Can the National Education Association, the association to which most school teachers belong, be trusted? No. That's the simple and sad answer. It's also an infuriating answer, because of all groups, educators in public schools bear major responsibility for both the education of our children and the shape the culture will assume for generations to come. Unfortunately, The NEA is motivated and animated by a left wing cultural vision that is at odds with most parents. The time for accountability has come. Consider the following information from the American Family Association and see if you don't agree.
July 21, 2006
The National Education Association: What Kind Of Organization Is This Which Sets The Agenda For Our Children In Public Schools?
Normally when we send out an email we try to make the message as short as possible and still make it easy for individuals to understand and take action. However, this email cannot be short. It deals with the National Education Association, the organization responsible for setting the agenda for our children in public schools.
Since we are talking about the future of millions of our children directly affected by the NEA, we hope you will study the material available in this email carefully and forward it to others. Every person, especially every parent of children in public schools, needs this information.
When we learned about the NEA plans to approve homosexual marriage, we alerted our supporters. Following our making the resolution public, the NEA promptly removed it from their web-site. Our efforts upset NEA president Reg Weaver so much that he attacked AFA in a speech to the 9,000 delegates at the convention.
Background On The NEATo understand why the NEA is more interested in pushing a liberal social agenda than making sure our children can read, write and do math—and why public education is in the mess it is in-please read some background by clicking here.
Here are a few of the actions which the NEA approved at their meeting in Orlando.
- NEA overwhelmingly passed a resolution (B 10) endorsing gay marriages and adoptions in states where they're legal. Click here and read the first three paragraphs.
- NEA recommended that gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender issues be required content for teacher credentialing. (Teachers would be forced to undergo sensitivity training concerning homosexuality before they could be certified to teach.) Here is the wording of the resolution: "That NEA advocate for the inclusion of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender issues in the National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) teacher education program review process." NEA has already contacted NCATE about this.
- NEA voted to replace the word "tolerance" toward homosexuality with "acceptance and respect" in union policies. The author of New Business Item 52 used this rationale: "We should teach acceptance and respect, not tolerance, of those who are different from us wherever appropriate." (The NEA is saying that "tolerance" of the homosexual lifestyle isn't enough, that homosexuality must be accepted and respected.) Click Here for more information.
- NEA refused to pass an amendment (I 24) designed to protect students against sexual misconduct by teachers. The amendment read "To protect the rights of all students, the Association believes sexual contact between education professionals and minor students is unacceptable." The NEA refused to pass the amendment and referred it back to the Resolutions Committee. Many feel that the NEA refused to pass the amendment in order to protect teachers who have sex with students. Click Here and go to the bottom of page 3. Read the section "Resolution I-24 Floor Discussion Vote.
NEA Being Less Than Honest The NEA has been less than honest in dealing with this situation. Andy Linebaugh, a spokesman for the NEA, told Cybercast News Service that "leadership of the NEA has no interest in advancing a position on same-sex marriage." To see the entire news release, click here.
NEA president Reg Weaver, in a release posted on the website of its Kansas affiliate, said the AFA had engaged in a "malicious e-mail campaign distorting the facts related to proposed amendment changes." Like Linebaugh, he added that "the NEA has no position on same-sex marriages, and leadership is not seeking to establish such a position."
On the NEA homepage on July 19, there was a message pertaining to the NEA's support of homosexual marriage.
"A smear campaign launched by the American Family Association asserted that the National Education Association was set to 'endorse homosexual marriage' at the 2006 Representative Assembly. Either the group is intentionally misleading the public, or didn't bother to check their information, but NEA has no plans to endorse same sex marriage and never did."
However, just weeks before the statements by Linebaugh and Weaver denying that NEA had taken a position, the NEA was a signatory on a letter to U.S. Senators strongly opposing the Federal Marriage Amendment. To see the letter, click here. On the third page you will find where the NEA signed the letter opposing the Federal Marriage Amendment. So when Linebaugh and Weaver said that the NEA has taken no position, they are being less than honest. The NEA opposed the constitutional amendment making marriage legal only between one man and one woman. That is their position as indicated by signing the letter.
The California Teachers Association, NEA's largest state affiliate, endorsed homosexual marriage in 2004. Click here to see their endorsement.
For more information of NEA's support of the homosexual lifestyle, click here to see background material from a delegate to the NEA convention.
For more information on NEA finances and the left-wing causes they support with gifts, click here.
NEA Running Stealth Campaign Again Public School Reform
Here is another example of how the NEA works. Shortly after the convention in Orlando, USA Today in an article (July 11, page 9D) reported: "The nation's largest teachers union has spent more than $8 million in a stealth campaign against President Bush's education reform law, paying for research and political opposition in an effort to derail it, according to a Washington think tank that supports the law...the National Education Association (NEA) has given at least $8.1 million to education, civil rights and policy groups that have opposed or criticized No Child Left Behind, Bush's far-reaching and controversial effort to reform public schools."
Many members of the NEA are not aware how the NEA is using their dues to promote leftwing politics. They can drop their membership in the NEA and secure many of the same benefits by joining other professional organizations which offer the same benefits. The Association of American Educators is one. You can visit them on the web at http://www.aaeteachers.org. Also, Christian Educators offers many of the same benefits. Their website is http://www.ceai.org.
Visit the AFA for information on how to respond.