I am shocked. Shocked.
Posted on 07/05/2004 1:08:54 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
WASHINGTON - The National Education Association, the nation's largest union, endorsed Democrat John Kerry (news - web sites) for president Monday, the final touch in its campaign to drive up school spending and reshape the biggest education law in decades.
The NEA, a 2.7-million member group composed mainly of teachers, is out to advance its agenda on everything from testing students to halting private-school vouchers. The union is mobilizing its money and forces for Kerry — targeting political staff in 15 swing states, going into schools to rally its members, and joining liberal groups to organize a massive night of political house parties.
Kerry, who is scheduled to speak to the 9,000 delegates at the NEA convention on Tuesday, was endorsed by 86.5 percent of them. The Massachusetts senator offers many teacher-friendly promises the union likes, but he also advances ideas the NEA has long opposed, such as paying bonuses to teachers based on student test scores.
Although a quarter of NEA members identify themselves with the Republican Party, the union has never endorsed a Republican for president and typically spends $9 out of every $10 it raises on Democrats. Its relationship with the Bush administration has been particularly prickly since his education secretary, Rod Paige, jokingly referred to the union as a "terrorist organization" and annoyed members with how he apologized for the remark.
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On the Net:
National Education Association: http://www.nea.org
Kerry campaign: http://www.johnkerry.com
I have a brother who is a card carrying member of the NEA
One day he was going off about the education bill
After a bit I was sick of hearing his BS .. so I turned to him and said ..
You DO realize that Teddy Kennedy wrote this bill don't ya??
He response was .. Oh yea .. well please explain the No Children Left Behind
For which I said .. teach the kids to read and write and you'll get the money .. what's so wrong with accountability??
If I don't do my job .. I would get fired
Again he harped on the Leave no kids behind
I replied by saying .. Don't you see a problem fact the that kids know how to use a condom .. but yet can't read the warning label on the package??
The vein in his neck started to pop after that ..
My wife likes to say "don't dream too far".
I'm shocked...shocked I say. Of course, Bush was never going to get their endorsement, and he knew that. He is hoping, however, to educate and woo the average teacher.
Don't you remember he was going to be a compassionate conservative and have a new tone? So much for Karl Rove being a genius, he and the pubbies in Congress became spendthrifts and shredded their reputation as fiscal conservatives for nothing.
My union edornsed Hanoi John too. Do you think I listened, not for a second. My union, AFSCME and the NEA are loaded with marxists, socialists, and communists. These people want all the rights and freedoms that a governments like Hitler's Germany and Stalin's Russia would give them. Strong words, but I've been thinking them; so I might as well put them down.
if ever there was a union that needed to be smashed into rubble...
Wow, who would have "thunk" it? B-)
.............Bush signed Fat Teddy's budget-busting Education Bill. You'd think that that would be worth something, right?
Yea, right.
KEEP THE POLITICKING OUT OF THE SCHOOLS.
B.S. There are plenty of democrats who changed parties just to get elected in some areas. There are also "Republicans" who do not hold to key planks in the party platform.
I am shocked. Shocked.
Bump
OK, let me put it this way:
Bush's *domestic policy* is a repudiation of the issues which motivates Republican-registered primary voters, and which were championned by the only successful Republican President since 1924*, and which are championned by the majority of the Republican congress:
Huge increases in the scope of government.
Regulatory expanses as have never been seen before in the history of the union, and which go far beyond anything Clinton dared ask for.
Massive spending and massive debt.
He nominates liberal and conservative judges. He doesn't fight for the conservative ones.
You're saying one man can redefine what it means to be a Republican. I see your point, but I use a definition of Republican which is a little more transcendent than one man's whims.
*Hoover, Coolidge, Nixon, Ford and GHWBush were all abject failures. Eisenhower was re-elected, but put the GOP into the minority party status at every level of government for 40 years, so I consider him to be a failure, too, although I will grant that some may consider merely being re-elected (without being impeached for election tactics) constitutes a success.
I'm shocked I tell you, shocked! /sarcasm
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