Many states are having trouble accepting the
changes the No Child Left Behind Act mandates. They state a myriad of
problems including funding, the timetable laid out for adherence, the higher
standards and the newly defined qualifications for teachers, Democrats and
state’s rights Republicans are banding together in an unusual effort to
either amend or repeal the NCLB legislation. Neither is expected to happen.
But one of the bigger problems that this group has with NCLB is the fact it
is a federal legislation and therefore creates a federal control over the
education systems of each state. While states have for a long time demanded
funding from the federal government for their educational systems they have
consistently rejected any acceptance of federal standards as imposed by the
federal government. One could say there exists a double standard but what
are we to expect from an organizational community mired in entitlement and
ideology.
An even more peculiar double standard being embraced by the educational
community however, is their acceptance of a national agenda via the National
Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers, two teachers
unions that exert an incredible amount of lobbyist pressure in Washington DC
and who endorse and encourage educational agendas most liberal and
multicultural onto the educational systems of our states. They, in essence,
reign supreme in mandating a national agenda for our states’ school systems
via the teachers union vehicle, a vehicle that extracts money from the
educational community rather than injecting funding into the system.
I
find it ironic, and quite frankly disturbing that groups whose charters
expressly define them as bargaining units for a labor force are now
mandating education policies for our children. Did any of the parents of
these children, any of the school boards who oversee the educational
communities accept this mandate? Is it appropriate for a political action
group to have more say in what is taught in our classrooms and how our
teachers interact with our children than the local school boards charged
with overseeing our children’s education?
Consider this, at the 2003 NEA convention in New Orleans the NEA passed
resolutions on abortion rights, gun control, homosexuality, terrorism,
affirmative action, multi-culturalism, national health care, international
relations and immigration; and believes that "efforts to legislate English as
the official language disregard cultural pluralism; deprive those in need of
education, social services, and employment; and must be challenged.” They
have championed all of these issues and routinely integrate their positions
on these issues into the classroom. It’s no wonder that it takes
eighth-graders a number of attempts to pass the US Constitution test. They
are too busy learning about the rights of gay foreign terrorists who are
petitioning the UN to condemn the United States for not embracing an
entitlement program for illegal immigrants that want abortions performed by
non-English speaking graduates of colleges that favored affirmative action
(before anyone writes that there is no such subject matter offered in the
California school system like that I will point out that was sarcasm). Isn’t
it amazing that an organization charged with dealing with teacher’s
contracts would even have positions on these matters? The phrase
"over-stepping their bounds” comes to mind.
In a perfect world there would be a way around all of this that would
placate everyone but the most liberal of activists. If the NEA and AFT would
remove themselves from America’s classrooms and focus on what they were
originally supposed to concern themselves with, the elements of their
member’s contracts, the federal government would be free to leave the
educational standards to the local school authorities. Plainly said, if the
NEA and AFT got their noses out of the classrooms and ceased their
nationally mandated liberal agenda, the federal government would leave
education to the local school boards, as it should be. But we do not
live in "Pleasantville,” and as long as the NEA and AFT insist on mandating
a partisan world educational agenda on our schools, I believe the federal
government should be there to protect our children against the ultra-liberal
agenda of these dangerous organizations.
Oh, for that perfect world.
Education Reporter – Partial List of the 2003 NEA
Convention Resolutions
http://www.eagleforum.org/educate/2003/aug03/resolutions.shtml
Frank Salvato is a political media consultant and the
managing editor for The New Media Journal.us. He served as an editor and is a contributing
writer for The Washington Dispatch. He writes regularly for GOPUSA,
OpinionEditorials, Men’s News Daily, Canada Free Press & AmericanDaily. His
pieces are regularly featured in Townhall.com. He has appeared as a guest on
The O’Reilly Factor, The Kevin Matthews Radio Show (Chicago) and The Brad
Messer Radio Show (San Antonio). His pieces have been recognized by the
Japan Center for Conflict Prevention and are occasionally featured in The
Washington Times and The London Morning Paper as well as other national and
international publications.
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