NEA's Annual Meeting Concludes with Action on Teacher Quality, Compensation and Standards

The National Education Association concluded its annual Representative Assembly with renewed opposition to arbitrary compensation systems, a revitalized commitment to getting the education standards movement back on track, and new strategies for improving educational opportunities for America's children.

At a time when attracting and retaining quality teachers is approaching a national emergency, NEA members took a firm position in favor of higher salaries for teachers and other education employees - and rejected arbitrary, top-down merit pay systems.

After a two-hour debate, the delegates voted not to establish NEA criteria for analyzing other alternative compensation systems.

President Bob Chase attributed the vote to an atmosphere of distrust in some states where members have faced a hostile attitude by some state governors, legislatures, and school boards.

Chase opened the meeting on July 3 with a clarion call for NEA members to rescue the education standards movement with a "massive infusion of common sense."

Throughout the 1990s, states have reviewed state standards and raised expectations for students and schools. Chase pointed out those expectations have not been matched with the changes in curricula, materials, and help for teachers through such things as reductions in class size and professional development.

Chase's keynote also renewed the Association's commitment to pressing for common sense gun laws, such as trigger locks, mandatory background checks, and bans on high-capacity ammunition magazines and semi-automatic assault rifles.

"All of us have attended too many memorial services for murdered teachers and children," Chase said. "We've dried too many tears and consoled too many loved ones."

The need to keep our schools and children safe was the focus of a special session July 4 that featured NEA members whose lives had been touched by violence. Andy Pope, a Nebraska teacher who had been shot by a 13-year-old student several years ago, urged delegates to deliver tens of thousands of postcards to Congress. Arlene Thomas, a Camden, NJ, school security officer, called on delegates to become active cyberlobbyists for sensible gun laws. Guillermo Morales, a Los Angeles student, urged NEA members to join his efforts to help kids stay safe through mentoring and community programs.

Vice President Al Gore addressed the assembly on Thursday, July 6, pledging to work with teachers as partners in efforts to reduce class size, modernize schools, meet children's human needs, and enhance access to quality public education.

"I won't rest until we make our public education the best education in the world," he said to the cheering delegates, "with a qualified teacher in every classroom, and all the support you need to succeed."

Elections were held for positions on the nine-member NEA Executive Committee. Dennis Van Roekel, a high school math teacher from Paradise Valley, AZ, was re-elected to a second three-year term as NEA Secretary-Treasurer. Iona Holloway, a classroom aide from LaPlace, Louisiana, and Dan Sakota, a junior high school math teacher from Rexburg, ID, were re-elected to second three-year terms.

In addition to the candidate elections, delegates voted by secret ballot on a number of other key issues:

• Recognizing the growing threat of ballot measures and legislative proposals to weaken public education - through private school tuition vouchers, limitations on school budgets, and reducing the ability of education employees to participate in effective advocacy - delegates voted to approve a special dues increase of $5 per member each year for five years. A portion of the funds will be used for a national media campaign highlighting the value of public education.
• Delegates also approved a constitutional amendment that provides a method to determine the allocation of NEA Board of Directors members and Representative Assembly delegates for state and local affiliates who belong to both NEA and AFT, such as Minnesota, Florida, Montana, as well as Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Austin.
• Delegates elected WEAC member Yvonne Henning, a department secretary with the Wausau School District, to serve on the union's board of directors.

Other measures were voted on by voice vote, including Resolutions and New Business Items. Delegates gave their overwhelming approval to Resolutions on student testing, professional development for teachers, and reading.

Delegates spoke out strongly on the appropriate use of testing and decried the practice of stealing instructional time in order to administer or prepare for standardized tests.

Among the New Business Items passed were items committing NEA to fight bans on affirmative action and to collect state-by-state data on the use of high-stakes testing as the "sole measure of student achievement when making decisions for promotion, retention, graduation, or program admissions."

NEA delegates also approved a report on educational privatization, which establishes clear criteria that NEA will use to determine its support or opposition to private sector involvement in public education.

NEA recognized a number of individuals for outstanding contributions to public education. Longtime advocate for children and public education Senator Edward Kennedy was named NEA's Friend of Education, the Association's highest honor. President Chase said Kennedy deserved the honor because of "four decades of tenacious, hard-fought, hard-won victories." Virtually every major education law passed since the 1960s has borne Kennedy's imprint.

Richard Malizia, a Union City, NJ, attendance officer, was honored as NEA's Education Support Person of the Year. National Teacher of the Year Marilyn Whirry of Mira Costa, CA, also addressed the assembly. Honored on July 2 were 11 recipients of NEA's Human and Civil Rights Awards, including Antonio Villaraigosa, former speaker of the California State Assembly. Villaraigosa was presented with the Cesar Chavez Accion Y Compromiso Human and Civil Rights Award for his commitment to the nonviolent philosophy and techniques of the late United Farm Workers leader.

On July 4, U.S. Department of Education Secretary Richard Riley talked to the delegates about progress in public education, including improvements in student achievement and expanded access to programs that help students succeed. Secretary Riley called educators "some of the most patriotic Americans there are."

In his last speech to the Representative Assembly as executive director, Don Cameron told of the progress and challenges facing the organization.

"For NEA, unionism and professionalism are inseparable," he emphasized. "Professionalism without unionism is an empty vessel."

Cameron called on members to build partnerships with parents and others in the community. He is slated to retire at the end of the year.

In conjunction with NEA's Representative Assembly, thousands of Association activists attended related conferences to gain new information and skills to help in the classroom and to help be more effective advocates.

• Members attending the Joint Conference on the Concerns of Minorities and Women focused on issues related to school safety, understanding diverse students, and integrating standards and curriculum.
• Members who participated in the NEA Instructional Issues Conference heard a keynote address from Linda Darling-Hammond and participated in sessions related to total quality management, innovations in charter schools, and implementing new state standards.
• Members attending the Collective Bargaining Conference joined in honoring the winners of the Saturn Awards, which are annually presented by the NEA, United Auto Workers, and the Saturn Corporation. The awards commend NEA affiliates and school districts that have used a collaborative approach to improve student performance, mirroring the success achieved by labor and management in the automobile industry.

Delegates also spent time in Chicago helping local children and communities. Hundreds of retired and student members participated in cleaning and painting an elementary school in Calumet, and other delegates gave time to read to children at the Frederick Douglass Library.

Delegates also dug into their pockets to donate thousands of dollars to purchase books for local children.

The NEA Representative Assembly is one of the largest deliberative bodies in the world. Some have dubbed the meeting the largest "teachers' lounge," where education employees share their hopes, frustrations, successes, and strategies - creating a 10,000 member support group of people devoted to children and public education.

The 2001 Representative Assembly will be held in Los Angeles.

Posted July 10, 2000