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1) The Strangest NEA Keynote Speech Ever. I
deliberately postponed any commentary on NEA President Reg Weaver's speech
to the delegates of the Representative Assembly in Philadelphia on July 2
because I needed to do some research on agricultural extension services.
Seriously.
I feel a vicarious responsibility for the content of
Weaver's speech, only because I've complained for years about NEA president
speeches – their interchangeability, programmed self-congratulations,
denouncements of enemies and overheated exhortations to go forth and
conquer.
This one was assuredly different. I can't say it was an
improvement. But I can't say it was a disaster. Frankly, I didn't know what
to make of it, and many of the delegates I asked about it didn't either.
It was delivered right before Hillary was to appear,
which meant – at least near the front of the hall – few people were paying
much attention, least of all the members of the press. There was a lot of
side talk and activity.
NEA has posted the prepared speech at
http://www.nea.org/annualmeeting/raaction/07keynote.html, and I have
posted video excerpts on my web site at
http://www.eiaonline.com. You can read along and/or watch as we go
through it.
As this was NEA's 150th anniversary
celebration, Weaver opened with references to history, and how the world had
changed along with the NEA. He then ventured into the focus of his speech,
which was the economy.
Weaver ascribed America's economic successes to
universal public education, and criticized the benchmarks of the No Child
Left Behind Act because, he said, even if students met them all "it won't
prepare them to compete with children from India and China."
Let's stop right there, because while most of us have
heard this kind of rhetoric before and don't think much of it, it sends
people like
Gerald Bracey spinning like a top. Coming out of the mouth of the
president of the largest labor union in the country, regardless of the
context, is unusual, to say the least.
"What worries me the most," Weaver said (at about the
0:40 point in the video), "what keeps me awake at night is the danger of
losing our ability to compete in the new economy."
I'm pretty sure this prospect doesn't keep even
David Boaz awake at night, so color me skeptical of Weaver's insomnia,
but he honestly had me hooked at this point, simply because I wondered where
the heck he was heading.
Soon, he proposed an "education bill of rights on
behalf of the children of the United States." (At about the 1:10 mark in the
video. Weaver actually said "economic bill of rights," but I'll let the
Freudians analyze that slip.) It included:
* the right to universal pre-school and full-day
kindergarten.
* the right to small class sizes.
* the right to well-trained and well-paid educators and
professionals.
* the right to an engaging and challenging curriculum
and quality textbooks.
* the right to active participation by parents.
* the right to adequate and equitable funding and other
resources for all public schools.
* the right to receive help for English language
learners, and students with special needs.
* the right to a high school diploma or GED
certificate, ensured by graduation requirements, thus reducing the dropout
rate.
* the right to equal educational opportunities to
ensure that the education achievement gap is closed.
* the right to have multiple measures used to determine
student learning.
Even as oratory this leaves something to be desired
(children have the right to a high school diploma?), but it's in line
with previous NEA keynote speech hallmarks.
"In the past," Weaver continued, "economic prosperity
was built on an abundance of natural resources, or the financial capital
needed to create physical infrastructure. But in the global economy of the
21st century, economic success will increasingly depend on human
capital."
We're
pretty far afield now. Weaver returned to track with "We are placing our
economic future not in the hands of our children, but in big corporations."
He went on to denounce federal tax loopholes for businesses. Then came the
most abrupt tangent of all (about the 2:30 mark in the video):
"In the Midwest, as in most regions of the country,
almost every county has an agricultural extension agent. This person is a
valuable resource for every farmer in town. They count on him or her to
provide them with advice and assistance. Agricultural agents, in turn, are
supported by the experimental stations at land grant universities in every
state.
"The agricultural extension service has worked wonders
for the farmers of America. In 1945 it took up to 14 hours of labor to
produce 100 bushels of corn on two acres of land – forty years later it took
three hours of work and only one acre. A similar program can produce the
same kind of results for the entrepreneurs of the 21st century."
Here I was gobsmacked. Was the NEA president suggesting
that it was possible to increase labor productivity in public
education?
Jay Greene, call your office!
Weaver then proposed that governments designate
economic development centers at major universities to "create research
stations to develop innovations in the businesses that will drive the 21st
century economy," which would then pass on these innovations to local
schools, through extension agents. The program would be funded, naturally,
by closing the aforementioned business tax loopholes.
If the expression on your face right now is either
glazed or baffled, imagine it multiplied about 8,500 times as the delegates
listened. Then peruse what looks like a slide of the "food pyramid." It
accompanied Weaver's remarks as he spoke about this idea. It appears at
about the 3:55 mark in the video, and if you can't read the details even off
the giant screen in the convention hall, well, neither could I, and I was
sitting directly beneath it. I couldn't find it anywhere on the NEA web site
either.
As you can see from the closed captioning on the slide,
it appears Weaver explained what the different levels of the pyramid were,
though this appears nowhere in the prepared remarks, and I admit I don't
remember what he said at this point. The bottom of the pyramid appears to be
"public support," and above it "economy and tax structure," "school
funding," and "school capacity." The top of the pyramid appears to be
"accountability," but it could just as well be "responsibility" or
"respectability" or "abnormality."
(Update: Pyramid explained! See
Intercepts)
There's lot more stuff on the slide about funding and
quality public education and the global economy, but good, bad or
indifferent, neither I nor the delegates could read it.
Weaver finished up by channeling Bob Chase. "As we look
to the future, we must remain a force for change," he said. "Because, my
friends, if we are not a force for change, we will be forced to
change."
As I mentioned, Hillary was up next, so Weaver's speech
was soon lost in the excitement of the presidential candidates' appearances.
And now I've devoted more space to it than NEA has. The lone state affiliate
pick up
was in Massachusetts.
Since this is Weaver's last year in office, and since I
seriously doubt there will be any education extension services created in
the near future, the only questions remaining are whose baby is this, and
how did it rise to the point of insertion in the NEA president's speech?
2) Last Week's Intercepts. EIA's blog,
Intercepts, covered these topics from July 16-23:
*
NEA Sued Over Member Annuities Program. When trial lawyers attack.
*
Endorsements Aren't What They Used to Be. Hillary's campaign coup.
*
Who's Battling the Education Establishment? It's going to be tough to
demonize these guys.
4)
Quote of the Week.
"Evidently the public housing employee unions don't have much juice." –
Michael Goldstein, commenting on Sen. John Edwards proposal to distribute
housing vouchers to poor families to help them move to better neighborhoods.
(July 17
Eduwonk.com) |
