The National Education Association's executive board and PAC officials are in Washington this week, but NEA president Reg Weaver told me yesterday that he's not prepared to recommend a presidential endorsement.
Why? "They're not talking about education."
The NEA has hundreds of thousands of members in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas and Wisconsin, and its members tend to be very helpful on election day. Usually, the NEA sends more delegates to the Democratic National Convention than any other interest group.
Weaver said he wants to hear more from Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton about No Child Left Behind, about infrastructure investments in schools, about many other topics he hasn't heard them speak about before he tenders a recommendation.
So for now, the NEA is on the sidelines.
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Are they that helpful on election day? My experience has been that teachers tend to be the least willing to take vacation to work on election day, and that they tend to have the lowest level of union solidarity when it comes to endorsements. I think you might be accepting union spin at face value, Marc.
(I don't mean either of those comments as criticism of teachers - it is clearly a good thing when they are dedicated to their jobs.)
Posted by Anonymous | February 8, 2008 2:39 PM