It wasn't lost in the mail:
The National Education Association's convention began Saturday. No one from the Obama administration is set to speak.
But in a sign of the Obama administration’s strained relations with two of its most powerful political allies, no federal official was scheduled to speak at either convention this month, partly because union officials feared that administration speakers would face heckling.
These people say the Pledge Allegiance every day of the week - who else can say that?
Ravitch Blasts 'So-Called Reforms'
"The current ‘education reform’ movement is pushing bad ideas," Ravitch said. "It wants to end tenure and seniority, to silence teachers’ unions, to privatize large sectors of public education. Don’t let it happen!"
Ravitch said NCLB set an impossible standard when it declared that 100 percent of children will be proficient. "Thousands of schools have been stigmatized as failing schools because they could not reach a goal that no state, no nation, and no district has ever reached," she said, so NCLB has "created a rhetoric of failure and paved the way for privatization."
"Public education," Ravitch declared, "is the backbone of this democracy, and we cannot turn it over to privateers."
Teachers text, too ~
But delegates also had opportunities to back these words with actions. On Monday, NEA President Dennis Van Roekel asked delegates to text "SPEAKUP" to 77007 to connect with NEA’s grassroots effort on key issues. Representatives from all 50 states marched up to the stage on Tuesday to deliver thousands of postcards addressed to Education Secretary Arne Duncan outlining the changes they want to see in the ESEA reauthorization.
If the administration does not rethink its policy, says Van Roekel, it will find itself on a collision course with teachers and their unions
No school? That's not cool.
It's not a good idea to upset your teacher -
MIAMI — Miami-Dade schools officials are preparing for widespread teacher absences on Monday, a district spokesman said.
Late Friday, rumors swirled that many teachers would not attend school to protest proposed legislation on teacher pay and tenure.
"Wow, wow, that's incredible," said Gov. Charlie Crist upon hearing of the plan.
The largest union’s meeting opened here on Saturday to a drumbeat of heated rhetoric, with several speakers calling for Mr. Duncan’s resignation, hooting delegates voting for a resolution criticizing federal programs for "undermining public education," and the union’s president summing up 18 months of Obama education policies by saying, "This is not the change I hoped for."
What happened, Obama?