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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 3, 2002

Speech

Remarks By John Wilson,
Executive Director,
National Education Association
to the NEA Representative Assembly

Dallas, Texas

My friends, this is my second Representative Assembly as your executive director. And let me tell you, I have to be the luckiest guy in the world.

After all, I am executive director of an organization whose vital signs are just amazingly strong:

• Our membership is now 2.7 million and growing.
• Our finances are rock solid-we have a budget of $267 million and our assets exceed our liabilities by $79 million.
• And our staff is skilled, focused, and dedicated.

Please know this: For NEA staff members, this Association is much more than a paycheck. Working for NEA connects us with a cause greater than ourselves, a cause in which we passionately believe-the cause of a quality public education for every child in America.

When you move to Washington, D.C., as I have, one of the first things you find out when you meet new people is that it’s nothing like a small town in North Carolina. Folks in Washington, D.C., couldn’t care less who you are related to or who “your people” are. They want to know: A) who you work for, and B) what’s your position. It’s that kind of town.

I can’t tell you how proud it makes me to look them in the eye and say: “I work for America’s public school teachers and education support professionals-I’m the executive director of the National Education Association.

That feels good. Let me say it again: I work for America’s public school teachers and education support professionals.

So, our membership is climbing, our finances are in good shape, and our staff is on the ball. That means I, as executive director, can settle back in my La-Z-Boy recliner and sip mint juleps, right?

Wrong!

Why not?

Well, besides the fact that I don’t care all that much for mint juleps, here’s my response to the La-Z-Boy option.

Our members deserve better. The hard-working people who pay my salary and who sent you here to Dallas, Texas, to represent them, deserve better. That’s right. America’s teachers and ESPs flat out deserve better. That’s why we cannot rest.

They deserve better paychecks-the economic boom of the 1990s passed through the lives of most teachers and ESPs like a faint breeze.

They deserve better professional growth opportunities.

And they deserve better treatment; they deserve to be treated with respect.

As strong as we already are, for our members to achieve the respect they deserve, NEA is going to have to become even stronger. It is not enough that we maintain our strength; we must continue to build a stronger organization.

Two point seven million members are not enough-our aim is to reach three million by 2003.

Seven million dollars in our Fund for Children and Public Education is not enough-we need 25 million.

One hundred thousand cyber lobbyists sending emails to their members of Congress are not enough-we need one million.

At the bargaining table, in the political arena, and in school policymaking, we are going to have to become much more powerful.

And we must not shy away from the word “power.” As you Latin teachers know, the word “power” comes from the Latin root, potere, which means “to be able to.”

To be able to . . .

To be able to pay off your college loans or your home mortgage.

To be able to deepen your knowledge of your subject and sharpen your teaching techniques-to be able to become that great teacher, great secretary, great bus driver you know you can be.

To be able to transform a child into a lifetime learner, not just an efficient test taker.

To be able to say “no” to teaching to the test.

To be able to have a voice in the choice of the textbooks and technologies you will use, and the curricula you will teach.

That’s power. And the folks who say that power corrupts don’t get it - it’s the absence of power that really saps the will and kills our dreams.

Power isn’t such a bad thing if you don’t go crazy with it. Conversely, I can’t think of anything good to say about the absence of power-and indeed, the absence of power spawns anger, frustration, and disappointment within those who experience it. The absence of power drives good teachers out of our profession.

Do you happen to know any of our members who are angry, frustrated, or disappointed? You bet you do. There are lots of them.

These members of ours didn’t go into education to make the big bucks of an Enron executive, but neither did they take a vow of poverty. We went into education to make a difference in the lives of children, but we have been prevented from doing that-by class sizes that are too big, resources that are too scarce, paperwork that’s too burdensome, and professional support that’s too weak. And now, as if all that weren’t enough, the almighty standardized test has been imposed on us from on high. Believe me, I’ve heard more than one teacher say, “I’ve put up with a lot in my career, but having to teach to the test is really the last straw.”

Yes, our members deserve better. But here is the cruel truth: Just because folks deserve better doesn’t mean they’ll get it.

Let me be perfectly blunt.

We have put up with too much for too long.

The ex-slave Frederick Douglass was absolutely right: “Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have found out the exact measure of injustice and wrong that will continue . . .”

Well, with reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, the politicians, both state and federal, are in our classrooms dictating orders to us. Are we going to put up with it?

I am a professional teacher-a veteran of 22 years in the classroom. I know how to teach reading, indeed I pride myself on my ability to teach a child how to read-especially a child who has been unable to learn how to read. And you know what I don’t need? Some politician telling me how to teach reading! Just as you don’t need some politician telling you how to teach math or science or history.

I know how to assess whether students are learning or not. I agree with Michele Forman, 2001 National Teacher of the Year, who talks about the fact that teachers are using some of the most research-based instructional strategies such as Padeia, the Socratic Method, High-order Thinking Skills, then some politician comes along and mandates we use the crudest form of assessment - a standardized test. Teachers have been testing students forever - we don’t need a politician telling us how to test.

Now, my friends, you and I, as activists and leaders, need to convince our colleagues that silence and passivity will not protect them. If they-if we-ever want to have professional standing, then we are going to have to get involved in the political process like we have never been involved before.

Again, I must be blunt. We are going to have to convince our members that in a democracy, powerlessness is self-imposed. I know that is very painful thing to hear, but it’s true. Powerlessness is self-imposed.

I also know there are members who say: “I pay my dues to NEA, and I expect you folks to look after my interests.” To which I respond, “You are the NEA! You are a member of an association, of a union. Membership, like citizenship, is not a spectator sport. You are a participant. After all, we are not the Greyhound Bus Company-our motto is not, “Leave the driving to us.”

Besides, politics doesn’t work that way. It is not like putting your money into the slot and out pops a soda. And you know who understands this better than almost anyone? The members of the National Rifle Association. That is why the NRA flexes such tremendous power in Washington, D.C., and in every state capital. They understand that it takes more than Charlton Heston’s charm or their lobbyists’ arm-twisting to influence politicians. It takes every member of the association being actively engaged in political action-it takes every member making sure that elected officials know where we stand and who we will support.

Power in politics means being able to put the fear of losing the next election into every politician.

Did we do that when the Congress was debating ESEA last year? Were Senators' and Representatives' offices flooded with letters, emails, faxes, and phone calls from our members? No, they were not-let’s be honest. There was a trickle, but not the torrent we needed. But believe me, if Congress had been considering gun control legislation, NRA members would have been all over them like fleas on a dog.

Do we care about our profession, our schools, and our kids as much as the NRA members do about their guns?

Of course we do! Well, then, the time has come for us to prove it. We’re better than the NRA. We are the NEA. Our cause is a noble one.

Fortunately, the battle of ESEA is far from over. And what’s different about this ESEA is that decisions made in your state legislatures will greatly determine the law’s implementation. We can neutralize the bad; leverage the good; and mobilize for change, if, if we activate our members.

Funding decisions made in Washington, D.C. will also greatly affect ESEA’s implementation. But frankly, in Washington, D.C., today, there is more pressure to repeal the federal estate tax than there is to fully fund ESEA’s mandates.

We’ve got our work cut out for us, my friends.

I know that at the end of the day the last thing a teacher or support professional wants to do is sit down at their computer or kitchen table and write a letter to their elected representatives. But that’s what we’ve got to do if we want professional standing. We’ve got to speak truth to power.

And you don’t have to wait until you get back home to do so. Right outside this hall is a Legislative Action Center where you can go, and via email, give your Representatives and Senators in Congress a piece of your mind. As we speak, the leadership in the House of Representatives, energized by the Supreme Court decision, is reviving efforts to pass federal voucher legislation. Let them know what you think about that. Just because the Court has ruled vouchers constitutional does not make them wise public policy.

We must also help elect pro-public education candidates to public office. Party affiliation is irrelevant. We’ve always said we’d ride the donkey or the elephant. It’s where a candidate stands on the issues that matters to us. I know that on Saturday after a long week of work, the last thing a teacher or support professional wants to do is walk their neighborhood, knock on doors, and tell folks about the pro-public education candidates we support. But that’s what we’ve got to do if we want professional standing.

As educators, we’ve got to connect with our friends, our neighbors, our fellow citizens. There are 2.7 million NEA members. Imagine if each one us spoke to 10 people about the candidates running in the upcoming election. What an impact we would have! All of the polls show that Americans trust educators because they know that we care about the children.

No teacher or support professional member wants to work a phonebank after school, but that is what we have to do if we want professional standing.

Our PAC-the Fund for Children and Public Education-is very important, and I urge all of you to empty your wallets right into it. I will empty mine. But we must never forget that our PAC is a means to an end, not an end unto itself. And it was never intended as a substitute for grassroots power, because there is no substitute for grassroots power in American politics unless you are very, very, very rich.

Now, I am at the close of my speech where I am supposed to say to you: I’ve challenged you and I am confident you are up to the challenge, and you, in turn, feel uplifted and go home happy. But I am not going to say that because I don’t want you going home happy.

I want you to go home agitated about the professional disrespect the politicians have shown us and our colleagues. I want you to go home thinking, “We’ve put up with too much for too long.” I want you to go home determined to channel the negative energy that’s in the anger and frustration of our members into positive political engagement. I want you to go home feeling proud to be a member of the National Education Association.

Friends, we are going to have to work our collective behinds off for pro-public education legislation and candidates.

Can we do it? That’s up to you. But this I promise you: the NEA staff will support you every step of the way-your cause is our cause.

Thank you all very much.

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The National Education Association is the nation’s largest professional employee organization, representing 2.6 million elementary and secondary teachers, higher education faculty, education support professionals, school administrators, retired educators, and students preparing to become teachers.