As always, the National Education Association convention, recently concluded in Los Angeles, was quite a circus. The intrepid Mike Antonucci has all the absurd details, including the defeat of resolutions calling for the creation of a federal "Department of Peace," encouraging teachers to wear green on the first Tuesday of each month in support of "pension/retirement reform," and launching a Wal-Mart boycott. Union head Reg Weaver apparently revved up the crowd with a barnburner that castigated "those who choose to call us the keepers of the status quo." (Gadfly hopes that Weaver was referring to him.) Weaver went on: "The status quo is the public in public education, and we are the keepers!" George Archibald of the Washington Times reports that delegates from the group's college affiliate voted down a motion calling for the protection of "intellectual pluralism and the free exchange of ideas" in higher education, on grounds that free ideas are a conservative plot. Finally, USA Today wins the prize for most unintentionally funny headline: "Teacher union asks for higher salaries." Stop the presses!
"NEA convention coverage," by Michael Antonucci, Education Intelligence Agency
"Teachers union asks for higher salaries," by Greg Toppo, USA Today, July 4, 2005
"NEA affiliate rejects freedom proposal," by George Archibald, Washington Times, July 5, 2005