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to protest his budget cuts.

Mostly, the more than 8,000 activist delegates to the 2005 NEA Representative Assembly (RA) in Los Angeles sent a message with their words and their deeds: legislators need to step up and properly fund public schools, just as teachers and education support professionals are pushing to meet higher standards.

NEA President Reg Weaver, who was elected without opposition to another three-year term, hammered home the theme, beginning with a keynote address in which he outlined a six-point “education covenant” between educators and the public (for more, see page 7).

Two days later, delegates raised the cry again during a 90-minute rally on the floor of the RA when delegates from all 50 states joined Weaver in denouncing inadequate school funding.

“Teachers are tired of elected officials ‘acting’ like they care about students when it’s election time and then turning their backs on campaign promises later,” Weaver said. “Broken promises hurt our kids.”

Delegates responded, leaping to the aid of their counterparts in California, who are waging a pitched battle against the governor over precipitous budget cuts that threaten to slash school funding by a whopping $25,000 per classroom.

Schwarzenegger supports several ballot initiatives to be placed before voters in November that would further curtail school funding and undercut employee rights. But potential voters are being urged to reject the measures as part of an all-out blitz by the California Teachers Association (CTA). Delegates in Los Angeles, many of whom face budget cuts at home, made sure to leave their mark on Golden State politics. Among them, they wrote some 40,000 postcards to friends and colleagues in California, urging them to vote against the ballot initiatives.

Then they took to the streets. After the rally on the RA floor, about 600 delegates marched out of the Convention Center and down Wilshire Boulevard to Schwarzenegger’s Los Angeles office to deliver resolutions opposing the governor’s actions. Walking through the city streets as Angelenos idled in their cars, the demonstrators drew applause and supportive honks from onlookers—and this comment from a Los Angeles police officer: “Our kids appreciate it!”

When the RA ended, delegates set to work bringing Weaver’s six-point covenant to life in their communities. Weaver urged delegates to take these actions: transform students into citizens who will make a contribution; elect policy makers who will help fix and fund No Child Left Behind; stand with the nation’s ESPs in their battles against privatization; and ensure that the lessons taught in the nation’s classrooms are interesting and enriching. He also called on the nation to treat educators as the professionals they are and provide fair pay that reflects their professionalism, and to make sure there is a qualified teacher in every classroom.

“Insist upon the credibility of your colleagues,” Weaver added. “Assist and support them, but urge their continued growth and commitment to our profession.”

NEA members will be making even more noise in the year ahead. Weaver said that NEA gained more than 92,000 new members in the past three years, including 45,000 in the last year alone. “We are strong and getting stronger,” he said.

Find complete coverage of the Representative Assembly .

RA ‘05: Part inspiration, mostly perspiration

More than 8,000 delegates packed the Los Angeles Convention Center for NEA’s four-day Representative Assembly (RA). They were treated to inspiring speeches, but for the most part, delegates poured their energy into sharing successful strategies and shaping NEA’s agenda for the next year. During NEA’s 84th Representative Assembly, delegates:

Committed to action. Delegates honed the Association’s resolutions and legislative agenda and adopted more than 50 new business items (NBIs), setting the course for the year ahead. Recognizing the threats to retirement security posed by privatization schemes for Social Security and pension plans, delegates passed a half-dozen NBIs committing NEA to ratcheting up its work on the issue. One of them called upon NEA to “oppose all legislative efforts to abolish defined-benefit plans and replace them with 401(k)-styled individual accounts.” Retired Massachusetts member Bob Brousseau, who has 19 years of experience as a retirement board trustee, warned fellow delegates: “We are in a war.”

Other adopted NBIs included measures aimed at improving opportunities for English-Language Learners, protecting students’ free speech rights, and making health care “an organizational priority” by creating a task force to advise state and local affiliates.

Elected new leaders. Weaver, who was wrapping up a three-year term as President, ran unopposed for a second term and was declared elected. Others who ran unopposed and were declared elected: Dennis Van Roekel (NEA Vice President), Marsha Smith and Mike Billirakis (Executive Committee), and Sally Pestana (at-large candidate for NEA Board of Directors for higher education). Elected as ESP at-large members to the NEA Board of Directors were Art Goff, Ray Heideman, Veronica Henderson, Rebecca Marks, and Sharon Scott.

Sent a message (or five). More than 17,000 messages were fired off to federal and state lawmakers at a Legislative Action Center set up in the Convention Center. NEA’s Great Public Schools (GPS) Booth also received heavy traffic. Delegates visiting the booth honed their knowledge of NEA’s GPS initiative, and many signed up to become GPS activists back home. The components of NEA’s GPS initiative are closing the student achievement gaps, raising the pay of all teachers and ESPs, building membership, reaching out to minority communities, promoting grassroots action, and fixing and funding the so-called No Child Left Behind law.

Passed a bylaw change. Following a spirited floor debate, delegates—by a margin of 4,943 to 2,664—passed a bylaw amendment that allows the NEA Executive Committee “to affiliate an organization that does not elect its own officers by secret ballot if certain conditions are met.” The vote allows NEA’s New York affiliate, NEA/NY, to consider a possible merger with the AFT-affiliated New York State United Teachers.

Recharged their batteries. Delegates got a dose of inspiration from speeches by NEA 2005 ESP of the Year Kathleen Lange, 2005 Teacher of the Year Jason Kamras, and Cheryl Brown Henderson (below), recipient of the NEA Friend of Education Award. The daughter of Oliver Brown, plaintiff in the landmark Brown v. Board of Education case, Henderson urged delegates to “internalize the premise” of equality embodied in the case, saying “No piece of legislation, no Supreme Court decision, can do the work that has to be done on the ground.”

Photo top: calvin knight/NEA; bottom: rick runion/NEA

Photos: Scott iskowitz/nea