NEA and the Election
Ben Smith blogs:
Somewhat undermining the claim that Obama’s support for charter schools poses a major challenge to the teachers unions, the National Education Association blasted out a post-debate press release praising him.
I think this is really neither here nor there. It’s true that Obama is a charter school supporter, and it’s also true that the major teachers unions are generally hostile to expanding charter schools. So if you want an example of Obama taking on an interest group that generally favors the Democratic Party, charter schools fits the bill. That the NEA is nonetheless strongly backing Obama, has a lot to do with the fact that there’s a second candidate in the race. That candidate’s proposed “spending freeze” would entail very large cuts in real per pupil spending on elementary and secondary education, while also cutting early childhood education and children’s health initiatives — saddling teachers with a tougher task and less money with which to get the job done. Under the circumstances, there’s nobody else for the NEA to support. The NEA backed Hillary Clinton during the primaries, in part because of Obama’s insistence on sticking with school reform rhetoric that didn’t help in courting their support.
CORRECTION: The NEA did not endorse during the primary. The AFT, the other national teachers union, did endorse Clinton as did the New Hampshire chapter of the NEA.
21 Responses to “NEA and the Election”
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October 17th, 2008 at 1:44 pm
The NEA didn’t endorse until its July convention–long after Clinton had announced her dropping out.
October 17th, 2008 at 2:03 pm
I would like to see a discussion about public education and democracy. Why do we have public school in the first place? What was that struggle all about?
Do we believe that everyone deserves an equal chance to succeed, or only those fortunate enough to have proactive parents? Does our society (not to be confused with economy) improve with a higher overall level of education, or do we think the educated elite can drag up the uneducated masses?
October 17th, 2008 at 2:52 pm
And, of course, this all started with McCain’s claim that Obama has bucked his party insufficiently. If the failure of the NEA and the AFT to reject Obama in October 2008 is taken as proof that he didn’t buck them sufficiently, then obviously the fact that McCain has the Republican nomination proves he didn’t buck the Republicans enough. Mind you, he genuinely didn’t buck them enough …
October 17th, 2008 at 2:54 pm
And John McCain supports the deregulation of teacher preparation. What do you think his whole “troops for teachers” schpiel was about? Obama seems to support the professionalization of teachers and making sure that all students have access to fully licensed and fully qualified teachers and that’s probably why the NEA supports him.
October 17th, 2008 at 6:04 pm
Federal budgets are an insignificant portion of local school budgets. The idea the federal spending has nay impact on teacher salaries is completely without any basis in fact.
October 17th, 2008 at 8:56 pm
More importantly no politician is completely independent from interest groups. That because this is a Democratic Republic. McCain wants us to believe that he has a special moral quality of being independent from interest groups even if he needs their support and does them favors. I am sure that Obama wants us to believe the same about him, but it is ridicules. The real question is whose special interests and ideological supporters do you like best. Right now I prefer the Democratic parties power centers for now, but maybe in a few years I will decide to change my mind.
October 17th, 2008 at 8:59 pm
Freedom fry, teacher certification is a cynical and deleterious policy that protects inept teachers at the expense of children. I honestly can’t even take the defense of certification seriously, and wonder if its proponents are simply 1) unreflective or 2) self-serving and cynical. Mind you, I’m a MAN OF THE LEFT, and I desperately want to see Democrats throw the education unions overboard. Don’t take my word for it, take Nicholas Kristof’s:
http://select.nytimes.com/2006/04/30/opinion/30kristof.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
My God, Phillips Exeter doesn’t need certification but public schools in the South Bronx do? Have you no shame? Think it through. Seriously.
October 17th, 2008 at 11:05 pm
Freedom Fry,
Given that our military is doing a lot with the reconstruction of Iraq infrastructure, I’m sure that many of them have teaching experience. Teaching high school isn’t an easy job- it requires strong knowledge of your subject area, a talent for explaining things and inspiring people to learn, interpersonal skills, and so forth. I’m not confident that teacher certification gives people any of that knowledge or skills.
I’ve had work experience working with schools in East Coast inner cities, African villages and the rural Midwest, and I know a lot of high school teachers personally. Most of them are salt of the earth types, and many of them agree that teacher certification is meaningless and useless.
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