The reports are that NEA President Dennis Van Roekel wants the NEA RA to endorse Barack Obama for a second term at this summer’s meeting with no strings attached and no questions asked.
I’m a delegate.
If it comes to a vote, I’m voting no.
What I’ll do in November of 2012 is a different matter. That remains to be seen.
But this July?
No way.
In March of 2010, when 100 of my colleagues were fired from their teaching jobs in Central Fall Rhode Island, this is what Barack Obama said to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce,
“If a school is struggling, we have to work with the principal and the teachers to find a solution. We’ve got to give them a chance to make meaningful improvements. But if a school continues to fail its students year after year after year, if it doesn’t show signs of improvement, then there’s got to be a sense of accountability. And that’s what happened in Rhode Island last week at a chronically troubled school, when just 7 percent of 11th graders passed state math tests — 7 percent. When a school board wasn’t able to deliver change by other means, they voted to lay off (fire the entire)… faculty and the staff.”
“As my education secretary, Arne Duncan, says, our kids get only one chance at an education, and we need to get it right,” he concluded.
Mr. Obama’s remarks about Central Falls high followed Duncan’s statement of praise last week for the “courage” that Rhode Island Education Commissioner Debaorah A. Gist and city school Suprintendent Frances Gallo showed in “doing the right thing for kids.”
Nothing about the Obama education program has changed since then. Arne Duncan’s “test ’em, close ’em, fire ’em, sell ’em to private corporations” approach to school reform has not changed. One bit.
There has been no response to the NEA’s no confidence vote at last year’s NEA RA.
I say, “No reciprocity, no endorsement.”
The NEA and AFT leadership just love to talk about sitting at the table. Here’s their big chance. Before they bend over, at least ask if there’s something in it for us and the kids.
Fred Klonsky 
No endorsement for Obama from me, not ever. I don’t care who runs against him – Christie, Daniels, Palin, Satan. I am DONE supporting the less bad choice. I am DONE supporting a Democratic Party that acts like an abusive spouse to its base – beats it around, abuses it, treats it like crap, then comes around every other November for the GOTV operation and money.
Would a President Christie or President Daniels be worse than a President Obama? Certainly, in the short term it would. But as Chris Hedges wrote at Truthdig a few weeks back:
“The rhetoric of the Democratic Party and the neoliberals sustains the illusion of participatory democracy. The Democrats and their liberal apologists offer minor palliatives and a feel-your-pain language to mask the cruelty and goals of the corporate state. The reconfiguration of American society into a form of neofeudalism will be cemented into place whether it is delivered by Democrats, who are pushing us there at 60 miles an hour, or Republicans, who are barreling toward it at 100 miles an hour.”
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/the_corporate_state_wins_again_20110425/
Whether it happens fast or slow, whether it’s done by Christie/Daniels/Walker or Obama/Clinton/Cuomo/Emanuel, neofeudalism is coming and I can no longer vote for my own serfdom, let alone send money or endorse it.
One other thing I’d like to point out – as Glenn Greenwald has said, one way to ensure your own irrelevancy is to never hold the party you support accountable for anything. The Dem and liberal base seems to be oh so good at this, and the Democratic establishment has us cowered at the prospect of the kind of change that Walker, Daniels, Christie want to bring that we meekly accept the garbage Emanuel, Obama, Cuomo, Clinton bring.
Say what you want about the Tea Party nuts, but they’ve got the ear of the GOP establishment, especially after knocking off a few GOP establishment figures and turning a few races toward the Dems by running as a third party. The GOP fears their base, the Dems disdain theirs.
This a perfect description* of Duncan’s philosophy,and Obama needs to be more thoughtful on this issue. The irony of Obama talking about the rights of union members, then completely ignoring their input, is not lost on me. What about the for profit model does he find so attractive,and why? He will need to answer these questions before he gets any kind of blanket vote.
* Arne Duncan’s “test ’em, close ’em, fire ’em, sell ’em to private corporations” approach to school reform has not changed. One bit.
I’m from Ohio. I’ll vote for Obama (probably) but don’t think FCPE should go to him. He has not helped public schools and he should not be endorsed by the NEA.
It is a matter of the lesser of two evil. If I don’t vote for Obama, I may just decide not to vote. I am certainly not voting for a Republican. They have shown that cannot be trusted. And they refuse to listen to those who put them in office (or common sense for that matter). Hell, even Deval Patrick in MA has been drinking the Kool-Aid.
I totally support your position. Now is not the time to endorse Obama … He will take it as our acquiescence to the gutting of public education and the rights of teachers…
I’ve written a letter to NEA opposing the endorsement.
Maybe we need to respond as a group and pull our PIE/PAC contributions (or dues) on a set date if the NEA doesn’t reverse this decision.
As Randy Turner says, “Public education does not need Jack Kevorkian. It has the NEA.”