Local teachers unions stand by President Obama
The overwhelming power of teachers unions, Democrats’ most loyal foot soldiers for decades, has sparked tensions within the party as some question whether the labor groups have made public school reform – a key policy goal of President Obama – more difficult.
The sheer political muscle of the National Education Association the nation’s largest union with more than 3 million members – and the American Federation of Teachers has, over time, led the party to avoid substantive and controversial reform ideas that may inflame organized labor, education activists within the party contend.
A screening of the movie “Won’t Back Down” stirred controversy at the Democratic National Convention. The movie, to be released later this month, tells the story of two mothers who try to take over a failing inner-city school. The movie is Hollywood’s version of California’s “parent trigger” law, which allows parents to petition for changes to improve low-performing schools. Teachers across the country flunked the film and its message. “It’s about as realistic and authentic as E.T.” said Mona Davidson,president of theDesert Sands Teachers Association.”That’s the best way I can put it.”
The “parent trigger” and other Obama administration reforms like “Race to the Top” concern teachers. The “Race to the Top” competition rewards states financially for creative ideas and performancepartly based on standardized testing. “It’s because it’s punitive,” said Beverly Bricker, the president of the Palm Springs Teachers Association. “If you don’t, we’re going to punish you. Race to the Top basically the same thing, NCLB on steroids. which is probably the area where there’s the most disagreement between the Obama administration and teachers. “
The unions aren’t as valuable as the teachers and students according to Republican candidate Mitt Romney. At a campaign stop in Ohio, he said, “I want to make sure we put our kids and the teachers first, and the teachers union behind.”
“The Republican party sees unions as an obstacle, to making quality education, we are the ones who are fighting to make our students more successful,” said Bricker.
Despite concerns, teachers unions on the local and national level publicly endorse President Obama. It still doesn’t guarantee their individual votes.”There are 325,000 teachers in California, that belong to C.T.A. Are all of them going to vote for Obama? Absolutely not,” said Davidson. “But we’re not comparing Obama to the almighty, we’re comparing him to the alternative.”
Some teachers may not know yet who they’ll vote for in November, but one thing they agree on, the economy shouldn’t overshadow education.
“If we have students who are graduating high school, graduating college, well prepared to enter the job force, then our nation and our state can improve economically,” said Bricker. “If we continue to cut, we are going to pay the price.”
