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| No | 26% | 44 votes | Total: 169 votes | |
| Yes | 74% | 125 votes |
No
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Add to FavoritesWhile the convenient answer to the question of credibility is "Yes", the implication that the NEA has lost its usefulness raises the real question, and the answer is "No." The NEA is a bargaining body whose charter is to protect and serve its constituent membership, the teachers of our children. Credibility is not as important as survival.
As a union, it is by definition anathema to the political right. Its effectiveness is gauged by the strength and loyalty of its membership, which seems to agree the NEA serves its interests. In an unfavorable political environment, such strength is unusual. Most unions have been weakened by globalization: an Ayn Rand ideology supported by a Milton Freedman economic view of a "wild west" free market economy and the resultant downward pressure on wages that has the promise of returning America to pre-New Deal feudalism when Robber Barons got filthy rich on the backs of desperate men and women.
It was Roosevelt's New Deal and the rise of union protection of workers that established and grew the American middle class and created the richest nation in history. The diminution, in recent decades, of unions like the AFL/CIO and the United Auto Workers directly affects the distribution of wealth and threatens the strength of the middle class. As the middle class loses its buying power, the nation's wealth falls to a plutocratic oligarchy of multinational corporate giants who find new consumers offshore to sustain profits and keep their investors pleased, which further focuses wealth and shrinks the American middle class. Whether this "new economic order" will improve the lot of the world's masses remains to be seen.
That said, it is unions like the NEA that remain the last vestiges of average Americans' power to negotiate and enforce wages and benefits that sustain our middle class. If the NEA sometimes uses tactics that appear underhanded, who can blame it in the face of virulent political legislation and judicial support of anti-union sentiments? If the NEA occasionally takes unpopular positions it does so in the face of powerful opposition by a tiny segment of the American population: the very rich. It is that segment that controls media and defines the criteria by which the NEA's credibility is viewed.
Credibility would be moot if the NEA were powerless. It is the power of hundreds of thousands of voting members that frightens politicians and corporations. If the NEA is able to serve its members and sustain for them the ability to feed their children, have health insurance, and buy a home, then it has done its job.
Learn more about this author, Michael Patrick.
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Yes
Yes the NEA has done more harm to education in America than the US government
Unconstitu tionally stuck their nose into education. Education was and is a State Right.
The demise of good educations in America began in the public schools in 1963 when
Mad Madelyn O'Hare got a liberal Supreme to Interpret the Constitution is stead of
Reading it as written.
Why was the First Amendment even written? It was the number one demand of the
ten that became the Bill Of Rights. The colonies had Official State Religions and to
comply with THE Constution They had to write into their constitutions that Freedom
of Religion was the law. The States did not want the Federal Government to establish
a National Religion. If you read the Colony Constitutions and the rewritten State
Constitutions this fact is self evident. Examples: South Carolina 3/18/1778 Article XXXVIII. ..that GOD is publicly worshipped, shall be freely tolerated. The Christian Religion shall be deemed and is here by constituted and declared to be the established
Religion of this State, The first men from Virginia were all Episcopalian because that
Was the colony's and State's Official Religion. If you read the preambles of all the states
You will find all fifty refer to God. Alabama 1901 , Preamble . We the people of the State of Alabama,
invoking the favor and guidance of Almighty God, do ordain and establish the following Constitution.
Alaska 195 6, Preamble . We, the people of Alaska, grateful to God
and to those who founded our nation and pioneered this great land.
Arizona 1911, Preamble .. We, the people of the State of Arizona,
grateful to Almighty God for our liberties, do ordain this
Constitution...
Arkansas 1874, Preamble . We, the people of the State of Arkansas,
grateful to Almighty God for the privilege of choosing our own form of
government...
California 1879, Preamble . We, the People of the State of
California, grateful to Almighty God for our freedom.
Colorado 1876, Preamble . We, the people of Colorado, with profound
reverence for the Supreme Ruler of Universe.
Connecticut 1818, Preamble. The People of Connecticut, acknowledging
with gratitude the good Providence of God in permitting them to enjoy.
Delaware 1897, Preamble . Through Divine Goodness all men have, by
nature, the rights of worshipping and serving their Creator according to the dictates of their consciences.
Florida 1885, Preamble . We, the people of the State of Florida,
grateful to Almighty God for our constitutional liberty, establish this Constitution....
Georgia 1777, Preamble .. We, the people of Georgia, relying upon
protection and guidance of Almighty God, do ordain and establish this
Constitution...
Hawaii 1959, Preamble . We , the people of Hawaii, Grateful for
Divine Guidance. Establish this Constitution.
This is a few from first to last. America is God's Country.
Educational scores in our Public Schools have dropped and violence has soared since 1964.The NEA through their powerful lobbiests control the
Schools and their Curriculum.
Learn more about this author, Elmer Corby.
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