Parents 4 democratic Schools
NEA RA gonna be long and angry this year…
JUNE 30, 2010
In just a few days the NEA RA will begin; delegates from all over the country are arriving in rain-soaked New Orleans to begin the process of unpacking and excercising their parlimentary procedural muscles.
I’ve been here a few days already at one of the many preconferences. I have to say, this is going to to one angry RA. Perhaps the angriest I’ve ever been too. I think this is my fifth RA, they tend to blur together into one big long parlimentary procedural motion.
Perceieved federal impotence and dysfunction
I think the delegates will target the federal funding we’ve recieved over the last year. Specifically RttT and SIG grants. And they’re not happy with Obama, but Duncan’s name keeps coming up and up again. Not in a pleasant way. We’re dealing with a membership loss, the first since the early 1980s, and are going to collectively have to deal with the loss of revenue. Not to mention all the bone-headed NBIs that will come to the floor this year that will ask NEA to do all kinds of things and cost all kinds of money we don’t have.
What frustrates me the most is that the delegates are so upset at Duncan and the competetive grant process. I personally am not against competetive grants, quite frankly, many school districts go for them all the time, both from governmental and NGO sources. I know that NEA supports formula-based aid. I think that should be the basis for overall funding, but if districts and their teacher unions want to apply for competetive grants, I don’t think there’s much harm in that, as long as it is done in a collaborative way, with both groups at the table.
I really don’t think that the delegates understand (or want to understand) the political sensitivities of the Obama administration right now. No, let’s just admit that they weren’t able to wave their magic wand and fix education (though they did do something with healthcare) or the economy. Teachers are getting laid off left and right. The jobs bill is in drydock, whittled down from $23 to $10 billion dollars.
What I have heard again and again from delegates is that “Obama (and/or) Duncan just aren’t listening to us (NEA).” That’s not true. They are listening to us, and President Van Roekel or other staffers or NEA officers are meeting on a weekly (sometimes more) basis with members of the Obama administration. I have full faith that those NEA folks are doing everything they can t
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