First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton addressed
the National Education Association Representative Assembly today and called
for greater support and resources for public education and teachers. Mrs.
Clinton received wild applause for virtually every point she made and
received several standing ovations. But it was the non-reaction of the
assembly when she delivered fulsome praise for the nation’s charter schools
that was the only unplanned-for incident during the entire speech."I also
hope you will continue to stand behind the charter school public school
movement," Mrs. Clinton began, "because I believe that parents do deserve
greater choice within the public school system to meet the needs of their
children."
She described how positively impressed she was by the high standards she
saw at a Washington, DC charter school that required children to master
Latin. She told the audience that despite the rigorous requirements, the
school had a large waiting list. She wondered why we couldn’t have more
schools like it.
"Well, slowly but surely we’re beginning to create schooling
opportunities through the public school charter system that are providing
those kinds of options for parents and students," Mrs. Clinton continued,
"raising academic standards and empowering educators, and I invite educators
to be at the forefront of this. Because I know that the NEA has already
helped to create a number of charter schools. And I’m very pleased that you
have done this, because I think when we look back on the 1990s, we will see
that the charter school movement, led by committed, experienced, expert
educators, will be one of the ways we will have turned around the entire
public school system."
Mrs. Clinton paused, but not a single cheer or clap emerged from the
15,000 people in the audience. Mrs. Clinton returned to firmer ground,
praising our America’s public education system as having "the best schools
and the smartest kids." The crowd cheered and applauded raucously as she
finished, with many signs supporting her candidacy for U.S. senator from New
York, President of the United States, and one for governor of Florida.
Sometime tomorrow, the delegates will consider New Business Item 36,
which says in part: "NEA recognizes that the growing experience with charter
schools is increasingly negative, that charters have been seized on by
right-wing forces as a wedge to break up and resegregate education and
prepare the way for privatization... that charter schools overwhelmingly
fail to provide any of the benefits they originally claimed to offer. NEA
will publicly oppose further extension of charter schools."
