On March 23, 2011, the National Education Association (NEA), the nation’s largest teachers’ union, will partner with Rock the Vote, a self-professed “nonpartisan” organization, for the first annual Democracy Day. This event is advertised as a celebration of the 40th anniversary of passage of the 26th Amendment, which gave 18 year-olds the right to vote. The NEA claims that this amendment was passed because of a joint effort by teachers and students, and so will mark this occasion by providing high school teachers with a lesson plan and a free video that will hope to “empower students to navigate the election system, register to vote, and use their rights in our democracy.”
The fact that the liberal teachers’ union organization, which has access to millions of American adolescents, will hope to bolster Democratic voter turnout for the 2012 presidential election by couching their political agenda in a “civics lesson” is, at the very least, unethical, and consistent with the incestuous nature of public sector unions. The fact that it is partnering with Rock the Vote, which produced a video, in support of President Obama’s Healthcare bill, that urged young people to abstain from sex (aka, the “f” word) with anyone who did not support Obamacare, makes their pitch laughable. Yes, NEA is even touting that this Democracy Day lesson will meet the national educational standards.
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The organization is hopeful that their efforts to corral their high school students to show up at pro-union rallies in Wisconsin, Ohio, and Indiana will translate into a formula for success in the 2012 election campaign. Writing for the union’s online publication, Meredith Barnett rationalizes that since high school students were among the most vocal groups at their protests, “this upsurge of civic action is a model lesson for students in how ordinary citizens can affect change.” Barnett remarks that it is “fitting” that the pro-union protests are occurring at the time of the 40th anniversary of the 26th Amendment. In other words, the NEA has figured out how to put an “educational spin” on their need to get their high school students signed on to vote for pro-union candidates in 2011 and 2012.
NEA’s Democracy Day comes on the heels of another significant moment in NEA history. On March 3rd, Diane Schneider, representing NEA, attended a United Nations conference whose theme was the “access and participation of women and girls to education, training, science and technology.” Schneider, who is a high school health teacher from Spring Valley, New York, and a leader of the Gay Lesbian and Straight Education Network, told her audience that “oral sex, masturbation, and orgasms need to be taught in education.” She said that her organization was advocating for a curriculum which included both heterosexual and homosexual expression, and ridiculed abstinence-based sexual education programs or ones which are optional for students. Complaining that those opposed to educating children about both heterosexual and gay/lesbian expressions of sexuality “are stuck in a binary box that religion and family create,” Schneider urged educators to “make these issues a part of every middle and high-school student’s agenda.”
Yes, Ms. Schneider, “agenda” is, indeed, the operative term. Here, former NEA General Counsel, Bob Chanin, says it all:
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