At the National Education Association’s convention, held last July in San Diego, retiring general counsel of the organization, Bob Chanin, in his swan-song speech to the union’s faithful, asked the rhetorical question, “Why are these conservative and right-wing b*****ds picking on the NEA and its affiliates?”
And then he explained why: “NEA and its affiliates are effective advocates because we have power, and we have power because there are more than 3.2 million people who are willing to pay us hundreds of millions of dollars in dues each year.” And a good deal of that money is used to back political candidates who will do the NEA’s bidding.
In fact, the NEA is the single largest union in the Democratic Party, and its interests coincide with the interests of the far left-wing of the Party. All you have to do is read the resolutions passed at their convention to see where the so-called teachers stand in the battle between the Left and the Right. Of course, there is a percentage of conservative teachers among the membership who must keep a low profile if they wish to maintain their careers in the government school system.
By the way, I’m probably “b*****d” number one in Mr. Chanin’s eyes, since it was I who first blew the whistle on the ultra left-wing union with my book NEA: Trojan Horse in American Education, published in 1984. The NEA legal department bought 10 copies of the book when it first came out. They went through it with a fine-tooth comb in the hope of finding some error or misstatement. Of course, they found nothing, for I simply quoted NEA publications which were quite frank about where they stood on all of the issues that concerned parents.
If the resolutions passed at the July 2009 convention are any indication of where the NEA is headed ideologically, it might consier calling itself the Communist Party of the USA. First, it should be noted that one of the most important planks in the Communist Manifesto calls for a government education system. The indoctrination of children is always vital for the continuance of a socialist, communist, or fascist system. Besides, tyrants love to be adored by innocent, brainwashed children too young to discern good from evil.
Here’s a summary of some of the resolutions passed at this last convention: The NEA favors gay marriage in all 50 states. It opposes any state-mandated choice or parental option plans. It supports early childhood education programs in the public schools from birth through age eight. It supports a single-payer health plan for every resident of the United States — residents include all 15 million illegal immigrants. The NEA urges its members to become “politically involved and to support the political action committees of the Association and its affiliates.” It favors statehood for the District of Columbia. It also favors multiculturalism, diversity, family planning, and reproductive freedom otherwise known as abortion.
It supports sex education. “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.” Do our kids really need all of this?
The NEA also believes that “every child should have direct and confidential access to comprehensive health, social, and psychological programs and services.” By now, over four million ADD and ADHD children are given Ritalin each day to enable them to be “educated” in their classrooms. Some schools even have their own clinics. Yet the association believes that “education employees who are not licensed medical personnel should be protected from liability if they are required to administer medication or perform medical services.” What do you think would happen to you if you tried practicing medicine without a license?
On home schooling, the teachers union believes that such schooling “based on parental choice cannot provide the student with a comprehensive education experience…. Instruction should be by persons who are licensed by the appropriate state education licensure agency, and a curriculum approved by the state department of education should be used.”
Since when does a labor union have the authority to tell parents how to educate their own children? The NEA is first and foremost a labor union. It gave up its professional status decades ago. Meanwhile, several million home-schooling parents have proven that they can provide better education for their children than the government schools and their unionized educators.
And of course the NEA favors Global Education and awareness of Global Climate Change. As for freedom of religion, the association opposes any federal legislation or mandate that would require school districts to schedule a moment of silence.
A moment of silence. Something we all could use.
