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Woodbridge, Virginia (October 1, 2008) – Delegate Jeffrey M. Frederick, Chairman of the Republican Party of Virginia, called it an “outrage” upon learning that the Virginia Education Association (VEA) was coordinating political activities on behalf of Democrat Presidential candidate Barack Obama at Virginia public schools. A widely-circulated email originating from Doris Boitnott in the VEA government affairs department addressed to VEA President Kitty Boitnott, among others, asks teachers to wear blue for “Obama Blue Day.” The email further asks teachers to register or recruit two voters to support Obama, saying, “There are people out there not yet registered. You teach...

An e-mail distributed by a Virginia teachers union encouraged members to bring politics into the classroom by wearing blue in support of Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama and simultaneously suggested that the union's voter registration efforts include those "you teach."

The teachers union has been handing out thousands of Barack Obama campaign buttons to its members, sparking a clampdown by education brass. The Department of Education - which has a long-standing policy barring teachers from wearing campaign buttons in schools - is set to send out an e-mail this week from Schools Chancellor Joel Klein laying down the law. MORE: Bellwether-state polls ringing for Obama MORE: Ifill Awful: Foes MORE: Bam's plans for tax cuts don't add up HURT: What Sarah & Joe must do to score a knockout "Schools are not a place for politics and not a place...

The teachers union has been handing out thousands of Barack Obama campaign buttons to its members, sparking a clampdown by education brass. The Department of Education - which has a long-standing policy barring teachers from wearing campaign buttons in schools - is set to send out an e-mail this week from Schools Chancellor Joel Klein laying down the law. "Schools are not a place for politics and not a place for staff to wear political buttons," said department spokeswoman Ann Forte. "We don't want a school or school staff advocating for any political position or candidate to students and we...

Teachers union e-mail touting Obama scorned Mike Drost Thursday, October 2, 2008 An e-mail distributed by a Virginia teachers union encouraged members to bring politics into the classroom by wearing blue in support of Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama and simultaneously suggested that the union's voter registration efforts include those "you teach." The Virginia Education Association (VEA) e-mail drew strong criticism Wednesday from elected Republican officials and some residents after the state Republican Party obtained a copy. The author of the e-mail conceded Wednesday that the e-mail should have been worded differently. The VEA is an affiliate of the...

Interestingly, several unions have this convention season tried to cross the aisle from their usual Democrat side over to Republicans looking to garner support from the Red States. The National Journal has an interesting little account of the Service Employee International Union (SEIU) and the National Education Association (NEA) and a few others trying to warm up to Republicans soft on worker freedom. Under Stern, the SEIU is making a concerted effort to build bridges with the GOP, and for the first time ever it helped to finance a Republican convention by giving $50,000 to the host committee. Furthermore, the...

Sen. Barack Obama laid out strategies to reform education in Dayton, Ohio, today. The National Education Association applauded the comprehensive plan. "Sen. Obama gets it," said Dennis Van Roekel, president of NEA. "He knows that reform cannot take place overnight or by using quick fixes. Obama wants to invest in comprehensive strategies, both immediate and long-term, which will pay dividends for our children, our economy and our country." Obama's plan includes investing in innovation, integrating technology into coursework, increasing college access and affordability, recruiting, preparing and retaining qualified teachers, and doubling the funding for charter schools. "Those of us in...

A pro-family advocate is questioning the National Education Association's endorsement of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama. The National Education Association (NEA) has endorsed Senator Barack Obama's presidential bid and plans to spend $50 million to target swing states. The NEA also says they will micro-manage members and send sophisticated electronic individualized messaging to members. However, Bryan Fischer of the Idaho Values Alliance (IVA) thinks the money would be better spent on educating children. "I think most parents would think if the NEA has $50 million to throw around, why don't they invest it in the classrooms where our children are...

When I listen to the AFT and NEA union thug bosses at the DNC two things POP out at me. 1) The teacher's Unions are firmly in the pocket of the Democrats, or vice versa. We will never have education reform until people understand the unions are political big government liberals, not interested in education, only interested in more pay for less work (smaller classes and thus the need for more dues paying teachers). 2) Their message alwasy goes unchallenged by the media. Thre is no connection with higher per pupil spending and educational outcomes - it's time to freeze...

OK, teachers' unions. Still ... Things We Thought We'd Never See: Democrats Rally Against the Teachers' Unions! I went to the Ed Challenge for Change event mainly to schmooze. I almost didn't stay for the panels, being in no mood for what I expected would, even among these reformers, be an hour of vague EdBlob talk about "change" and "accountability" and "resources" that would tactfully ignore the elephant in the room, namely the teachers' unions. I was so wrong. One panelist--I think it was Peter Groff, president of the Colorado State Senate, got the ball rolling by complaining that when...

If your child's school were invaded by Columbine-style killers, methodically murdering students in cold blood, would you want teachers to shoot to stop them? Gayle Fallon wouldn't. For that matter, Fallon doesn't think teachers "have it in them" to even try to save their students' lives. Fallon, the president of a teachers union in Houston, TX, made her views known during an Early Show segment this morning conducted by Harry Smith. The topic was a decision adopted by a rural north Texas school district to permit teachers to carry guns in the classroom. Harrold, TX School Superintendent David Thweatt explained...

Why Taxation Isn't (Necessarily) Theft by Eric Pavlat 8/14/08 I still remember the pain when my best friend and I stopped attending the same school after first grade. His parents decided he would be better off in a private school. I asked my mom how he could do that, and she explained that his parents were spending a little extra money to send him there. So, was my mom spending money to send me to school? She told me that she already paid taxes, and that's how the school building was constructed and the teachers were paid. As full of...

The Washington Education Association recently sent an e-mail to educators at their school district e-addresses urging them to vote on which Barack Obama-Chris Gregoire T-shirt should be the union’s “official 2008 Election T-shirt.” That action was entirely legal. But it was also entirely rude, not to mention against the spirit of laws put in place to protect public resources from turning into partisan tools. State law bans public employees from using public resources for politics (RCW 42.17.130). But the state Public Disclosure Commission has decided the WEA is not a public employee. Ahhh. A loophole. While it’s true the union...

When Barack Obama was young and poor but lucky, he received a scholarship to Honolulu's prestigious Punahou School, an elite private K-12 school where tuition now tops $16,000 a year. Today, Sen. Obama sends his two daughters to a private school in Chicago that costs $15,528 a year - for kindergarten. And yet our presumptive president disses school choice because, while "it might benefit some kids at the top," it "leaves a lot of kids at the bottom." We know that's how "progressives" garner ringing endorsements from the National Education Association, the teachers union whose core mission is protecting public...

In 1937, Hitler ordered all German children into the government schools. He said: "The Youth of today is ever the people of tomorrow. For this reason we have set before ourselves the task of innoculating our youth with the spirit of this community of the people at a very early age, at an age when human beings are still unperverted and therefore unspoiled. This Reich stands, and it is building itself up for the future, upon its youth. And this new Reich will give its youth to no one, but will itself take youth and give to youth its own...

This afternoon the California Assembly debated SB 1322, the bill that will allow Communists to teach in public schools and use government property for their meetings. CRFI has actively opposed the measure as we recognize the inherent danger in allowing Communists—those who seek the violent overthrow of our democratic republic—access to the impressionable minds of young students. In an attempt to draw attention away from the Communism-accommodating provisions in the bill, author Senator Alan Lowenthal amended the bill to also exempt from government “loyalty oaths” those with religious beliefs opposing such oaths. Republican legislators also recognize SB 1322’s danger and,...

Teachers' unions are expert at presenting the interests of their members and of public school students as one and the same. Which is why it's always illuminating to see how the nation's largest teachers' union, the National Education Association, spends its political money.[snip]It's a shame the NEA doesn't spend as much money and effort trying to improve lousy schools as it does trying to keep taxes high.

Teaching to students' minds, not just to the test VIRGINIA BEACH After two years of quiet planning, the superintendent of schools has unveiled his vision. Jim Merrill wants to overhaul teaching and focus on critical thinking instead of test preparation. For the past decade, the state's public schools have adjusted teaching to fit Standards of Learning tests, the yardstick used to measure school performance. "You could pass SOLs and still fail a kid," Merrill said. His new direction is the key idea behind a six-year plan. The School Board will consider a draft at its annual retreat this weekend. To...

The nation's largest teachers union, the National Education Association, attracted 9,000 delegates to its annual convention in Washington, D.C. over the Fourth of July weekend. Delegates sported buttons with provocative slogans such as "Gay marriage causes Global Warming only because we are so hot!", "Hate is not a family value," "The 'Christian Right' is neither," and "Gay Rights are civil rights." The delegates passed dozens of hard-hitting resolutions that now become the NEA's official policy. The resolutions authorize NEA members and employees to lobby for those goals in the halls of Congress and state capitols. NEA resolutions cover the waterfront...

The nation's largest teachers union, the National Education Association, attracted 9,000 delegates to its annual convention in Washington, D.C., over the July Fourth weekend.--snip--NEA resolutions cover the waterfront of all sorts of political issues that have nothing to do with improving education for schoolchildren, such as supporting statehood for the District of Columbia, a "single-payer health care plan" (i.e., government run), gun control, ratification of the International Criminal Court Treaty and taking steps "to change activities that contribute to global climate change."...

Jesse Helms and Me By Burt Prelutsky Although I very much regret that I never had the chance to meet Jesse Helms, we did have what you might call a peripheral connection. The first took place nearly 20 years ago, when I was serving the second of my two terms on the Board of the Writers Guild of America. Because the Board had the authority to mete out any sum less than $5,000 without putting it to a vote of the membership, groups and individuals were constantly showing up at our meetings and requesting $4,999. Often, they wanted it to...

<p>The newly elected head of the nation's largest teachers union on Monday called on school districts nationwide to create community schools that would offer services to students and their families ranging from health care to recreation.</p> <p>Speaking to about 3,300 conventioneers at Navy Pier, American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten said minority students need the help to bridge the achievement gap between them and their white counterparts.</p>

NEA Family Feud by: Bethany Stotts, July 18, 2008 It’s that time again. The National Education Association teacher’s union met in Washington, D.C. over July 4th week for its annual convention and to endorse Barack Obama for president. Obama has drawn criticism from pro-life groups for his strongly pro-choice stance, having declared in 2007 that “the first thing I’d do as President is sign the Freedom of Choice Act,” which would overturn state restrictions on abortion. Following in this pro-choice vein, the NEA convention also once again upheld the original language of Resolution I-15, which “supports family planning, including the...

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama on Saturday thanked the National Education Association for its endorsement but also made it clear that he continues to support merit pay for teachers. His position is a controversial one with the 3.2 million member group and it has earned him criticism when he addressed the NEA in 2007. “Now I know this wasn’t necessarily the most popular part of my speech last year but I said it then and I’m saying it again now because it’s what I believe and I will always be an honest partner to you in the White House,” said...

WASHINGTON, July 5 (UPI) -- Barack Obama got a few boos Saturday when he told the National Education Association convention in Washington he supports merit pay. The presumptive Democratic presidential nominee spoke by video link from Butte, Mont., where he spent the Fourth of July. The response to his speech was generally enthusiastic from a union that has already endorsed him, USA Today reported. "I'm tired of hearing teachers blamed for our problems," Obama said. "I want to lead a new era of mutual responsibility in education." But the NEA delegates were less enthusiastic when Obama listed problems such as...

Pro-life teachers, students and other educators have been protesting this week at the National Education Association annual convention at the Washington Convention Center. The protest, which started on Wednesday, pointed out how the union has upset pro-life advocates many times over the years. Most recently, the NEA came under fire from pro-life advocates when it hosted a forum featuring a late-term abortion practitioner. With signs reading "NEA: Be Abortion Neutral” and "Pro-Life NEA Member,” the pro-life advocates say they hope to remove current pro-abortion language from NEA policies such as statements endorsing “family planning” and “reproductive freedom.” Bob Pawson of...

Washington (CNSNews.com) - Some of the almost 10,000 members of the National Education Association (NEA) attending the teachers union's annual conference this week in the nation's capital spoke out on the issues they hope their lobbyists will fight for during next year's legislative session, including the establishment of a peace academy, in-state college tuition and a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants who graduate from high school. Susie Jablinske, a first grade teacher at Central Elementary School in Edgewater, Md., said children who are in the country illegally should have the same educational rights as American children. She proposed that...

Unfortunately, that TownHall.com aricle isn't news, or shouldn’t be. America’s public schools haven’t merely been falling behind. They’re in a freefall compared to other nations, including “developing” nations such as Romania, Belarus, et al. which, almost literally, don’t have a pot to pee in but yet succeed in educating kids far better than we do. Thing is, it’s not news simply because it’s been going on for a generation, at least, and if anyone noticed, they haven’t said much about it, and those who try to say much about it are derided as simpleton reactionaries. The causes of the misedumacation...

One of the most ambitious pay-for-performance initiatives in Washington area schools is drawing strong teacher interest and local union support even though many national labor leaders have long asserted that it is unfair to link teachers' paychecks directly to their students' test scores.... ...The program's criteria exclude some teachers from certain bonus pools. Half of the bonus money is tied to scores on state tests given in third through eighth grades and in high school: Up to $2,500 is won when the school meets test score targets, and up to $2,500 is given for improving a given class's scores. The...

Saying their son was "silenced" by his teacher for talking about hunting in the classroom, the parents of a fourth-grade student at North Bennington Graded School took their son out of school and have taken their case to the local school board. Jared Harrington's mother, Wendy Bordwell, and his father, Martin Harrington, removed their son from school with 10 days left in the school year and home-schooled the 10-year-old boy. "We are aggressively pursuing Jared's right to free speech," Bordwell said. The couple addressed the local school board Monday night to air their grievance. Bordwell said in a telephone interview...

The director of volunteers for the Democratic National Convention in Denver has resigned, saying she wasn’t “empowered” to do her job. Sondra Williams ...declined to elaborate on her reasons, saying she doesn’t want to criticize the host committee. The committee is coping with fundraising problems. It reported this week it is $11.6 short its $40.6 million goal.

This month 3,700 recent college grads will begin Teach for America's five-week boot camp, before heading off for two-year stints at the nation's worst public schools. Teach for America offers smart young people something even better than money – the chance to avoid the vast education bureaucracy. Participants need only pass academic muster and attend the summer training before entering a classroom. If they took the traditional route into teaching, they would have to endure years of "education" courses to be certified. On average, high school students taught by TFA corps members performed significantly better on state-required end-of-course exams, especially...

(WARNING: This story contains graphic descriptions of artwork that is offensive.)(CNSNews.com) - Federal taxpayers are subsidizing a college in New York whose art school is currently displaying works that include a drawing of a man with a crucifix coming out of his rectum, a drawing of a man with a rosary coming out of his rectum, and rosaries decorated with penises. Over the last eight years, at least $4.6 million in federal tax dollars have been provided to the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, which is displaying the controversial artworks. Some of the money has come...

That $13.2 million grant Washington state won last year to enhance the teaching of Advanced Placement courses in math and science is history. It’s lost because of the financial incentives it would have provided for teachers who improve test scores. The Washington Education Association didn’t much like the idea of tying teacher pay to student performance on exams. Neither did the teachers union like the involvement of an outside party, the grant provider, in teacher-pay decisions.

May 1, 2008 Dear xxxxxx, The 2008 Legislative Session officially ended on April 23rd. A special session on transportation will follow. We will need to work in that session to protect the General Fund and make sure that dollars that should go to schools don't go to roads But, we can reflect and hopefully learn from the most difficult 2008 session. VEA bills fared poorly; in many cases because there was no money. There is new money for education, on a per-pupil basis 7.4% in 2008-09 and 1.5% in 2009-10. Considering the budget constraints, this is remarkable and reflective of...

As a parent, I am reevaluating the merits of the 160K investment I am about to finish making in my daughter's education at the University of Texas. It's not that UT isn't a fantastic school and that my daughter has not done well in her double major of Psychology and Spanish ( 3.95 GPA) it's just that I'm trying to figure out what she does in a year or so to get that back or to even leverage on it in the world that she will find herself.. Perhaps she can be a sort of Dr. Phil for Telemundo going...

Today marks the 25th anniversary of "A Nation at Risk," the influential Reagan-era report by a blue-ribbon panel that alerted Americans to the weak performance of our education system. The report warned of a "rising tide of mediocrity that threatens our very future as a nation and a people." That dire forecast set off a quarter century of education reform that's yielded worthy changes – yet still not the achievement gains we need to turn back the tide of mediocrity. ...We're also far more open to charter schools, vouchers, virtual schools, home schooling. And we no longer suppose kids must...

Our Schools: A commitment to including everyone By Paul B. Ash/Lexington school s superintendent Thu Apr 03, 2008, 06:08 AM EDT Lexington - What does it mean for a school system to be inclusive? Educators have used this term for decades to talk about the ways we need to include students who have historically been disenfranchised, such as students with physical, emotional, or cognitive disabilities. This article highlights our ongoing commitment to diversity and to developing a curriculum that includes the many faces and backgrounds of all students in our community. We know that children must feel safe and welcome...

This week's revelation that 17 of the nation's 50 largest cities have high school graduation rates below 50% surely saddened many. But it surprised few people attuned to the state of U.S. public education. Proponents of education choice have long believed that dropout rates fall when families can pick the schools best suited for their children. So news that Sol Stern, a veteran advocate of school choice, is having second thoughts about the ability of market forces to improve education outcomes is noteworthy. Mr. Stern explains his change of heart in the current issue of the indispensable City Journal, a...

RAINIER, Wash. -- A Rainier teacher's assistant faced a judge Monday on drug and sex abuse charges. Jan Gleaves sexually abused teen boys and served them alcohol and marijuana at her apartment, Columbia County officials said. They began investigating the case in December when a Rainier mother said she found some posts from Gleaves on her son's MySpace page. Gleaves was a teaching assistant in the St. Helens School District. Officials don’t think the allegations involve any kids from the school district where she worked.

The National Education Association came under fire last week for allowing a radical pro-abortion group to use its building to host a forum featuring controversial late-term abortion practitioner George Tiller. Tiller is embroiled in a legal battle over charges filed by the state attorney general in Kansas that he repeatedly did illegal late-term abortions. He's also been criticized for escaping charges in connection with the legal abortion death of a mentally disabled teenager. LifeNews.com reported on the NEA-hosted pro-abortion forum and the criticism of it. On Wednesday, NEA Assistant General Counsel Michael Simpson sent me an email slamming us for...

The National Education Association is under fire again for promoting abortion -- this time because it allowed late-term abortion practitioner George Tiller to have a speaking role at its building. The teacher's group allowed the pro-abortion Feminist Majority Foundation to host its young women's leadership conference. Tiller currently faces 19 criminal charges for illegal late abortions and a grand jury investigation into additional illegalities. At the event, members of Students for Life of America took video footage showing the abortion advocates giving Tiller a standing ovation during a slide show with pictures of babies who became victims of abortion. According...

The controversy over a California appeals court ruling on homeschooling continues to expand, even as Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger pledge to defend the rights of homeschooling parents and Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell on Tuesday affirmed families' right to homeschool their children. As The Los Angeles Times reported March 12, the superintendent told parents, "There's no cause for alarm." He continued: "I want to assure parents that chose to home school that California Department of Education policy will not change in any way as a result of this ruling," he said in a written statement. "Parents still have the right...

Conservative Christian leaders are outraged at the California appeals court decision last week rejecting a parent's right to educate their children at home. “What has occurred is another egregious decision handed down by a California appeals court that strikes at the very heart and soul of families and their children," said Focus on the Family founder and chairman Dr. James Dobson, in a broadcast Friday. "How dare these judges have the audacity to label tens of thousands of parents criminals – the equivalent to drug dealers or pickpockets – because they want to raise and educate their children according to...

Many education reformers are convinced that relying on new alternative ways to recruit teachers will produce better schools. But placing new hires in public schools systems often means displacing tenured teachers and circumventing union contracts and union-backed state licensing rules. Can the reformers succeed?

(CNSNews.com) - A 24-page pamphlet sent to all 16,000 public school superintendents in the United States -- by a coalition led by the National Education Association and the American Psychological Association -- is "a renewed effort" to protect the well-being of all students, including, the pamphlet says, "those who are at higher risk because of their sexual orientation." However, a national pro-family group is criticizing the publication as "giving parents 16,000 new reasons to question the agenda of national teachers' union leaders"... (snip) "Just the Facts About Sexual Orientation and Youth: A Primer for Principals, Educators and School Personnel" serves...

<p>Woops, an errant email advisory sent to House Democratic members by Speaker Nancy Pelosi's office had some unique suggested talking points for the upcoming "Read Across America" day. Basically, it said, just tell the kids and their teachers: blah, blah, blah.</p> <p>"Blah, blah, blah, blah Blah, blah, blah."</p>

--snip-- But his role came with an added responsibility not many female teachers face. "Only two kids out of the 26 had parents who were married," he said. "Most of these kids had no father figure at home. ---snip--- Many men once in the profession say they quit because of worries that innocuous contact with students could be misconstrued, reports the NEA.

I recently read a column in which the author suggests that even though public education is over the edge of a cliff, Christians are holding the rope from which the system dangles. He suggests letting go of the rope by removing our children from the government schools. Why should Christians prop up an anti-Christian institution by their participation? Let it die its well-deserved death. This prompts the thought of another course of action Christians could take to stop unwittingly aiding the enemy: stop teaching in their schools. Many who argue in favor of pulling our children out of harm's way...

The National Education Association and American Psychological Association tell students that homosexuality is "normal". TORONTO (LifeSiteNews) - At the same time that news has come out that the Toronto Catholic School board has refused to participate in pro-homosexual activities, homosexual activists are making significant inroads in US schools, as a booklet titled, "Just the Facts about Sexual Orientation and Youth," is set to be distributed to all 16,000 school districts in the country. The 24-page booklet by the National Education Association and American Psychological Association, tells students that homosexuality is a "normal expression of human sexuality". "What's so scary and...