Professional Pay for Teachers- If teachers were paid more, they would become better teachers, and would be much less likely to branch out to other professions with higher pay.
Education Funding- More money for schools, especially elementary and secondary schools. Funding needs to be increased to include forms of health insurance for teachers.
Minority Community Outreach- Every child deserves a quality education regardless of race or ethnicity. The needs of minority students must be met and the quality of their education must be improved.
Dropout Prevention- Better education programs need to be provided so that children can not and will not dropout of school before graduating.
Achievement Gaps- Gap needs to be closed between different socioeconomic classes of students as far as quality of education, and hopefully the grades all the students get.
Educator Tax Relief- Educators used to get a tax break, and that should come back so teachers are not paying for their own salaries and classrooms.
Political Activity/ Legislation Attempts and Lobbying
No Child Left Behind (ESEA)- Congress is considering a reauthorization of this bill, and the NEA is lobbying to make sure the bill still meets the needs of all students. Congress has been under heat for needing to change the bill because some say it has not fulfilled its fundamental purposes, but the NEA is unhappy with the new drafts being proposed. They strongly need educators voices to be heard in this reauthorization of such an important bill. NEA believes every student needs a great public school, which is why they endorse this bill.
Education Jobs/ FMAP bill- Recently passed, and its purpose is to get recently unemployed teachers back in the education system. Any tacher recently being laid off due to budget cuts can now be reconsidered for their old jobs.
IDEA (Special Education)- Trying to pass legislation that would give better learning opportunities and more funding to the special education department in all schools within the next 6 years. Also support a free, appropriate education for all students with disabilities.
American Recovery and Reinvestment Act- This act would put about $130 billion into the U.S. Department of Education, so the NEA strongly supports this legislation.
Social Security- Retirement age should not be increased, no social security cuts, and a repeal is in order for the unfair Social Security offsets that threaten the retirement security of most government paid jobs.
Common Supporters/ Voters
Common Supporters- Teachers, Administrators, anyone working in a school or university. Parents of students, and they are commonly Democratic voters.
Known Political Supporters
The president of the NEA is Dennis Van Roekel. Other politcal figures endorsed by NEA include senatorial candidates Lisa Murkowski (AK), Rodney Glassman (AZ), Blanche Lincoln (AR), Barbara Boxer (CA), Christopher Dodd (CT), Christopher Coons (DE), Kendrick Meek (FL), Daniel Inouye (HI), David Hoffman and Mark Kirk (both from IL), Brad Ellsworth (IN), Jack Conway (KY), Charles Melancon (LA), Michael Capuano and Martha Coakley (Both from MA), Robin Carnahan (MO), Harry Reid (NV), Paul Hodes (NH), Kirsten Gillibrand (NY), Cal Cunningham and Eddie Burks (Both from NC), Joe Hoeven (ND), Lee Fisher (OH), Ron Wyden (OR), Arlen Specter and Joe Sestak (Both from PA), Patty Murray (WA), Russ Feingold (WI). also multiple house of representatives as well.
PAC
The NEA does form a PAC.
As the NEA’s national political action committee (PAC), the NEA Fund provides direct financial support to recommended candidates for President, the U.S. House and the U.S. Senate who will fight to support teachers, staff and students and improve public education. We also support pro-public education candidates in gubernatorial and other important state races. In addition, the NEA Fund makes independent expenditures asking people to vote for or against candidates based on their position on public education.
Every member who contributes to the NEA Fund does so voluntarily. Every dollar that the NEA Fund contributes to a candidate, a political party, or spends on independent expenditures is voluntarily given. NEA does not use dues dollars for this purpose.
Bibliography:
The NEA Fund for Children & Public Education: The Political Action Committee of the National Education Association. Web. 02 Oct. 2010. http://www.neafund.org/.
NEA - NEA Home. Web. 02 Oct. 2010. <http://www.nea.org/>.
Hmm education... Yeah I guess we need teachers and skool. I would like to see more education legislation that doesn't hurt everyone through through taxes or support people who don't or didn't pay taxes like ESEA "No child left behind." (How do they get that ESEA for that?) I am in favor of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. If 130 billion was shoved into our country's education and the school themselves decided what to spend it on, instead of the gov't trying to control it like "ESEA", then I believe it would tremendously help the education system and allow our students a better education. (Though the gen-ed kids don't even seem to care anyways). I hope this bill gets passed and that more americans would be worried about their childen's education and focus more of thier atention onto Education. If I could vote I would vote for the education bill and support the teachers.
ReplyDeleteI definetely agree with their minority beliefs on education=).. and their dropout prevention thing seems like a unique way of keeping kids in school with a quality education. I also think that the FAMP Bill was a good way to prevent the loss of great teachers that have been laid off. And lastly it does make sense that the common supporters of the NEA are mostly democrats.
ReplyDeleteThis is a great idea for a special interest group, seeing as teachers are seriously underpaid. I find it odd though that they believe better pay means better teachers. I can understand that incentives do motivate you, but they shouldn’t define or limit your potential, and that goes with everything.
ReplyDeleteAnyways, since education is such a universal issue, it should receive a lot of attention. However, this is most often not the case, even though without education we’d all be flipping burgers…
With the FMAP bill, it's terrible that so many teachers have been laid off, especially considering they're already underpaid, but in a way the cuts are beneficial. it gives schools a chance to refurbish and reevaluate the teachers and the quality of education they're providing. with the high budget cuts a lot of valued educators have unfortunately lost their jobs as well, but when schools are forced to cut back don't they usually fire their least needed teachers first? i don't necessarily think all teachers should get their jobs back (hence the "reconsidered"), only the ones that have proven to be beneficial and have obvious success results with their students, because let's face it, we definitely need the improvement as a nation
ReplyDeleteWhile teachers do not get paid well the vast majority do not deserve better pay. In my life I have had 8 teachers that taught amazingly while many of them were just average. I think that if teachers want to be paid more they should work for a college or somehow create some kind of review program based on their experience and abilities not so much their education.
ReplyDeleteThe goals of this interest group are very accomplishable and can make great strides for education reform. Nonetheless, there is one that is out of the loop. The whole idea of providing “better education programs” so that students do “not dropout of school before graduating” doesn’t really make any sense. As we discussed in class, there are many reasons for students to drop out of school and it is not because the education provided sucks. There are kids that have to take on the responsibility of taking care of their siblings or having a job. So, although the idea of reducing the amount of drop-outs is nice, the solution isn’t that great.
ReplyDeletewhat is interesting here is the divide over NCLB. teachers hate the implications but believe in the mission/ohjective. It's just rather idealistic.
ReplyDelete