Penultimate Day Wrap-Up
NBIs
The delegates voted not to consider NBI 27, a motion designed to promote bringing the troops home from Iraq and Afghanistan and to “urge Congress and the President to stop the attacks on Pakistan.”
They approved NBI 31, support for labor and human rights in Iran.
They spent a lot of time trying to figure out what NBI 40 was about, before referring it to the NEA Executive Committee for proper burial.
NEA President Van Roekel ruled NBI 43 – bus driver jeet kune do – out of order because it was submitted past the deadline.
Finally, the delegates spent ages on NBI 50, which was amended to read: “NEA will communicate to, if not coordinate with Teach for America (TFA) to raise the commitment of incoming TFA corps members by requiring completion of a certified teacher preparation program and three years of classroom service, while continuing to advocate for the staffing of our neediest schools with fully certified, experienced, and caring teachers.”
Much of the debate was spent explaining to the delegates exactly what TFA was, what it had to do with them, if it was a private entity, and who was NEA to tell them how to run their business. The NBI came from…. Oakland!
After playing with it for a while, like a cat with a dead mouse, the delegates voted it down, to the relief of whichever NEA staffer was going to have to call Wendy Kopp and tell her about it.
ESEA Advisory Committee
Van Roekel got pretty worked up after the committee delivered its report, but Ed Week‘s Stephen Sawchuk already blogged about it, so let me just send you over there.
Legislative Program Amendments
The legislative program lists NEA’s positions and priorities for lobbying Congress and the executive branch. There were 26 proposed amendments, none of which interested me in the least. I was glad there were so many, though, because for the first time since last Tuesday I was able to go have a lunch fit for a human being and get back without missing anything important.
Election
Greg Johnson of Oklahoma was victorious in the runoff for the final open seat on the NEA Executive Committee. You can watch his campaign video here, which I’m confident will soon be picked up by Hulu.
National Teacher of the Year
Anthony Mullen had several surefire crowd-pleasing lines, including “Teachers did not leave their classrooms and abandon children when the best deal in town was to work in the financial services sector. We did not join the legions of people who became wealthy by sitting in front of a computer selling stocks or managing hedge funds.”
Mullen used to be a New York City police officer, which was great for his teaching and his students, but not so great for his speech. He delivered it as though he were reading us our Miranda rights, and most took advantage of their right to remain silent.
There’s still a lot to do tomorrow: the rest of the 87 NBIs (41 from California), the Friend of Education Award to Linda Darling-Hammond, the tribute to retiring NEA General Counsel Bob Chanin, presiding over his last RA, the resolutions debates and votes, the budget vote, and a host of clean-up items. Business has been moving along at a pretty good clip, albeit with several jarring detours, so there’s still a chance we could adjourn tomorrow before dark.
July 6th, 2009 at 10:17
“Mullen used to be a New York City police officer, which was great for his teaching and his students, but not so great for his speech. He delivered it as though he were reading us our Miranda rights, and most took advantage of their right to remain silent.”
Mike, you are a scream sometimes.
Art