Week of September 1, 1996

by F.R. Duplantier

The National Education Association, which maintains one of the largest Political Action Committees in the country, donated 99 percent of its PAC money to the Democrats in 1994. It's important to know, then, where this influential group stands on various issues.

Ninety-one percent of the nine thousand delegates attending the NEA convention in Washington DC over the July Fourth weekend voted to endorse Bill Clinton for reelection as President of the United States. Clinton was on hand to accept the NEA's Friend of Education Award, and to present his plan for education reform, which included Internet access for every public school classroom in America, tax credits for anyone wanting to attend a community college, and a $10 million program to combat truancy. The President proposed financial penalties for mothers and fathers who miss parent-teacher conferences, or whose children skip classes. He also recommended that the government provide "intensive counseling" for such parents.

Resolutions approved at the 1996 NEA Convention were more circumspect than last year's bombshells, but they still exhibited hostility to traditional values and the rights of parents. Needless to say, the delegates called for increased federal funding for public education, in particular for programs designed to alleviate "sexual orientation discrimination." They argued that the "immigration status of students or their parents" should have no bearing on eligibility for public school attendance. And they insisted that privatization, performance contracting, tuition tax credits, and voucher plans are "detrimental to public education and must be eliminated."

NEA delegates endorsed "early childhood education programs in the public schools for children from birth through age eight." Such programs would include "a full continuum of services for parents and children, including child care, child development, developmentally appropriate and diversity-based curricula, special education, and appropriate bias-free screening devices."

NEA delegates asserted an "increasingly important role" for public schools in providing sex education. "Teachers and health professionals," they contend, "must be legally protected from censorship and lawsuits." Otherwise, they might have to think twice about offering instruction in birth control usage and perverted sexual techniques. "To facilitate the realization of human potential," the delegates proclaimed, "it is the right of every individual to live in an environment of freely available information, knowledge, and wisdom about sexuality." The delegates also called for "comprehensive AIDS education programs as an integral part of the school curriculum."

The NEA insists that homeschooling students "meet all state requirements. Instruction should be by persons who are licensed by the appropriate state education licensure agency, and a curriculum approved by the state department of education should be used." Less adamant about holding its own members responsible, the teachers union opposes "standardized testing that is mandated by local, state, or national authority [and] the use of these tests to compare one student, staff member, school, or district with another." Not surprisingly, NEA delegates resolved that "competency testing must not be used as a condition of employment, license retention, evaluation, placement, ranking, or promotion of licensed teachers."

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