Honoring Lilly Eskelsen García: Because The Teachers Were Right
In 2004, Democrats were enraged when Rod Paige, U.S. Secretary of Education under George W. Bush, called teachers unions “terrorist organizations.”
According to accounts written at the time, Paige made the remark “in a private White House meeting with governors while answering a question about the National Education Association.” He was speaking “at length” about the implementation of the relatively new, back then, law called No Child Left Behind.
That law rolled out unfunded mandates for nationwide testing and unreachable “accountability” goals for the nation’s schools. At the time Paige made his remark, the NEA had said the law was “practically impossible to implement,” under-funded, and in need of more “flexibility” – criticisms today generally regarded as true.
Responding to the insult, Move On posted a petition, co-sponsored by the Campaign for America’s Future, on its website that got millions of signatures demanding Paige resign – something that indeed eventually happened as controversy after controversy dogged the secretary.
CAF stood by the NEA then and is standing by it now in honoring NEA President Lily Eskelsen García as a progressive champion at an upcoming event in Washington.
Other honorees include Massachusetts U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren, Wallace Global Fund Co-Chair Scott Wallace, and the National People’s Network, a network of grassroots organizations running local campaigns to keep people and the planet first.
Honoring a teachers’ union leader – especially one as dynamic and outspoken as Eskelsen García – comes at a time when many prominent Democrats have become prone to criticize teacher organizations and question their progressive values.
When Democrats Turned Their Backs On Teachers
Liberal Newsweek columnist Jonathan Alter has called teachers’ unions “Paleolithic.” In the union bashing documentary “Waiting for Superman,” Alter said they were “a menace.”
New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof has accused teachers’ unions of “protecting elements of a broken and unaccountable school system” and “turning a blind eye to a ‘separate but equal’ education system.” New York magazine columnist Jonathan Chait has accused teachers’ unions of “turning against Democrats,” even though, obviously, the reverse is true. Left-leaning columnist Matt Bai has compared teachers’ unions to the National Rifle Association.
Throwing slights, even downright insults, at teachers and public schools, which have always been a feature of political rhetoric from Republicans, are increasingly common among Democrats.
Democratic New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has called schools “public monopolies” that are in need of “real performance measures” like test-based evaluations and “competition” from charter schools. Connecticut Governor Dannel Malloy, a Democrat, has said teachers get their secure employment status, frequently called “tenure,” simply by showing up for work.
The 2012 Democratic convention opened with a pre-release screening of an anti-union drama Honoring Lilly Eskelsen García: Because The Teachers Were Right: