Top Eight Challenges Teachers Face This School Year

By Mary Ellen Flannery With teacher bashing all the rage these days, we thought we’d show what teachers are actually facing when they step into the classroom each day. In no particular order, here are the top eight challenges facing educators this year: 1. All those kids!! In Georgia this May, after state funding for [...]

House Delivers Final Victory for Students and Educators!

By Cynthia McCabe They did it. By the hundreds of thousands, NEA members, coalition partners, parents and governors called, emailed and lobbied Congress, demanding they do right by the nation’s students and save 161,000 educators’ jobs threatened by budget cuts. Congress listened and the U.S. House today authorized $10 billion in emergency funds for the Education [...]

NEA Says Ed Reform Must Include Languages

By Amanda Litvinov World languages and international education are crucial to the future success of America’s students — and that’s why NEA is part of a coalition working to increase our schools’ capacity to teach them. “Our students deserve an education that prepares them to be global citizens,” said NEA Executive Director John I. Wilson [...]

NCLB: The Next Generation

By Alain Jehlen More focus on standardized test scores and new ways to punish educators. That’s what the Obama Administration has proposed in a “Blueprint” for revising No Child Left Behind (NCLB). Firing entire staffs over low test scores, as happened in Rhode Island and other states, is one of the strategies endorsed by the [...]

NEA Delegates Celebrate Nation’s History, Future of Education

By Amy Buffenbarger  NEW ORLEANS – On the second day of the 89th Representative Assembly – Independence Day – patriotic delegates form the National Education Association turned the convention hall red, white, and blue, honored the legacy of President Lyndon B. Johnson, and pledged to further his vision of quality public schools for all children.  The July 4th tribute [...]

Questions the Media Should Be Asking About Education

What happens when Lily Eskelsen,  the Utah teacher who serves as vice-president of the NEA, heads to the set of Fox News to discuss real education reform? Not a lot of discussion about real education reform, unfortunately. Here’s her behind-the-scenes look, taken from her blog, LilysBlackboard.org: I knew what was coming. I knew from the [...]

Study Finds Charter Schools Avoid At-Risk Students

By Alain Jehlen Although the Obama Administration continues to press for more charter schools, a new study finds many of these schools avoid the students who most need help. The study, from New York State United Teachers, the state affiliate of both NEA and the American Federation of Teachers, also uncovered rampant misuse of funds [...]

Educators Use Tele-Town Halls to Take Their Concerns to Washington

Pink slips, closed schools, and budget cuts have left many educators feeling like they are under siege in their own classrooms. As members of Congress prepare to reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, and discuss legislation to aid cash-strapped schools, educators are using tele-town hall meetings to share their concerns with lawmakers. This week, [...]

Florida Teacher’s Essay Becomes Rallying Cry for Respect

By Cynthia McCabe When people were attacking her and her fellow dedicated public school teachers, Florida fourth-grade teacher Jamee Miller got mad. And then she got to typing. The result? An essay called “I Am a Teacher” which caught fire in recent weeks on Facebook and blogs as supporters of teachers attacked by budget-slashing lawmakers and [...]

Republicans, Educators on the Same Page for ESEA Reform

One of the key proposals in the Obama administration’s blueprint for improving schools is pressuring local districts to take extreme measures, including closing the school and firing all the teachers. A growing number of Republican lawmakers are objecting to the plans, arguing that they will not work for their local students. The Senate’s ranking Republican [...]

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