DELEGATES ATTEND NEA REPRESENTATIVE ASSEMBLY

Washington DC was the site of this year’s NEA Representative Assembly.  More than 11,000 delegates from all over the United States met to chart the course for NEA over the coming years.  Of these, more than 1100 delegates were from California.  A major activity of the representative assembly was election of officers.  Chosen president for a six-year term was Dennis Van Roekel, a math teacher from Phoenix.  Lily Eskelsen, a special education teacher from Minnesota, was elected vice-president.

In other action, the representatives voted overwhelmingly (80%) to support Barack Obama for President in the November election.  Following the endorsement, Obama spoke by live feed from Montana where he was surrounded by Montana Teacher Association members.

For the third year in a row (and hopefully for the last time) the delegates voted down a constitutional amendment that would have allowed non-educators to become members.  While this time the proposed amendment carried a phrase that these non-educator members could not hold office, the delegates were not having any.  In a related action, the delegates did vote for a by-law change that would allow private and public preschool personnel to become members.

We had hoped to have a new Resolution on part-time faculty to replace the present one which, while purporting to encourage colleges and universities to hire more full-time positions, essentially demeans part-time faculty.  However, we have been given assurances that there will be ample time during the Resolutions Committee meeting in January to make the necessary changes.

North Carolina Governor Mike Easley delivered an extremely supportive speech to all educators across the nation praising us for what we do from early childhood through university.  He said, “We cannot make kids smarter by giving them more tests, any more than we can make the cows heavier just by weighing them more.”  If you want your teachers to give you higher test scores, you have to give them lower class sizes.  We have to have pre-kindergarten, early childhood programs, investment in literacy coaches, give teacher something to work with. He was so dynamic that there was not a single California delegate that did not want to take him home to take over our governor’s place.  He was honored by being presented NEA’s Inaugural American’s Greatest Education Governor Award.

Educator Astronaut Barbara Morgan addressed the RA on July 4.  She was Christa McAuliff’s backup on the doomed mission of the space shuttle Challenger, a brief flight that ended in tragedy.  Last summer, Morgan blasted off aboard the space shuttle Endeavor becoming the space agency’s second Educator Astronaut.  For those 14 days in August Morgan worked as a regular mission specialist, delivering supplies to the international Space Station.  When she came back to Earth, she continued her own mission:  To teach the importance of science, math and space exploration.

Finally, we heard 2008 Teacher of the Year Michael Geisen, a middle school science teacher from Oregon.  Geisen compared teaching to air flight.  When you hear the same old stuff (safety regulations), no one listens.  However, when the flight attendants ad lib making it interesting, passengers listen.  He, too, decried senseless testing.  He said that it is time to stop asking how intelligent are students and instead ask how are they intelligent.

Last year in Philadelphia, the weather was beautiful except for the Fourth of July. The rain washed out the parades, the shows, and the fireworks.  We knew that this year had to be different.  Again the weather was great – except for the Fourth.  Even though the rain cleared enough to have the show and the fireworks, everything else was too wet—so we watched the show on the PBS station from our room.

In 2009 the Representative Assembly will be in San Diego – perhaps there will be no rain there.  In addition, we will work diligently to build our membership to a large enough number to warrant at least five delegates.  The number of delegates allotted to us depends on the number of faculty who have completed their membership forms.  Please get your forms completed and to the CCA mailbox on your campus.  Do it right away so that we qualify to send more of our faculty to all the conferences wherever they may be!