According to Phyllis Schlafly’s Education Reporter: “The resolution went on to lay out 13 charges against Duncan, including focusing too heavily on charter schools, failing to respect and honor the professionalism of teachers, weighing in on local hiring decisions, and focusing too heavily on competitive grants (i.e. Race to the Top).”
The resolution was endorsed by the union’s board of directors, which gave it its highest priority. The union has been screaming bloody murder over the lay-off of teachers and support staff due to budget cuts. But even the NEA has had to trim its own budget by $14 million by downsizing its national staff.
As usual, the delegates passed their statist resolutions, which always call for an expansion of government education and restrictions against parental rights and educational freedom. They want our failing public schools to now get involved with Early Childhood Education so that they can begin corrupting the minds of American children as soon as they emerge from the womb. The resolution states:
The National Education Association supports early childhood education programs in public schools for children from birth through age eight. The Association also supports a high-quality program of transition from home and/or preschool to the public kindergarten or first grade. The Association also believes that early childhood education programs should include a full continuum of services for parents/guardians and children, including child-care, child development, developmentally appropriate and diversity-based curricula, special education, and appropriate bias-free screening devices.
In other words, the sooner the Satanic schools can get hold of the children, the sooner they will own them body and soul. They will be turned into intellectual cripples, totally dependent on the government for just about everything. All at the expense of the taxpayer, who is expected to approve of all of this without any complaints. And you can be sure that some form of sex education will be included in the curriculum. The resolution on Sex Education states:
Teachers and health professionals must be legally protected from censorship and lawsuits. … Such programs should include information on sexual abstinence, birth control, family planning, diversity of culture and diversity of sexual orientation and gender identification, sexually transmitted diseases, incest, sexual abuse, sexual harassment, and homophobia.
Why must teachers be immune from lawsuits, even though they may traumatize a child over his gender identification? In Lexington, Massachusetts, a father was jailed for objecting to his child being taught about homosexuality in kindergarten. The more power and immunity you give “educators” to corrupt the minds of their students, the more legal crimes they will commit.
When it comes to money, the NEA wants every cent they can get. Therefore, they strongly oppose any money going to voucher plans or tax credits for parents who may send their children to private schools. As for homeschooling, the NEA would just as well like to see homeschoolers go out of business. But since this is still a free country, the best they can do is simply pass a resolution, which states:
The [NEA] believes that home schooling programs based on parental choice cannot provide the student with a comprehensive education experience. [Such as drug trafficking.] When home schooling occurs, students enrolled must meet all state curricular requirements, including the taking and passing of assessments to ensure adequate academic progress. Home schooling should be limited to the children of the immediate family, with all expenses being borne by the parents/guardians. Instruction should be by persons who are licensed by the appropriate state education licensure agency, and a [dumbed down] curriculum approved by the state department of education should be used.
They also believe that homeschoolers should not be permitted to participate in any extra-curricular activities in the public schools, even though homeschoolers are obliged to pay taxes in support of public schools in their communities.
The NEA also wants the children of illegal immigrants to receive “financial aid and in-state tuition to state colleges and universities.” The NEA also favors an amnesty program for students who have resided in the United States for at least five years at the time of high school graduation and should be granted legal residency status, and allowed to become U.S. citizens.
The NEA also opposes competency tests for teachers as a “condition of employment, license retention, evaluation, placement, ranking, or promotion of licensed teachers.” In other words, incompetent teachers are protected for life against any means used to discover whether or not they are fit to teach in a classroom. And if the teacher is a communist and spewing Marxist propaganda, an NEA resolution states:
Academic freedom includes the rights of teachers and learners to explore and discuss divergent points of view. A teacher shall not be fired, transferred, reassigned, removed from his or her position or disciplined for refusing to suppress the freedom of expression rights of students…. Furthermore, teachers must be free to depart from mandated scripted learning programs, pacing charts, and classroom assessments without prejudice or punishment.
And so, in the interest of academic freedom, a teacher may promote socialism, hatred of capitalism, and encourage the adoption of diverse life-styles with no limits on his or her freedom. I know of teachers who have tried to teach intensive, systematic phonics in the classroom only to be told by the district “reading specialist” they could not do so. In other words, academic freedom applies only to the Left.
The NEA also favors all of the international institutions that would do away with American sovereignty. They support the International Court of Justice, the International Criminal Court, and all of the peace initiatives of the United Nations. And, of course, they support ObamaCare. Their resolution states:
The [NEA] believes that affordable, comprehensive health care, including prescription drug coverage, is the right of every resident. [That includes illegal aliens.] The Association supports the adoption of a single-payer health care plan for all residents of the United States, its territories, and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico.
The NEA is so far to the Left, socially and politically, and it has so much clout in Washington and the 50 state legislatures, that it might be considered a political party in and of itself. But it is attached to the Democrat Party with an unbreakable umbilical cord. It may have its disagreements with some Democrats who favor school reform, but its power can only be reduced by parents taking their children out of the public schools.
Some Republican candidates have called for the abolishment of the Department of Education, but that will not end the NEA’s power. Only the public’s abandonment of government education will finally reduce the NEA to national inconsequence.
