This week's agenda: attack the NEA

Certainly looks like this week's corporate/rightwing plan is to attack the NEA, teachers, and teacher's unions. See here and here.An example of one rant:

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?

Ahem, like school boards in Westminster who want to change state laws because they don't agree with them? Take a look at some to the things this guy dislikes:

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.

As a reminder, the NEA is one of the few groups sponsoring legislative changes to NCLB.