Some people just don't get it
As I wrote in What if you feel betrayed by your union's leadership?, the President of the National Education Association, Dennis Van Roekel, by doing this USA op ed with Wendy Kopp of Teach for America, gave support to TFA while undercutting support for unions and their teachers.
I was not the only supporter of NEA and teachers who was incensed by the editorial. Later, my good friend Anthony Cody posted this blog. Meanwhile, lots of supporters were sending emails complaining about the editorial.
In response, a ranking NEA official tried sending out a rationalization via email to a lot of us who had complained. But they still don't get it. It almost does not matter what they THOUGHT they were doing. Besides the specifics noted by Anthony and me, there is something much more basic. All most people will note is that NEA and TFA did something jointly. That undermines any criticism of TFA. In fact, some on the educational right are already using the USA op ed to taunt those who have opposed some of the administration's policies, including its continuing funding of TFA.
As a number of people have noted, TFA runs a budget of almost $500,000,000 for 9,000 teachers, or a