The National Education Association (NEA) has enlisted 10,000 of its three million members to help reelect Barack Obama, says NEA President Dennis Van Roekel.
“Theenthusiasm is there,” Mr. Roekel told Reuters.
Last Wednesday, Mitt Romney took aim at teachers unions in a speech at the Latino Coalition’s Annual Economic Summit wherein he said:
The teachers unions are the clearest example of a group thathas lost its way. Whenever anyone dares to offer a new idea, the unionsprotest the loudest.
Their attitude was memorably expressed by a long-timepresident of the American Federation of Teachers: He said, quote, “Whenschool children start paying union dues, that’s when I’ll startrepresenting the interests of children.”
The teachers unions don’t fight for our children. That’s ourjob. And our job keeps getting harder because the unions wield outsizedinfluence in elections and campaigns. . .
The President can’t have it both ways: He can’t talk upreform, while indulging the groups that block it. He can’t be the voiceof disadvantaged public-school kids, and the protector of specialinterests.
President Obama has made his choice, and I have made mine:As president, I will be a champion of real education reform in America,and I won’t let any special interest get in the way.
We have to stop putting campaign cash ahead of our kids.
Last June, the NEA told Politico that it plans to spend at least $60 million to reelect Barack Obama.
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