Posted on 02/24/2004 10:24:49 PM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
od Paige, the education secretary, made a staggeringly stupid comment this week, comparing the nation's largest teachers' union to a "terrorist organization" because it opposes many elements of the two-year-old No Child Left Behind Act. This is the latest in a series of missteps by Mr. Paige.
President Bush came to Washington saying that education would be a centerpiece of his domestic agenda. Yet he chose as his education secretary someone who seems incapable of representing that policy or putting it in place. If the president wishes to succeed, he will need a far more composed and capable secretary of education. Mr. Paige has been repeatedly criticized by Congress for failing to administer the education act properly.
Mr. Paige made his "terrorist" remark at a gathering of governors at the White House, just before the president stepped up his re-election campaign. The statement, for which Mr. Paige later apologized, has given the union, the National Education Association, reams of free publicity and energized its effort to topple No Child Left Behind, which holds public schools accountable for closing the achievement gap between rich and poor children.
The list of Mr. Paige's errors is long. Last year he said he preferred to have a child in Christian schools and suggested that Christians were morally superior to others. He was called onto the carpet this week by members of the Senate who are threatening to revisit No Child Left Behind unless the department fully enforces the law as written. Instead of dealing with central issues, the department has wasted time and money on things like making sure the districts permit the right amount of "constitutionally protected prayer."
Mr. Paige's "terrorist" remark has finally exhausted his credibility and disqualified him as a spokesman for national education policy.
Weaver dismissed Paige's distinction between the union and its members. "We are the teachers, there is no distinction," he said.***
NEA challenged on political outlays - Teacher's union fields "army of campaign workers"*** As much as one-third of the tax-exempt National Education Association's yearly $271 million income goes toward politically related activities, according to union documents filed with the Internal Revenue Service.
The documents show that the 2.7 million-member teacher's union spends millions annually to field what one critic calls an "army of campaign workers," while maintaining that it spends nothing on politics.
The NEA has avoided millions of dollars in federal and D.C. income taxes every year for political activities that are not tax-exempt, says the Landmark Legal Foundation, a Herndon-based public-interest group that has asked the IRS to investigate and recoup the money.
The NEA's Washington headquarters spends more than $47 million yearly to field a national advocacy staff called UniServ, whose 1,800 directors help screen and select political candidates for endorsement and campaign for their election.
State and local NEA affiliates spend an additional $43 million for the UniServ network, which enables the union to select, train, and fund at least one employee in each congressional district to link all 13,000 local affiliates.
"They're precinct workers," Mark R. Levin, Landmark's president, said of NEA UniServ directors. "It is the largest army of campaign workers that any organization has. They're free to do it - they just have to pay taxes on it."***
NEA To Support Non-Testing Measures, gay education, partnership with AFT
GOP bill draws teachers' anger***The GOP-dominated Senate Governmental Oversight and Productivity Committee on Tuesday approved Fasano's proposal (SB 1652) to limit payroll deductions only for the cost of collective bargaining and grievance adjustment. The committee split along party lines, with six Republicans supporting the measure and three Democrats opposing it.
"This bill is telling me to shut my mouth," said Maureen Dinnen, president of the teachers union, who was visibly shaking with anger after the vote. "We voted to support candidates who were chosen based on their educational positions. "***
Teachers' union sets gay issues task force
NEA's Political Activities Detailed
TEACHERS BACK DNC WITH MONEY, MUSCLE
Professors take on role as high priests of activism*** As they gathered downtown earlier this week to protest the war in Iraq, a motley group of students and activists busily readied the tricks of their trade. A couple of men gingerly laid on the sidewalk two cardboard "caskets" topped with plastic flowers and the bloodied heads and body parts of baby dolls. A man wearing a white Cheshire cat mask hung a severed fake head of Vice President Dick Cheney, with a "666" scribbled on its forehead and plastic sword speared into the top. A young woman expertly dabbed white and black makeup on a young man's face to evoke an image of a ghoulish skeleton.
But the leader of the pack simply donned his professor's gown.***
........Mr. Huckabee said Secretary Paige "was trying to point out that one reason it's been so difficult to execute real reform is that a lot of people in teachers' unions are trying to protect the status quo."
And Governor Lingle said, "He's frustrated" by the N.E.A.'s "lack of support for a law that's clearly aimed at helping all children." She said Mr. Paige had complained that the union seemed concerned more about its 2.7 million members than about children.
........Mr. Paige suggested that the union's lobbyists were out of step with its members.
"Our nation's teachers, who have dedicated their lives to service in the classroom, are the real soldiers of democracy," he said.
By contrast, he asserted, "the N.E.A.'s high-priced Washington lobbyists have made no secret that they will fight against bringing real, rock-solid improvements in the way we educate all our children, regardless of skin color, accent or where they live."
Mr. Weaver, the union's president, said there was no difference between its members and its leadership. "We are the teachers," he said. "There is no distinction." *** Source
Bump!
Corrected LINK: The NEA vs. Teachers
It is a close call. What else can you call an organization which has completely destroyed the school system of the United States? Is this not a terrorist act?
His remarks hit home.
Hmmm....so when you lack credibility, it disqualifies someone as a spokesperson. Paging Jayson Blair!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.