But at least Weingarten is talking. AFT’s media strategy during this burst of national attention to education reform is messaging, messaging, messaging. The messaging may occasionally be contradictory, but it is something. The strategy of the NEA, which is twice as large as AFT and just as angry? Crickets.
From the homepage of the AFT you can link to all sorts of responses to “Waiting for ‘Superman.’” The homepage of the NEA features pleas for the usual agenda items (increased funding, teachers salaries) but only one direct response to the current debate: a link, midway down the page, to a teacher’s letter to Oprah. You can dig to find Van Roekel’s press release criticizing “Superman,” and he was a low-key presence on one of the Education Nation panels. But that’s not much, is it?
Why? Weingarten was a character in “Superman” and Van Roekel was not, though the film is only one small part of the discussion building this year. Maybe the NEA cannot settle on an approach. Stephen Sawchuk at Education Week wrote a great piece this summer about how the unions’ differing structures affect their ability to take a seat at the table regarding national reforms—essentially, the AFT is run by Weingarten and the NEA is run by its locals. Perhaps the NEA has some sort of cunning strategy I don’t understand—lie low and hope that it all blows over?
I guess the Weingarten/Rhee showdown appears irresistible to those who plan panels and make movies. So maybe we haven’t heard much from the NEA is because barely anyone has asked. Though why the nation’s largest union would wait to be invited before raising its voice is a mystery to me.
Hi Linda,
ReplyDeleteWaiting for Superman speaks for itself: it’s over the top. It demonizes teachers and educators. The public knows that, educators know that.
NEA members are rolling up their sleeves each and every day to make great public schools for every student a reality, one student at a time, one school at a time, one community at a time.
It's happening in places like Putnam City, Oklahoma, Evansville, Indiana, and Denver, Colorado.
I encourage you to see and read what some of what NEA President Dennis Van Roekel and others are saying about the movie in the media.
Van Roekel on MSNBC with Andrea Mitchell: http://showroom.multivisioninc.com/share.do?id=133968&key=qn6OwYqKyUkIPW2UQw3rIC9m0mHoHQmn&email=aspeight@nea.org
NEA Vice President Lily Eskelsen on Fox News: http://bit.ly/LilyonFox
Executive Director John Wilson quoted in the Associated Press:
"I'm afraid our members will think they're demonizing us," said John Wilson, executive director of the 3.2 million member National Education Association. "They're judging us by the worst of us, instead of the best of us. For our members, it's not going to be that uplifting."
NEA President Van Roekel quoted in The Nation: http://www.thenation.com/article/154986/grading-waiting-superman
Other members and leaders appeared on MSNBC, Fox News, NBC Nightly News, CBS Evening News with Katie Couric, and CNBC to name a few.
NEA's social media presence also echoed the sentiments of our members and leaders:
Speak up for Education and Kids on Facebook
NEA Media Relations on Twitter
NEAToday.org
NEA.org
NEAPriorityschools.org