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For More Information:
NEA Communications: 202 249-4423
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 4, 2004
Speech
Keynote as Prepared for
Reg Weaver, President,
National Education Association,
to the 2004 NEA
Representative Assembly,
Washington, D.C.
Listen to the speech (Real Audio format)
We are in perpetual – continuous motion:
…moving toward true education reform.
…moving toward teacher and education support professional recognition and respect.
…moving toward parent and community partnership and support.
We are moving toward identifying who we are, and what we stand for.
Team NEA: We are on the move. We are uniting the nation for great public schools.
When you elected me in 2002, I asked that we move forward as one. I said then what I believe now, that we -- you and I, Team NEA -- are everywhere. And we are the right people, in the right places, at the right time, and we will make the right choices as we defend public education.
And NEA, we have proven that we are the right people. Who are we?
Public school teachers, education support professionals, higher education faculty, retired educators, and tomorrow’s future teachers.
And, in 2004, we are truly in the right place.
We are gathered here in our nation’s capital on our nation’s birthday, addressing the issues that should be our nation’s priority, and that will affect our nation’s future: Children, students and public education. And we know that this is the right time.
It is the time in our nation’s history when the people have their opportunity to speak up, and to speak out, and to make their wishes known.
And we will make the right choices. How do I know? I know because I have been with you as you have demonstrated it time, and time, and time again. I’ve watched you: Defend democracy. Defend public education. Defend the opportunity for all children -– poor, middle or upper class; black, white, brown, red or yellow; immigrant or native born to have access to a quality public education -– to have qualified teachers and education support professionals in environments that are conducive to good teaching and learning.
NEA we are the foot soldiers for democracy’s foundation -– public education -– and we are on the move.
On May 17th of this year we commemorated the 50th anniversary of the Supreme Court decision in Brown vs. Board of Education. And, while there is perhaps little left unsaid about the unfulfilled promises of Brown, there is still much left to do if we are to actually fulfill those promises.
Let us remember that the true promise of Brown goes beyond the color of one's skin.
As educators we must realize that this decision has a monumental impact on the education of all children.
When you consider the far-reaching expectations and implications of this historic decision, and then contrast that with how far we have to go, it could easily become overwhelming -– almost paralyzing.
But, as educators, the impact of those unfulfilled promises are what you see each and every day in your classrooms across this nation. And, that is why we cannot in good conscience continue to allow policymakers to make empty promises to improve public education whenever they need our vote to get elected.
Folks, we cannot allow the children and students of this nation to be a pawn in the game of politics. So, let me ask you the big question: Will the so-called No Child Left Behind law fulfill Brown v. Board of Education’s unfulfilled promise of equal access to a quality education for all -– as some would have you to believe?
The correct answer on this high-stakes test question is no, it will not.
In fact, this law will do more to undermine the promise of Brown than to bolster or strengthen it.
Brown’s legacy to this day has not been realized because too many poor and minority children still attend schools that are overcrowded, in ill-repair, lacking in textbooks and other basic supplies, and too many poor and minority children are being taught by inexperienced and, in some cases, uncertified teachers. That is the shameful reality 50 years after Brown v. Board.
And despite what they tell you, there is nothing in the so-called No Child Left Behind Law that will fix that.
If you want to leave no child behind then you must have a great public school. Unfortunately, there are those who do not want to acknowledge one important factor to making a great public school. Resources.
If you want a safe and orderly school –- you need resources to improve the infrastructure, to fix the leaking roofs, to remove the asbestos.
If you want qualified teachers and support professionals -– you need resources to recruit and retain, develop and train.
If you want to effectuate change that will ensure high standards and accountability -– you need resources.
To realize the promise of Brown is to realize the need for resources.
And the only thing that Brown and the so-called No Child Left Behind Law have in common is the lack of resources.
As our policymakers debate far-reaching educational policies, we -- the teachers, education support professionals, and higher education faculty -- must be involved; we must be at the table; we must frame the debate. Because we are in the schools.
Facts and figures are important, and yes, policy alternatives must be fully explored, but:
- unless and until many of our policymakers make the logical connection between quality public schools and qualified public school teachers and education support professionals,
- unless and until they make the logical connection between qualified teachers and education support professionals and high-achieving students,
- unless and until many of our policymakers make the logical connection between a great public school and adequate and equitable funding, we will continue to invest in incarceration instead of education and divest our children of the promise of a free, quality, public education.
When it comes to educating our children, there is nothing more important than getting it right. The importance of getting it right can be evidenced no better than by what occurs when you don’t get it right as with the so-called No Child Left Behind law.
Now, before word gets out of this hall, let me say today what I have been saying since we were able to analyze this piece of legislation in 2002.
The stated goals of this law are admirable and they are exactly what is needed –- a qualified teacher in every classroom, standards and accountability that make sense, and high expectations for every child. These are goals for which we have long advocated. They are not new to us.
And, if there was a true commitment to accomplishing them, I would be a happy man.
As educators, we value each student and we respect their individuality. Our goal is for every child to achieve and succeed: the physically and mentally challenged; the average and the remedial; the gifted and the talented.
We are determined to help all children succeed: those who speak not a word of English; those who begin school already one or two years behind their peers; those who come to school needing sleep or food, a bath or clothing; those who come to school beaten and abused; those who are disruptive, unruly and misbehaved. This is what distinguishes public schools and public school educators from all the rest.
We are committed to educating every child who walks through our doors. We don’t have the luxury of picking and choosing who that is. We take every student who comes to us. Unfortunately, as this law is currently crafted, we cannot achieve the goal of leaving no child behind because it demands that virtually all children meet the same level of achievement in the same amount of time, regardless of individual differences. And, if you think about all of the children that I just mentioned, you will note that they are different, and their “differences” are what determines how we teach them, and how they learn.
Notice that I did not say their ability to learn, but how they learn. And, as we all know, every child can’t learn at the same speed, or in the same way.
The law also relies exclusively on one set of standardized test scores to measure a child’s progress. And the consequence for those children, and the schools that they attend, is that if they do not all learn at the same time and rate, they are negatively labeled.
The result of this is a domino effect. It will begin to send a signal that says to the child that they can’t keep up with their peers; it will cause parents and the community to question the schools; and to the teacher it begins to force the concept of “teach-to-the-test.” Never mind teaching critical-thinking skills, decoding skills, and creative thinking.
That, my friends, is a disservice to the child, the parent, the community, and an insult to the professional, and to the profession.
If this law is ever going to work -- and we want it to work -- the Administration and the Department of Education must begin to learn how to listen.
The teachers and education support professionals who are in the classrooms could teach them a few things about children and students, and teaching and learning.
But as we all know, when you decide to bring another point of view to the forefront with our current Administration, you must be prepared for the backlash.
And, that is why two years ago when few dared to openly confront the inconsistencies and the inadequacies of this law, NEA did take a stand, and we even dared to speculate on the what ifs.
What if we don’t get full funding? What if our schools continue to be negatively labeled? What if our children are bused? What if there are huge unintended consequences? What if we find supplemental services turn into the bridge to vouchers and privatization?
What if …?
It is because of the “what ifs” that NEA has worked tirelessly to fix and fund this law. And, it is because of the “what ifs” that we continue to fight to ensure that voucher proponents and privatizers don’t become the beneficiaries of this law.
NEA has refused to stand by and allow our children and students to be harmed, and the integrity of the profession to be called into question and compromised, so that private interest can flourish on the backs of the greatest public interests of all -– and that is public education.
We have put forth a great deal of effort to work with the Administration and with the Department of Education and have been met with minimal success. We have had meetings with members of the President’s staff and with the Secretary of Education, and despite our best efforts, there seems to be a continued lack of acceptance of the professionalism and the expertise that this organization brings to the table. There seems to be an open disregard, and a blatant disrespect, for the classroom practitioners who day in and day out work with the children and students of this country.
We have been met with an ongoing campaign designed to try and somehow separate the NEA from you. This demonstrates a total lack of understanding of who we are, and how we work. There would be no NEA without you –- America’s current, past and future educators. We are you.
They obviously haven’t learned that yet. But, as educators, we understand that they learn at different rates, at different times, and in different ways. But we did not allow this to stop us. We set our sights on educating the policymakers, the public, our partners and allies on the true effects of this law, and on who we are. And the good thing is that our message has been delivered, thanks to all of you. We have been clear, concise, and most of all effective.
You have said that “one size does not fit all.”
You have said that this law will cause public schools and public school educators to waste our scarce resources on paperwork, bureaucracy and testing while the important ingredients needed to educate our children are relegated or excluded. NEA, you have let them know that there is no way around it, No Child Left Behind forces us to spend money we don't have, on programs we don't need, to get test results that don't matter. You have said it, and there are many who have heard it, and who understand it. Now, although we have realized small successes in our fight, the fight is not over. And the battle is far from won. A tweak here and a tweak there is not sufficient to remedy the ills of this law.
We need for policymakers to step up, and step out of the box, and loudly proclaim that they will do all that it takes to make public education a national priority. They may have believed in the promise of the law, and they may have believed in the promises of the Administration. Those promises have been broken.
If we are going to make this law work, one of the first things that the federal government has to recognize is that while it has a vital role to play in education, it cannot micromanage 15,215 school districts, with 47.6 million K-12 students, in every state across the country, from Nome, Alaska, to Eastport, Maine, and from International Falls, Minnesota, to Brownsville, Texas.
And, not only can’t you micromanage every school district in the nation, but you certainly can’t expect to be successful when you aren’t investing the resources necessary for their success.
The Administration claims that more resources are not needed, because public school districts and states have more money than they can spend.
Of course, there are state school officers and superintendents who would love to tell you how this assertion is based on a very creative and totally bogus interpretation of how states and school districts spend money. The Administration talks about student achievement standards while it is actually lowering teacher standards. Their budgetary cuts have made it so that qualified teachers and education support professionals are being laid off.
How, with fewer qualified teachers and support staff in the classrooms, can you expect to successfully increase student achievement? How, with larger class sizes because of fewer qualified teachers and support staff, can you expect to successfully increase student achievement?
And, how can you justify holding these very same over-worked, underpaid and under-appreciated teachers and support staff accountable when our children and students don’t achieve at their highest levels?
Folks, it is neither reasonable nor responsible to expect us to walk into a school building or classroom that is obviously substandard and to deliver an education at the highest standard, but to be given support and salaries that are below standard.
This, my friends, is a formula for failure. Teacher quality and student achievement are complex issues, but there is one thing that is very basic and crystal clear. You cannot place unprepared teachers in our classrooms and expect students to achieve. Just because you have a college degree does not make you a teacher.
And, unfortunately, these unprepared “teachers” are usually assigned to our most challenging schools –- where they will not be successful. And, I find it difficult to believe that the Administration and our detractors don’t know that to restrict resources while cycling unprepared teachers in and out of these challenging, priority schools is a formula for failure.
There is no way that these children, students, or “surrogate teachers” (for lack of a better definition) can be successful. The Administration’s unfunded mandates and multi-level budget cuts have effectively reduced education opportunities for all children and students. All of them. It does not matter if they are black, white, brown, red or yellow. Rich or poor. Urban, suburban or rural. For the most part, anyone who goes to, teaches at, or works in a public school today will feel the pinch of the Administration’s budget cuts. And, these budget cuts won’t heal.
Teachers and education support professionals are not afraid of hard work. You do it every day, and stand ready, willing and able to do what it takes to make a great public school for every child. To do what it takes to make the promise of Brown more than a promise, but a reality for all children.
But this Administration wants to cut you off at the knees, and then blame you when you can't walk. If what America truly wants is a great public school for every child -- a school where No Child Is Left Behind -- my approach would be to: Use a carrot instead of a stick to improve public education for all children, and to close the achievement gap between minority and majority students. Unwarranted labels and punitive measures will not accomplish our goals.
I would provide real support to the families of poor and minority children and to the schools that serve these children instead of providing empty rhetoric and unfunded mandates. I would substantially increase child care and development block grant funding under the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families law. Because today only one in seven children eligible for child care assistance through this program actually receives it. Each state should be provided with the support needed to create free, universal and voluntary pre-kindergarten programs, staffed by licensed and certified preschool instructors.
The federal government should provide states with the means to integrate universal preschool with existing Head Start programs –- fully funding for the first time the vital family and educational services available through Head Start.
Instead of cutting funding for parental involvement programs, school districts should be provided with what they need to set up parent centers in Title I schools. Financial incentives should be provided to school districts across the country to reduce class sizes, especially in the early grades, much as the state of California has been doing since 1996.
The federal government should help Title I schools recruit and retain quality teachers by forgiving the student loans of teachers who teach in these schools and by providing tuition aid for education support professionals who want to become teachers and teach in these schools.
- Child care
- Family support
- Universal preschool
- Class size reduction
- Parental involvement
- Teacher quality
Now that’s what I call a positive achievement-gap-closing agenda.
NEA, that’s what I call a can-do agenda that the American public will embrace. Especially when coupled with our continuing support for high standards, expectations and shared accountability -– not just for the students, but for the parents, and, yes, for the teachers and education support professionals as well.
But I can already anticipate the first question: Reg, where is the money going to come from to pay for all of this?
And my answer will always be the same: I don’t care. Yes, you heard me right. I do not care. What I do care about is that every child in this country gets a quality public education. What I do care about is that every young person who graduates from high school has an opportunity to go to a community college, or a four-year college or university, and realize their dream.
To the politicians who say there is not enough money, I say: If there’s enough money for tax breaks for the corporations and for the rich, then there is enough money for child care and family support. If there’s enough money for every pork barrel, special project in Congress, then there is enough money for universal preschool. If there’s $50.9M to subsidize organizations that seek to circumvent teacher quality assurances, then there’s enough money for legitimate teacher quality initiatives. If there’s enough money to spend $26,000 per prisoner per year to incarcerate them, then there is enough money for class-size reduction, teacher quality and parental involvement. Let’s focus on and fund education -– not incarceration.
You know, I’m a big proponent for advancing technology in education, because I believe that if our children are going to realize success in the 21st century they are going to need to be proficient with technology. I, on the other hand, am getting better at it, but I still have a ways to go. But, if you can imagine, I was out there “surfing the net” and I came across a Web site that I have since been told can be considered accurate. And this site calculates the cost of war.
I found out that as of that day, for what we have paid for the war in Iraq we could have:
- Paid for 17,066,831 children to attend Head Start.
- Provided health insurance for 51,741,858 children.
- Hired 2,299,310 additional teachers.
- Paid for 3,061,859 four-year scholarships to a public university.
So, I say, if there’s enough money for war, then there’s enough money for us to provide our children and students with that which will ensure that they achieve and succeed. Folks, the stakes for us are incredibly high. And this goes beyond Democrat or Republican -- it goes beyond liberal, moderate, or conservative -- it’s all about public education -- it’s about opportunity for all students from preschool through college, and it’s about respect for all public school educators.
And, it was because the stakes were so incredibly high that we have had to refocus. I will say to you that now, in 2004, I don’t believe that there is anything that I envisioned in 2002 that we have not touched upon. We may not have mastered it. We may not have completely realized it. But we have identified it. We have touched upon it. And while we realize that there is much more work to be done, we are making progress.
We have an organization that is focused on working collaboratively –- officers, executive committee, state affiliates, and staff. We have demonstrated that we will speak out loudly and clearly to protect the rights of all children to a quality public education. We have demonstrated that when we have a message to deliver .... it will be delivered effectively and efficiently. Our ESEA/No Child Left Behind message has garnered us the respect and support of many -– parents, educators, administrators, and politicians alike. And we are working on bigger and better messaging.
And, when we began to stand up for what we believed in, there were folks who chose to disrespect us, but we maintained the high ground -– even when they choose to be confused between teachers and terrorists. Because we know that to focus on the negativity is to be distracted from the work that we must do.
We have widened our parent, public, community and business partnering and outreach.
We’ve begun to look within, and to begin to better integrate all of the good work we are doing, and developing a laser focus on the best strategies to increase student achievement and to close the achievement gap. And, we are determined to grow our membership. We need those numbers if we are to ever influence education reform policy, ensure adequate and equitable funding of public education, defeat vouchers and the privatization of public education, and ensure that as teachers, faculty, education support professionals –- former and future educators -– that we receive the compensation that is representative of our professionalism and our worth.
Team NEA, we are going to begin by energizing and mobilizing our 2.7 million members to elect a pro-public education President -- and to elect a pro-public education Congress -- and it doesn’t matter to us if the candidates are Democrats, Republicans or Independents -- what matters is that they are pro-public education.
Our message to the Democrats is going to be: Don’t take us for granted -- we’ll support you if you demonstrate support for public education.
And our message to the Republicans is going to be: Don’t write us off -- we will do all that we can to support you if you demonstrate support for public education.
Folks, on November 3rd, the day after the election, we want to be able to wake up, look at ourselves in the mirror and say, “I did everything in my power to preserve our democracy, and to improve opportunities for children, students and public education.”
I know that if we put forth our very best effort -- we will be winners.
Our 2.7 million members can be the “X” factor in this election. We and our pro-public education allies can and will make a decisive difference.
We cannot match the hundreds of millions of dollars in the Administration’s campaign chest. But we have the advantage at the grassroots -- and you better believe that we are going to activate our grassroots beginning with The National Mobilization for Great Public Schools.
I believe that our destiny as public educators is not a matter of chance -- it is a matter of choice.
It is not to be waited for, it is to be achieved. Team NEA, there is so much that you can do. You can talk with your colleagues back home about this election and all that public education has to gain or lose.
Reach out to your friends and family and talk about the importance of this campaign, especially in terms of the values that are at stake. Ask them to vote for our children and our young people -- by voting for pro-public education candidates. Volunteer to work for a pro-public education candidate. Surveys show that voters are much more responsive to volunteers than paid political operatives. So volunteer. Campaign work can be exciting, invigorating work. Let’s have some fun –- and let’s get it done.
And we can get a whole lot done if you would just “give me five.” I want you to join the Reg Weaver “Give Me Five” club. And, there are a whole bunch of reasons to join.
Give me five new members. If each one of you went home and recruited five new members, can you imagine how many new NEA members that would bring to our state affiliates to help them accomplish everything that we want to achieve for our students and our members.
Give me five because you know the so-called “No Child Left Behind” law will not get fixed, and it certainly won't get fully funded, until we've elected a pro-public education president and Congress. This we know for sure.
TEAM NEA, give me five extra minutes with a parent or a community member to help them to understand how important a quality public education is to their lives and to their future. Give me five newly registered voters committed to a pro-public education agenda. Give me five full days between now and November 2 dedicated to electing pro-public education candidates.
Give me five, my friends, give me five. You are the soldiers of democracy. You are the teachers, higher ed faculty, education support professionals, retired and students members of this great association. You are the defenders of public education -- you hold the high ground.
You are the best -- and I know that you will do your best.
GIVE . . . . ME . . . . FIVE.
Team NEA, we are going to unite the nation for great public schools.
Team NEA, you are OUTSTANDING.
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The National Education Association is the nation’s largest professional employee organization, representing 2.7 million elementary and secondary teachers, higher education faculty, education support professionals, school administrators, retired educators, and students preparing to become teachers.
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