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News from the NEA Annual Meeting

July 4, 2008

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NEA President Reg Weaver looked back on his six years in office and ahead to the decisive 2008 elections in his final keynote address.

Weaver exhorts delegates to 'lead this change' that the nation needs and wants

In his last RA keynote address, NEA President Reg Weaver called for a new national commitment to public education and also looked back at his six years at the helm and a lifetime of accomplishment that proves both the power of education and the injustice of high-stakes tests.

He recalled growing up in Danville, Illinois, dreaming about making a better world. A few of his friends, he recalled, "dreamed of becoming President of the United States—imagine that! A Black man from Illinois running for President!"

But Weaver's dreams were challenged when he took a job aptitude test during high school. The person who gave him the results said they showed he could only work with his hands. "There is nothing wrong with working with one's hands," said Weaver. "But I wanted to change the world, and I couldn't do it with my hands alone."

He was devastated, but he didn't give up: "I knew life could never be defined by one ultra-high-stakes test." He went on to college, becoming a teacher and then an NEA officer.

Under his leadership, NEA spoke out against the unfairness of No Child Left Behind. Today, he said, "the tide has turned" because Americans now understand that NCLB "has not lifted enough children up and it has beaten too many down."

Weaver said NEA membership grew 22 percent during his presidency despite predictions, when he started, that NEA would soon lose members.

Still, Weaver said NEA and public schools face serious challenges, including "an elephant in the room"—the war in Iraq, which has cost America more than 4,000 lives and saddled our young people with debt.

Today, he said, America wants a change, and "Team NEA, we must lead this change."

As the election process for new NEA national officers got underway, Weaver declared Vice President Dennis Van Roekel President-elect, and Secretary-Treasurer Lily Eskelsen Vice President-elect by acclamation.

North Carolina Gov. Mike Easley is presented with a college affordability campaign T-shirt.

North Carolina Gov. Mike Easley addressed the delegation as the recipient of NEA's inaugural America's Greatest Education Governor Award. Easley's commitment to education is evidenced by his successful More at Four program, which is the state's first academic pre-K program for at-risk 4-year-olds, and his Learn and Earn project that lets high school students earn an associate's degree or two years of college credit and seeks to curb college dropout rates.

Easley drew loud applause when he spoke out against those who criticize teachers unions. "It is NEA that helped me get our changes made in North Carolina," he said. "All this talk about unions is bull. Nobody cares about the kids and the education of this state as much as you do." The governor also called for NCLB reform and greater support for educators from legislators in the form of increased funding and lower class sizes.

Delegates approved NBI 8, committing the organization to a campaign to give undocumented high school graduates in-state tuition at state higher education institutions, and to give these students a path to citizenship. The RA approved Bylaw Amendment 2, giving NEA-Retired authority over its own bylaws. NEA-Retired, with more than 250,000 members, is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year.

Mohamed El-Khawas, president of the University of the District of Columbia Faculty Association, welcomed delegates to the city, as did D.C. Delegate to Congress Eleanor Holmes Norton. "A lot of self-important people in our nation's capital think they have the most important jobs in America," said Norton, "but the fact is, right here, I'm speaking to the people with the most important jobs in the country: America's teachers," and she added support professionals to her circle of praise.

America needs a "supporting actor in the White House," she said, "one who understands that the very future of this country rests with public education."