Town Square

Post a New Topic

Wow. NEA's top lawyer admits in this revealing video "Kids' education is not NEA's highest priority."

Original post made by Dave, Another Pleasanton neighborhood, on Nov 22, 2009

During his retirement speech, NEA's top attorney Chanin closed his nearly 25-minute speech by explaining the influence of the NEA:

"Despite what some among us would like to believe it is not because of our creative ideas. It is not because of the merit of our positions. It is not because we care about children and it is not because we have a vision of a great public school for every child. NEA and its affiliates are effective advocates because we have power.

And we have power because there are more than 3.2 million people who are willing to pay us hundreds of millions of dollars in dues each year, because they believe that we are the unions that can most effectively represent them, the unions that can protect their rights and advance their interests as education employees."

Oh, it gets more interesting.

"This is not to say that the concern of NEA and its affiliates with closing achievement gaps, reducing dropout rates, improving teacher quality and the like are unimportant or inappropriate. To the contrary. These are the goals that guide the work we do. But they need not and must not be achieved at the expense of due process, employee rights and collective bargaining. That simply is too high a price to pay."

Too high a price to pay for educated children! Chanin got wild applause from thousands of NEA members at the San Diego Convention Center for his remarks.

Here is the article with the video embedded >>> Web Link

Here is the short 2-minute videoclip >>> Web Link

There you have it...NEA...an organization that also promotes to its members Saul Alinsky's book "Rules for Radicals" on its website.

Comments (9)

Posted by Cholo
a resident of Livermore
on Nov 22, 2009 at 10:44 am

I cannot tell you how delighted I am to know that our good teachers have a union! VIVA!

Their interests need to be PROTECTED PROTECTED PROTECTED!

begone davie jones...begone!


Posted by Karen
a resident of Another Pleasanton neighborhood
on Nov 22, 2009 at 12:49 pm

There is peer pressure among teachers to join the union.
Teachers are protected at the expense of students. There is at least one teacher at every school who is emotionally abusive to students and they cannot be fired if they are buddies with the principal. I have a friend who is a teacher. Her classroom is open to another classroom with an abusive teacher. She reports the verbal abuse to the principal who does nothing about it.
All classrooms should have audio and visual equipment. We outfit our stores with these devices to protect merchandise, but we allow adults to close their doors and behave any way they want toward children and there is no way of knowing what they're doing.
I've worked in public schools for 20 years.
Alisal used to have a principal that allowed a verbally abusive teacher to remain on staff because she was buddies with her. The principal at Alisal now is NOT that person.
Tenure is a way for some teachers to mistreat students and get away with it. Of all professions to have this protection, it is a crime that people with power over vulnerable children have it.


Posted by Cholo
a resident of Livermore
on Nov 22, 2009 at 1:55 pm

SOME TEACHERS with power over children abuse them. NOT ALL TEACHERS WITH POWER OVER CHILDREN ARE ABUSIVE.

I agree that more needs to be done to protect all youth. There are many abusive students in schools and teachers should be protected so that they are not killed or traumatized.

Unless you can PROVE that "teachers are protected at the expense of students", I will understand that what you claim is HEARSAY.

Most schools can hardly afford teaching materials, what is your plan to pay for all the cameras that you recommend installing?

People that abusive power are everywhere, not just in schools. Do you recommend a surveillance devices on every corner of Mainstreet USA?






Posted by Get the facts
a resident of Another Pleasanton neighborhood
on Nov 22, 2009 at 4:31 pm

"There is at least one teacher at every school who is emotionally abusive to students and they cannot be fired if they are buddies with the principal."
So you are saying that you know of at least one teacher at every school (fifteen schools, by the way), and those teachers all happen to be friends with the principal? I bet you don't know five abusive teachers, much less fifteen and the relationship they have with their principal. This statement is blatently FALSE, and "Karen", I would ask that you please print a retraction immedaitely!

We teachers have enough challenges on our plate without you spreading these allegations. Luckily, yours is so ridiculous, so over the top, so outrageous, that all smart readers of these blogs will see right through it.

At my school, if there was an abusive teacher, I can tell you that they aren't friends with the principal. No teacher is friends with our principal. Good leaders keep a professional distance.


Posted by Connie
a resident of Country Fair
on Nov 23, 2009 at 11:01 pm

No, it's that the principal and school boards are too weak, cowardly, and afraid to get rid of bad teachers. Better to sacrifice the kids than take on the union. After all, it's ONLY one year in a child's life...they'll get a better teacher NExT year, Right ? Let them tuff it out. We wouldn't want administrators or unions to actually put the children first.


Posted by [email protected]
a resident of another community
on Nov 24, 2009 at 5:42 am

I read the first comment and had to respond. How stupid can a person be to cheer for the words coming out of this man's mouth. Wake up sheeple.


Posted by cholo
a resident of Livermore
on Nov 24, 2009 at 10:11 am

I recognize that my tone in my previous post puts people off.
But I think it's important for everyone to recognize that it's reckless to make blanket statements.
Not all teachers with power over students abuse them, and not all principals close a blind eye to inappropriate teacher behavior.
Also, there are many cases where students abuse their teachers or fellow students.
What everyone should do is report abuse and if school administrators do not follow up, then go to the school board, the police, even the media.
While setting up cameras in every classroom might improve the behavior of teachers and students, it would probably have a negative effect on teacher morale, and as I noted earlier, is an expense that can hardly be taken on when so many basic needs in the schools are not being met.
There are no easy solutions, but certainly when there are repeated reports of abuse about anyone, that person should be investigated, union member or not.


Posted by Cholo
a resident of Livermore
on Nov 24, 2009 at 8:20 pm

nice try...another Cholo wannabe!


Posted by Cholo
a resident of Livermore
on Nov 24, 2009 at 9:08 pm

I'm the real Cholo and I endorse the message above the above message.

Waaaaah


Don't miss out on the discussion!
Sign up to be notified of new comments on this topic.

Email:


Post a comment

Sorry, but further commenting on this topic has been closed.

Stay informed.

Get the day's top headlines from PleasantonWeekly.com sent to your inbox in the Express newsletter.

Marriage Interview #17: They Renew Their Vows Every 5 Years
By Chandrama Anderson | 11 comments | 2,150 views

Taking an electric car on a northern California road trip
By Monith Ilavarasan | 0 comments | 836 views

Is San Francisco caught in a "death spiral"?
By Tim Hunt | 9 comments | 621 views

 

2023 guide to summer camps

Looking for something for the kids to do this summer, learn something new and have fun? The Summer Camp Guide features local camps for all ages and interests.

Find Camps Here