Intercepts
A listening post monitoring public education and teachers’ unions.

Most of today was devoted to new business items (NBIs), so here are a few of note:

* NBI E was adopted, regarding same-sex marriage, civil unions, etc. In typical NEA fashion, the union hopes to defuse controversy by not referring directly to support for same-sex marriage, but instead stating, “NEA does not believe that a single term must be used to designate this legally recognized ‘equal treatment’ relationship…”

I think NEA delegates are entitled to express whatever belief they possess. I’m not sure they will fool anyone with this particular formulation. You can read the entire text of NBI E here.

* NBIs 7, 16 and 23 all dealt with demands that NEA disseminate information about charter schools – and the sponsors of the motions made it abundantly clear they weren’t talking about positive information. NBIs 7 and 16 passed, but 23 was defeated. You might conclude from all the time spent on these items that NEA is stressing hard about charter schools. In fact, the general feeling of the delegates is much more supportive of charter schools than that of previous assemblies. This year, there are many NEA delegates in attendance who are charter school teachers and they are being vocal about it, particularly those from Wisconsin.

Virtually all of the anti-charter sentiment is coming from one state – California – and in particular, one local – Oakland. I’ve reported in the past that the Oakland delegation is responsible for most of the wild-eyed items that go down to defeat, like the proposed 48-hour national strike (NBI 11, ruled out of order by Dennis Van Roekel because it advocated lawbreaking).

The delegates may be tiring of the California Teachers Association’s bear-like embrace of NBIs. About one of every eight delegates is a CTA member, but of the 46 NBIs published so far, 24 came from California. This prompted one Wisconsin delegate to complain, “This is the National Education Association, not the California Education Association.”

* NBI 12 was referred to the Executive Committee, which was probably a good idea, because it stated, in part, that “NEA will actively counter flawed approaches to school improvement based on privatization, standardization, and behaviorism (extrinsic punishment and rewards) which undermine the principles we hold for our public schools.”

When asked to explain what he meant by behaviorism, NBI 12 sponsor Alan Young of Iowa mentioned, you guessed it, “carrots and sticks.”

Coming up tomorrow:

NBI 27 - an anti-war motion.

NBI 38 – a complaint that the Labor Department’s “Dictionary of Occupational Titles” defines teaching as “light” work. A little research shows the term refers only to strength, and how much force one exerts in a typical day. If you are exerting 20 to 50 pounds of force on the kids, you should seek another profession.

NBI 43 – in a similar (?) vein, this one promotes self-defense techniques for school bus drivers.

Joyce Powell of the New Jersey Education Association was elected to the NEA Executive Committee, while Mike Evans of Pennsylvania and Greg Johnson of Oklahoma will engage in a runoff tomorrow for the other open seat.

In other news, Fred Klonsky came over to visit, even though he thinks I’m rabid and I don’t know jack. Fred isn’t rabid. But he is lame.

This entry was posted on Saturday, July 4th, 2009 at 21:09 and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.