NEA & AFT: Live From the Conventions
Vaishali Honawar has been in the news business for nearly 20 years. She covered the teacher beat for Education Week. This blog is no longer being updated, but you can continue to explore these issues on edweek.org by visiting our related topic pages: unions.
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New Teacher Blog at Ed Week
Education Week's teacher-obsessed reporters have a new place to air their thoughts.
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New Teacher Blog
Teachers are fun, aren't they? At least that's what I have discovered writing about them for the past few years. And now that the teacher unions' conventions are all in the past, we here at Education Week don't want the party to end.
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Unions Apart
The NEA and AFT often get clubbed together as the "national teachers' unions," but the differences between them are stark and many.
Education
Randi Attacks NCLB
Soon after she was announced as the new president of the 1.4 million-member American Federation of Teachers this morning, Randi Weingarten went after the No Child Left Behind law, all cannons blazing.
Education
Delegates Vote For NCLB Repeal
Will the two national teachers' unions never get on the same page, even with NCLB, which both dislike?
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Delegates Say Yes to Peer Review
Delegates also voted this morning to support a resolution urging all locals to consider peer-review and -assistance programs. The union's Toledo affiliate pioneered this program 27 years ago, and Fran Lawrence, the local's president, said there exists strong consensus among teachers in favor of it.
Education
Obama Ideas Better Received at AFT
There were no boos this time. In fact, there even was fairly strong applause.
Education
AFT Hikes Dues
AFT delegates this morning approved a dues increase, partly to pay for the union's Solidarity Fund that fights local efforts to cut public education funding and teacher benefits. Locals will now pay $15.35 instead of $14.70 per member, and the amount will increase to $16 per member the following year.
Education
Trouble at AFT's Chicago Local
This might not have been the best time for the AFT to go to Chicago. Even as the biennial convention is being held here, in what was the birthplace of the national union, there is a kettle of fish smelling up the local AFT affiliate led by president Marilyn Stewart.
Education
Hillary Comes Home to AFT
Hillary Clinton gave a "get-out-the-vote-for-Obama" speech to more than 3,000 AFT delegates this morning, focusing more on what might happen if a Democrat didn't win the White House this November rather than on any education issues.
Education
McElroy Lauds Change
Ed McElroy sought to lay to rest perceptions that he has not been a reform-friendly leader of the nation's more progressive teachers' union in his keynote address this afternoon, saying he has continued in the "forthright tradition" of former leaders of the union, Al Shanker and Sandy Feldman.
Education
Historic Year for AFT
The countdown has begun for the AFT convention that opens in Chicago Friday with a keynote speech from outgoing President Ed McElroy. Delegates are also expected to endorse Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, who is scheduled to speak to the 3,000 delegates via live satellite feed Sunday. Hillary Clinton, the union's first choice for president before she pulled out of the race, plans to be there in person Saturday.
Education
The Odd, the Offbeat, and the Unpredictable
At the NEA's four-day Representative Assembly this year, delegates went through 83 new business items and a generous number of amendments and resolutions. Subjects ranged from research on dropout prevention and doubling the number of NEA cyber-lobbyists to Domino’s Pizza chain CEO David Brandon's support for merit pay and outsourcing.
Education
Reform-Loving Randi
Everyone knows Randi Weingarten, who will be the AFT's next president, has forged numerous partnerships with the tough-as-nails New York City school district and has even started union-run charter schools in the city.
