I promised to offer alternatives to CTA’s historic pattern of defeatism and accommodation (discussed in the previous post). So today I’ll list a few fairly general things I think CTA and its parent organization, the National Education Association (NEA), should do to pull out of this long downward spiral of political retreat and increasing weakness.
Real School Reform
The NEA RA: a bleak look back and and hopeful look ahead
My posts on the National Education Association’s 2009 Representative Assembly have focused so far on a new business item I introduced calling for a national strike for full funding a corporate expense. I should note, though, that aside from the brief time it took to squash that motion, a few other things happened during the four days of meetings attended by 9000 delegates from all over the country.
“Educational Transformation, YES! (but…)”
I’m as willing to compromise as the next “wild-eyed” radical. (“Wild-eyed” is what anti-teachers union blogger Mike Antonucci called several motions Oakland delegates brought to this year’s NEA Representative Assembly in San Diego.)
So after the California delegation voted on July 3 to oppose my proposal for a two-day nationwide strike for fully funded public schools I considered some options.
From the NEA Representative Assembly – first post
We’re about to begin the third day of the NEA’s Representative Assembly(RA) And meetings for each of the state caucuses began earlier on July 1, so it’s a little late to be putting up Post #1. I’ve been very busy getting support for a motion — here called a New Business Item — qualified for consideration by the RA. I’m going to begin catching up by sharing the wording of the NBI as it was first submitted, before a slight modification. (The thrilling story of the modification will come later.) The language of the NBI appears first and then the rationale; you’re allowed a maximum of 40 words for the rationale. Here it is:
NEA will launch a massive media campaign this summer and fall, paving the way for a 48-hour locally-initiated, nationally-coordinated political strike and teach-in at strike schools in January 2010.