California's 1,100-member delegation to the NEA Representative Assembly in Chicago was instrumental in making the case against merit pay. It also played a major role in persuading other state delegations to soundly reject the use of job performance evaluations based on test scores to determine teacher bonuses.
Speaking eloquently on the unfairness of merit pay was CTA Vice President Barbara E. Kerr.
If merit pay were to become a reality, she asked, "Who will want to teach the poor students? What about the students who don't speak English as well? This makes us vulnerable to the growing attacks by districts, school boards and our enemies."
Vice President Al Gore addresses RA.
"If you have merit pay," she explained, "teachers will be reluctant to go to schools where they will teach the most difficult children. We don't want teachers to be afraid of being innovative and creative just because they have merit pay hanging over their heads."
Tanya Kappner from Oakland speaks out on the RA floor
"Everyone wants teachers to receive higher wages, but merit pay just won't work. There are no studies that say merit pay works."
Kerr says defeating merit pay was a team effort. "California was one of five or six states that worked very, very hard. The debate was emotionally charged."
After the two-hour debate, delegates voted not to establish NEA criteria for analyzing other alternative compensation systems.
Delegates took a firm position in support of raising salaries for teachers and other education employees, minus merit pay.
Chase opened the meeting on July 3 with a clarion call for NEA members to rescue the education standards movement with a "massive infusion of common sense."
Peter Brown from San Diego
Throughout the 1990s, states have reviewed standards and raised expectations for students and schools. Chase pointed out that those expectations have not been matched with changes in curricula, materials and assistance for teachers - like reduction in class size and improved professional development.
Chase urged NEA to renew its commitment to pressing for commonsense gun laws, such as trigger locks, mandatory background checks, and bans on high-capacity ammunition magazines and semiautomatic assault rifles.
The need to keep schools and children safe was the focus of a special session July 4 that featured NEA members whose lives had been touched by violence. The need to keep schools and children safe was the focus of a special session July 4 that featured NEA members whose lives had been touched by violence.
Delegates voted to concur with the recommendation of NEA's PAC Council to endorse Vice President Al Gore for President in the general election. Gore addressed the Representative assembly on July 6, pledging to work with teachers as partners in efforts to reduce class size, modernize schools, meet children's human needs, and enhance access to quality public education.
"I won't rest until we make our public education the best education in the world, with a qualified teacher in every classroom, and all the support you need to succeed," Gore told cheering delegates.
CTA officers Barbara E. Kerr, Wayne Johnson and David A.Sanchez
Elections were held for positions on the nine-member NEA Executive Committee.
Dennis Van Roekel, a high school math teacher from Paradise Valley, Ariz., was re-elected to a second three-year term as NEA secretary-treasurer. Iona Holloway, a classroom aide from Louisiana, and Dan Sakota, a junior high school math teacher from Idaho, were re-elected to second three-year terms.
Delegates voted by secret ballot on a number of other key issues:
- Recognizing the growing threat of ballot measures and legislative proposals to weaken public education - through private school tuition vouchers, limitations on school budgets, and reductions in the ability of education employees to participate in effective advocacy - delegates voted to approve a special dues increase of $5 per member each year for five years. A portion of the funds will be used for a national media campaign highlighting the value of public education.
- Delegates also approved a constitutional amendment that provides a method to determine the allocation of NEA Board of Directors members and Representative Assembly delegates for state and local affiliates who belong to both NEA and AFT.
Voice votes were taken on resolutions and new business items. Delegates spoke out strongly on the appropriate use of testing and decried the practice of stealing instructional time in order to administer or prepare for standardized tests.
Among the new business items that won approval were ones committing NEA to fight bans on affirmative action and to collect state-by-state data on the use of high-stakes testing as the "sole measure of student achievement when making decisions for promotion, retention, graduation, or program admissions."
NEA delegates also approved a report on educational privatization, which establishes clear criteria that NEA will use to determine its support or opposition to private sector involvement in public education.
NEA recognized a number of individuals for outstanding contributions to public education.
Vice President Kerr
Senator Edward Kennedy, a long-time advocate for children and public education, was named NEA's Friend of Education, the Association's highest honor. Virtually every major education law passed since the 1960s has borne Kennedy's imprint.
National Teacher of the Year Marilyn Whirry, a CTA member who teaches English in Manhattan Beach, also addressed the Assembly. "I've been an NEA member all my life, and I'm proud of it," she told delegates.
She said she's learned that "risk taking is good, breaking rules is sometimes possible - and often necessary - and you need a joy of discovery and learning. Never compromise. Be rigorous, and challenge students to be the best they can be."
Honored on July 2 were 11 recipients of NEA's Human and Civil Rights Awards, three of them Californians. Antonio Villaraigosa, former speaker of the California State Assembly and a former UTLA staff member, was presented with the was presented with Cesar Chavez Accion Y Compromiso Human and Civil Rights Award for his commitment to the nonviolent philosophy and techniques of the late United Farm Workers leader. Sharron Lewis-Campbell, a member of the Alvord Educators Association, was presented the Mary Hatwood Futrell Award for her efforts to bring African American history to life for her students and boost achievement levels. Flossie Thompson-Peters of Los Angeles won an award for writing and illustrating books that show how African Americans have helped further the growth of society.
In his last speech to the RA, retiring NEA Executive Director Don Cameron reminded delegates not to forget the principles that have fueled NEA's healthy growth over recent decades.
"For NEA, unionism and professionalism are inseparable," he emphasized. "Professionalism without unionism is an empty vessel."
"We will never again be patronized and impoverished on the altar of 'professionalism.'"
