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1) NEA Representative Assembly Opens
with LA Flavor. The 2005 National Education
Association Representative Assembly (RA) opened today with 7,945 delegates
present, the lowest opening attendance in the eight years EIA has been
covering the convention. Next year, the RA meets in Orlando, where the
turnout promises to be better.
The NEA convention always has – aptly
enough – a number of conventional agenda items to mark opening day. The
pledge, national anthem and invocation are followed by welcoming speeches
from the hosts. The mayor of the host city is first up (unless he happens to
be DC Mayor Anthony Williams) and the reception was especially warm for new
Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who once worked as a staffer for
United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA).
The mayor expressed his appreciation for
public schools and NEA, and urged the delegates to spend lots of money. He
did repeat the standard canard about how California's public schools were
high-spending and high-achieving in the 1960s, compared to where they are
today. I wonder how they managed such a wonderful result without collective
bargaining?
Anyway, there is a patriot's love of
country, there is a mother's love for her child, and then there is the love
that exceeds all others: an NEA delegate's love for a victorious Democratic
politician. Villaraigosa basked in the glow.
Comic relief soon followed with the
introduction of UTLA President A.J. Duffy. Duffy told the delegates he was
from Brooklyn, then proceeded to address them as if they were "C" helpers
from IBEW Local 3. He warned them that "these are perilous times," then went
completely over the edge when he literally mentioned the Four Horsemen of
the Apocalypse. He went on and on about the labor situation in LA and
finished up by leading the crowd in a chant of "Union! Union! Union!" --
though the response was markedly halfhearted. The Los Angeles papers are
going to have a blast with this guy.
NEA President Reg Weaver's keynote
address contained all the necessary elements for this crowd – praising,
cajoling and roaring in turn. The speech depicted teachers as remaining
committed and able while struggling against enormous odds with few
resources. Weaver tied the inherent goodness of teachers to the goodness of
the union. "We are actively working to eliminate the misconceptions about
our great organization," he said, adding, "If there are those who choose to
call us the keepers of the status quo, so be it. The status quo is the
public in public education, and we are the keepers!"
Weaver railed against the No Child Left
Behind Act, but he seemed particularly incensed by the U.S. Department of
Education's response to NEA's lawsuit against NCLB released last week. The
department asked for the suit to be dismissed, arguing (among other things)
that NEA has no legal standing to bring the suit. "If we don't, I don't know
who does!" he said, to the applause of the crowd.
Weaver completes his first three-year
term at this convention (he was re-elected unopposed today), but his speech
contained a Bob Chase new unionism nugget for the first time. "The
credibility of each and every one of us is damaged when one of us is
unprofessional, or unprepared and/or unwilling," he said. Weaver called on
his colleagues to assist and support those teachers, "but we must also
insist upon their growth, and their commitment to our profession."
Weaver concluded with a call for a
covenant with the nation, by which he meant a contract that essentially says
if the nation wants better schools and students, the nation needs to provide
more parental involvement, more resources, less privatization, smaller class
sizes, and higher pay.
"We are the guardians of the hopes,
dreams and aspirations of this nation," he told the delegates.
2) Maybe that NY Merger Vote Isn't a
Sure Thing... Just yesterday I wrote that the
bylaw amendment allowing NEA New York to merge with the AFT-affiliated New
York State United Teachers would pass comfortably. I still think it will
pass, but the merger supporters didn't do themselves any favors in the floor
debate today.
The procedure is for the amendment to be
openly debated and discussed on the floor of the convention, but the vote is
by secret ballot on Tuesday morning. It was the last item discussed on a
very long day, which should have worked to the advantage of NEA New York,
seeing how it was in the union's interest to have the item debated narrowly
– as a waiver of a single bylaw provision for a single state in a single
instance, with no ramifications for other affiliates or merger in general.
What happened instead was a wide-ranging
series of some 30 questions about the NY merger itself, about finances,
representation, organizational principles, and no-raid agreements. There
were so many questions there was very little time for pro-con debate. In
some cases it was obvious that the issue had not been clearly explained to
the delegates. (EIA
did its part, guys!) In other cases, it was obvious the delegates had
done more thinking about it than many of the participants. Virginia delegate
Meg Gruber asked if, after merging, the new NY union could simply vote to
disaffiliate from NEA, in which case AFT would have picked up 35,000 NEA
members without having had to organize them. I don't know if Ms. Gruber is
part-Byzantine, but I like the way she thinks!
Things appeared to be deteriorating
rapidly, but a member of the NEA board of directors moved to close debate. I
admit that this could have been a mere coincidence. Maybe she was as hungry
and tired as I was. The delegates voted to close debate and that should do
it until we hear the results at about noon on Tuesday. But if I were an NEA
New York officer (an image that I'm sure will send some of you screaming
into the streets), I probably wouldn't sleep quite as soundly on Monday
night.
3) Most Current NEA Nationwide
Membership Numbers Ever. When things are going
relatively poorly, you get NEA membership numbers that are a year old. When
things are going relatively well, you get NEA membership numbers that are
two days old. As of July 1, NEA had increased active teacher and
certified membership by 17,956 over last year's numbers, and had 17,455 more
ESPs, "which has us thrilled right down to our underwear," said NEA
Secretary-Treasurer Lily Eskelsen. The final, end-of-fiscal-year numbers
will be different because summertime is when most teachers retire or leave
the profession. No state-by-state breakdown for these numbers, however.
4) Rally Against Arnold Set for
Tuesday. Tuesday the delegates will be treated to
a presentation on the "California funding crisis," where postcards and
resolutions from the assembly will be collected, after which
"representatives of each delegation will march from the convention center to
the 'Terminator's' Los Angeles office to deliver the message loud and
clear." Well, if millions of dollars of your dues money is being dropped on
CTA, you should at least get a show out of it.
5) Action on New Business Items.
The delegates took action on seven new business items (NBIs) today,
including:
NBI 1 – The delegates defeated a motion
to conduct a survey to determine whether NEA resolutions affect membership
recruitment.
NBI 2 – The delegates affirmed NEA's
decision to join the UFCW's anti-Wal-Mart campaign.
6) Quote of the Day.
"On that proud day in 2002 when I accepted the presidency of this great
organization, I asked that you never forget or underestimate the fact that
NEA's strength, influence, and future are in our numbers. I told you that
the stronger we became, the more effective we would become, raising our
numbers and improving our strength would prepare us for the challenges that
lie ahead. I remember reading then in Antonucci's column that we would go on
an organizing campaign. And we did. I am proud to say that since that time
we have welcomed 92,335 new members – nearly 45,000 of those in just the
last year alone." – National Education Association President Reg Weaver in
his keynote speech. Yep, mention my name, get Quote of the Day. Simple rules
here at EIA. |
