News Release

NEA Statement on President's Plan to Spend
Hurricane Relief Dollars on Voucher Initiative

Last night, the Administration released a proposal to funnel millions of hurricane relief dollars to private school vouchers. Below is a responsive statement by Reg Weaver, President of the National Education Association (NEA):


(WASHINGTON) -- "At this time, the most urgent need is to restore a sense of normalcy for the more than 300,000 students displaced by the storm. It is just simply not the time to open up a policy debate on vouchers. We should be focusing our efforts on meeting the needs of these students, not opening up a debate on vouchers.

"Vouchers do nothing to solve the problems created by Hurricane Katrina. Vouchers are a flawed and divisive approach that undermines public education. It is opportunistic and inappropriate to raise the voucher debate at this time. Vouchers don’t repair or rebuild neighborhood schools that have been devastated by this storm or provide traumatized children with access to comprehensive services they and their families need. We need to look at real, long-term solutions - not risky band-aid fixes that won’t do anything to help these kids find the normalcy they’ll need to help them heal.

"NEA will continue to work with leaders in Congress in a bipartisan way to ensure that the real needs of students are met -- for classrooms, educators, textbooks, school supplies, counseling and in many cases clothes."

September 16, 2005

For More Information Contact:

Denise Cardinal, NEA Public Relations, (202) 822-7239

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The National Education Association is the nation’s largest professional employee organization, representing more than 2.7 million elementary and secondary teachers, higher education faculty, education support professionals, school administrators, retired educators, and students preparing to become teachers.