NEA Report #6 -- Day 3

Today has been a mixture of business, voting, and special recognitions.

We had to get through debate (sometimes ad nauseum) on ALL 4 of the proposed bylaw amendments because tomorrow morning we will begin voting on them at 9:00 a.m., before the RA is actually scheduled to convene. So that business needed to be completed.

We voted on 5 candidates for Educational Support Professionals to become at-large members of the NEA Board of Directors. I am happy to report that there were no hanging chads in this election, and it was completed very efficiently!!

The members of the AFT who are present at the RA were recognized, as were the 13 international educators who are guests of various state delegations to the RA. There was a very inspirational recognition of the Little Rock Nine on the 50th anniversary of the desegregation of Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas.

And we heard from two more presidential candidates.

Dennis Kucinich was at his idealistic best. He spoke on his anti-war platform, in terms of the money that could be saved for/diverted to education. He used the image of a statue over the front steps of the House of Representatives at his metaphor: the statue is of a woman standing with one arm straight out. Below her outstretched arm and protected by it is a child with a stack of books. The title of the statue is "Peace Protecting Genius." Kucinich believes that both education and health care should be civil rights for all Americans, especially our children.

Bill Richardson is the first Latino to run for president. He is bi-cultural and bilingual. He brought back collective bargaining for public employees in New Mexico when he was elected governor, and his stand on NCLB can be summed up thus: "School reform has made our schools look like reform schools." Richardson has done amazing work for teachers in NM, raising both teacher salaries and teacher quality. He promises to institute a nationwide base salary of $40,000 for all teachers if he is elected for president.