Posted on 08/18/2003 6:21:21 AM PDT by Tired of Taxes
The Education Intelligence Agency NEA Convention Coverage -- July 5, 2003
1) One Word in Home-Schooling Resolution Causes Long Debate. The pace picked up today and delegates to the 2003 National Education Association Representative Assembly worked through lunch to make up for lost time. The final count of new business items is 70 -- well below average -- and the delegates completed amending the NEA resolutions today without too much trouble.
The most contentious amendment involved the deletion of a single word in Resolution B-69, which deals with home-schooling. The resolution had a sentence that read: “The Association also believes that unfunded home-schooled students should not participate in any extracurricular activities in the public schools.” Some states provide funding for home-schoolers to participate in after-school activities. The amendment was to remove the word “unfunded” so that NEA’s opposition would be categorical.
Some delegates fought hard to keep the word in. A surprising number of speakers taught, coached or otherwise had professional contact with home-schoolers. Others suggested that such extracurricular participation made home-schoolers more likely to enter public schools full-time. Still others suggested that the deletion would punish children for the choices of their parents.
Ultimately, however, the will of the majority of delegates was to delete “unfunded,” reasoning that with or without the money to do so, they didn’t want home-schoolers in any way to edge out those students who were “with us all day.”
-SNIP-
3) Pro-Life Delegates Floor Craft Improves, Results Do Not. Each year, a group of pro-life delegates attempts to get NEA to move off the position the union has taken on abortion, as stated in Resolution I-12. It reads, in part, that the “National Education Association supports family planning, including the right to reproductive freedom.” Conservatives both within the organization and outside of it claim that this is clearly a pro-choice position. The official NEA position at least since 1986 has been that the organization is silent on abortion, but supports wholeheartedly the language of I-12. Each year, the pro-lifers’ tactic has been different, but the aim has always been to delete the resolution, add qualifying language, or neutralize the current language. They have failed every year, and in most years have even failed to get their amendments considered for debate.
This year, they were more clever. One amendment they offered would have changed the language of I-12 to say explicitly what NEA claims the current language already means: that the union neither supports nor opposes abortion. Additionally, the group offered three different amendments so they would have three opportunities to make remarks to coincide with their motions.
But it was all for naught. After each speaker introduced her amendment with a two-minute speech, a pro-choice delegate objected to consideration, and each objection passed overwhelmingly.
5) Quote of the Day. “We all want to live in a country where it would be unthinkable for any child not to have a highly qualified teacher.” - National Teacher of the Year Betsy Rogers of Alabama, speaking to the 2003 National Education Association Representative Assembly.
(Excerpt) Read more at educationnews.org ...
Not that anyone needs to be convinced that the NEA is passing anti-homeschooling resolutions... But, the NEA has removed its list of resolutions from its website. I just came across this source dated July 5, 2003, that I didn't see posted here. It shows just how far they're taking things these days.
Actually you would think that the NEA would be anti-abortion. More teachers, more jobs, more new schools, more power, and more dues.
But hey, who ever said teachers were smart?
I just thought I'd say that this heading seemed like total gibberish to me the first few times I read it. "Floor" and "craft" can both be verbs, and their placement after the noun "delegates" made me think that they were action words. If fact, it is an noun (I'd spell it "floorcraft"). In any case, I don't think the NEA is demonstrating skill with the English language here.
And that bit about "This year they were more clever" wasn't condescending, at all, was it?
But they don't take a position on abortion, they merely "support family planning, including the right to reproductive freedom." There's a big, big difference. </sarcasm>
So I appreciate the posts of information on FR about the goings-on at the NEA. They are a menace to the teachers who want to do their job correctly, they are a menace to the students, they are a menace to the taxpayers, and they are a menace to the future of the Republic.
Other than that, they're just finer'n frogs hair.
Congressman Billybob
Latest column, "Texans for Sale or Rent" posted on FR, other publication to come.
Gawd it makes my head hurt.
I find this sentence fascinating, especially following the report that some delegates fought hard to keep the word in the resolution. From my perspective, it's a glimmer of hope that the NEA might actually have a chance of changing from within.
they didn’t want home-schoolers in any way to edge out those students who were “with us all day.”
This, however, sounds more like what I expect from the NEA twits.
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