Well, if they'd like to advocate for this disabled veteran's interest in debt cancellation, I might join!

8^D

I hope you remember who it was that taught you to and Michelle Malkin to read. I'm guessing it was a member of the NEA or your local state's education association. It might serve you well to keep learning from these well educated, concerned, and caring people.

Oh, you are so mistaken. I was taught by nuns. Hardly members of the NEA. I suspect the same might be true of Michelle, as she is Catholic also. And in college, I had Jesuit priests as professors. Lots and lots of Ph.D holders.

There are some wonderful teachers. Then, there are rabid members of the NEA. They are more concerned that teachers are protected from being fired than making teachers great teachers.

I would be ever so much more impressed with the NEA if they demonstrated even a small bit of interest in the education of children.

And I was taught by teachers who may well have been members of the NEA... back when the NEA was about education, not indoctrination...

Just a thought, Mountain Girl, just a thought.

I don't mind teachers who teach - just don't need teachers who preach... from either side of the spectrum.

I would just like to comment on the whole Wal-Mart thing. I have worked at Wal-Mart for the last nine months. Wal-Mart is not anti-union, they don't believe their employees need one because they have what's called the "open door policy" which means I can go all the way to the president and CEO of Wal-Mart if I have an issue without fear of retaliation. Wal-Mart also does annual "Grass Roots surveys" for all it's employees in each store and then focuses on the top three concerns per store and meets those concerns and reports to it's employees throughout the following year. For example, last year's grass roots one of the concerns was low pay, and we got a 50 cent wage increase.
Another thing the NEA should know is that Wal Mart employees actually do have very affordable comprehensive health care. I pay $32.00 every two weeks for Kaiser and I have low co-pays as well as Chiropractic insurance. (Something I didn't have under the group insurance for the San Juan Unified School District) I also pay three dollars every two weeks for dental and Wal-Mart gives me $50,000 in life insurance, among other things.
The company also offers stock options- Wal-Mart matches 15 percent of stock purchased by associates...Free money!
I already have sick pay, after a year I get a weeks paid vacation, after two years I get two.
I've only been there nine months and I already I've had two wage increases. And honestly, I'm a college student...and I don't expect to get paid more than the $8.50 an hour I get now for utilizing my skills as a cashier. It's unskilled labor....If the NEA doesn't like it, they should encourage Wal-Mart employees to get a college education and work elsewhere.
Oh yeah, and another cool thing about Wal-Mart...I have Jury Duty next month and I'm getting paid my usual wage while I'm out.
:-)

And there's the perfect reason why though I am a teacher, I am not a member of the NEA. Though they do some good for their members int he professional arena, I ethically cannot bear to have my name and money associated with their political endorsements/activities.

That quote last quote from them just about made me ill.

Sarah Angeline - first of all, I love your name!
Secondly, I agree with you completely. I really don't understand why so many of "our betters" hate Wal Mart.
I suspect it is because they might realize they are paying too much at the hoity toity stores in NYC.

Oh, and I know that teachers are not hoity toity- and I'm pretty sure most teachers don't feel this way, but their union dues are used to propagate this bullsh*t, and it has nothing at all to do with education!

Fuzzy Bear Lioness! You are back! How's the new place?

I agree. The NEA is doing more harm than good regarding our children's education. There are a lot of great teachers in the public system, but the union caters to the lowest common denominator. I know too many good teachers who have quit because they couldn't handle the left-wing politics of the NEA. It's a real shame, too.

The NEA, most of its members, and all of its agenda makes my head spin around and fire fly out of my eyeballs.

In spite of the NEA, I managed to spend 12 years learing about 8 or 9 years worth of information, and I learned a hell of a lot more on my own and through my parents.

I have no children of my own, but I am a big fan of high quality education as it usually results in high quality, level headed, tax paying citizens rather that crack-head, bastard producing, benefit program sucking morons.

The NEA has long ago lost track of their original purpose and, like AARP and many other popular organisations, it is now 95% politics and 5% substance.

The sad thing is that the NEA funds and otherwise supports the election of politicians that continue their legacy of destroying the fundamental quality of a public "government" education in this country, all the while saying they are only concerned with "the children's well being."

Bullcrap--they only worry about keeping jobs and increasing pay for idiots that should not be allowed to have anything sharp within their grasp.

I went to a private school and escaped the long arm of the NEA also. Great post Beth, the NEA is one of my main subjects of rants --and is why I switched my Master's from education to library science. I.Will.Not.Join!
If you want to read a GREAT book that outlines (with definitive proof) all the harm the NEA has inflicted on the education system -- You should READ THIS.

I think that New Business Item 73 is saying that they are going to look at the changes in curricula at colleges to see what the schools need to teach to prepare the students. Or not. I've reread it a few times and I still can't decide if it means what it says, as you interpreted it, or if it means what I think they were trying to say.

Even if we give them the benefit of the doubt and assume that my interpretation is what they meant the proposition doesn't make sense. It would mean that grade school students who will graduate a decade from now will have been taught in preparation for today's college curricula. They would always be trying to catch up and could never get ahead.

Giving the students a strong foundation in the basics of the various fields of study along with teaching them how to do research and how to learn would prepare them for whatever the colleges have to offer. I guess just having one action item - we need to teach, let's do it - wouldn't be as impressive as a list of 92.

Gee, Marybeth, I did not even think of your idea. Maybe that is it. But I'm sure not sure!

As an NEA member (sorry, ALa), former building representative and executive officer, I object to your classification of NEA members. They are, like any lobbying group, advocating for the well being of its members. The well-being of its members includes not only furthering effective practices, creating accountability in schools, and preparing students for an increasingly technological and global economy, it also includes quality of life issues like health care, job security, and political and ideological mission statements. Public education, unlike many other systems that have large, organized lobbying groups, is not constitutionally protected. There are federal laws (I've read them) defining their scope and sequence, but the system is funded largely on property tax and state revenues, and in times of recession, are forced to make cuts in vital programs. Programs that are reaching students who need extra support outside of the 25-26 student classroom they've been assigned. Programs that reach inner-city children and keep them out of gangs. Programs that foster creativity and exploration of content. What happens is they just focus on reading, writing, and arithmetic, and those three subjects are NOT what is needed to be successful in the new global economy.

I am no longer actively involved in my local union, NOT because I don't believe in its aims, but because my educational career is taking me into the administrative realm, which, incidentally, is not protected by unions, at least in the state where I work. I supervise the teachers of the most needy students in my district, including budget items, and we are working as hard as we can with next to nothing, and being told we're not good enough at every turn, the response to which is to take EVEN MORE MONEY away. NCLB is the biggest danger to public education in this country, not the teacher's union. I don't know a single teacher out there who isn't in favor of high standards, proficient students, and high performing schools. What they aren't in favor of is an unreachable, statistically impossible standard of achievement (I took statistics at the college level--100% achievement cannot be reached in any population), and mandated testing requirements that become more stringent and punitive each year, as well as being drastically underfunded. The federal government has never lived up to its promise to fund special education at 40%, even after increasing funding when GWB was re-elected in 2004.

I submit to you, those of you who call us ideologues, to look at the comments made by former Secretary Paige, when he referred to NEA members as "terrorists". Not only was that offensive, it is so far off the mark as to be considered libelous. Teachers, whether we agree politically with our government or not, are still mandated to follow its decrees, or lose our jobs. Yes, we can lose our jobs. All collective bargaining agreements carry procedures to remove teachers for a variety of reasons, insubordination being one of them. It has to be proven, though.

Most teachers in this country are working very hard to make their students successful. Most teachers in this country would like education to NOT be a political battle, but it is, and we did not make it so. The beauty and the burden of public education is that we take all comers. Much like the Statue of Liberty, "give us your poor, your tired, your hungry" as well as your privileged, intelligent, and arrogant, and help us give them equal opportunity at this country's great promise. Fund us appropriately, give us good working conditions, and compensate us for our time--which goes well beyond 9-3 and into the summer months--competitvely and comparably to our fellow workers with similar education and training, and we'll have no more quarrel.

It's always unwise to use so broad a brush when one is trying to paint a detailed picture.