Word: nea
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...explained by looking at the NEA’s own political station. It’s an organization that prefers to work in state capitals—while those routinely collectivized under the label “gov jocks” at Harvard might overlook the powerhouse of the NEA in glances at national politics, it’s a good bet that you can find an NEA satellite’s office within three blocks of any state House. And on a community-by-community basis, the same school board system that allows the religious right to hijack school...
...would be wrong to think of the NEA as the American Medical Association for teachers, one that would assure the teaching credentials of its members or insist on better training. Shirking resemblance to a professional association, the NEA follows the union model forwarded by industrial labor. And for those who never expected Jimmy Hoffa to admonish unionists for lacking pride in the quality of their products, it’s pure fantasy to expect the NEA to pay more attention to the quality of students’ education than teachers’ salaries and benefits packages...
Nonetheless, that’s the tune Dems keep playing. To hear it from the mouth of NEA President Reg Weaver’s public comments, you’d think the NEA was all about education reform, standing up for children and arguing against byzantine labor rules that protect bad teachers and keep good teachers where they are. Weaver has invoked imagery of his union “fighting for children and public education” in nine out of ten of his op-ed pieces by an informal count. Indeed, whenever a word is said against the NEA...
...NEA’s representation of the majority of American teachers is thus a curious thing. Just a glance at the NEA’s operations might be enough to confirm this: Teachers who want benefits and tenure in most districts must join the NEA; the union has a male-heavy leadership in a profession filled by women; and, more tellingly, the organization has done everything it can to obstruct even basic education reforms on federal and state levels. The union was outraged with NCLB and Democrats, who flocked to support the law after Sen. Edward M. Kennedy...
...being attacked is not because something went terribly wrong with the implementation of the bill—on the contrary, it’s working exactly as planned, coercing states (with however much disregard for local hardships) to educate children better or forego federal dollars, an idea that the NEA has consistently opposed...