Even the liberal television networks have discovered the problem of illiteracy and other inadequacies of the public schools. But the nation’s largest organization of teachers and school personnel is focusing on everything except the quality of education today. The National Education Association (NEA) has just published its annual yearbook, a roundup of its official policy statements. One would get the impression from this journal, called “Today’s Education,” that everything is hunky-dory in the public schools and that the NEA members have the time to spend considerable energies promoting their leftwing political views.
The NEA reaffirmed its resolutions, passed every year, in support of abortion, abortion funding, and gay rights legislation (euphemistically described as an end to discrimination against sexual orientation). In 25 pages of fine print giving the 1986 convention resolutions, legislative program, and new business items, no mention was made of reinstating or even trying phonics, the proven best method of teaching children to read. On the other hand, all kinds of mischievous proposals were made to use the public schools for things other than the basics.
The NEA is terribly eager to teach children “birth control and family planning, parenting skills, prenatal care, sexually transmitted diseases, incest and sexual abuse.” The NEA also wants to clutter the schools with trendy new courses such as multicultural/global education, nuclear war curricula, and environmental studies. Ignoring the failure of the schools to teach basic skills, the NEA demands that schools get control of the children at an earlier and earlier age. The NEA demands legislation for “mandatory kindergarten with compulsory attendance” for five year olds, plus using the schools for child care of even younger children in order to equip them for a successful kindergarten experience.
The NEA wants any kind of book, film or material about sex to be available to children without regard to age. Here’s the way the NEA resolution expresses it: “To facilitate the realization of human potential, it is the right of every individual to live in an environment of freely available information, knowledge, and wisdom about sexuality.” Three NEA resolutions dance around the controversial sex clinics in public schools which dispense contraceptives and give abortion referrals. “The Association further urges the implementation of community-operated, school-based family planning clinics that will provide intensive counseling by trained personnel.”
In another resolution, the NEA endorses “Programs, such as direct services within the schools and referrals to and coordination with community and local governmental agencies, that work to resolve identified disabilities.” Eager to transform the schools from places of academic learning to social welfare and health-care centers, the NEA demands that the schools should give every student direct access to health, social, and psychological services.
The NEA demands that teachers alone have the authority to select or reject all materials used on pupils, and that the teacher’s sole authority to choose whatever they want be protected from interference by parents. It is obvious that the NEA is hostile to the constitutional rights of parents to protect the religion, ethics, culture and attitudes of their own children. The NEA’s hostility to parents is again evident in the section about child abuse. The NEA wants “due process” for all school personnel accused of child abuse and “immunity from legal action” if they falsely accuse parents of child abuse, but the NEA resolution doesn’t include similar due process and immunity for parents.
The NEA is vindictive in its attacks on private schools. The NEA not only opposes tuition tax credits and vouchers, but opposes the renting of any empty public school facilities to private schools even if such rent might be profitable to the taxpayers. The NEA “condemns the $100 million package (demanded by the Reagan Administration and passed by the Congress) to aid the Contra forces.” The NEA further threatens to “publicize through its publications and in the press,” NEA’s opposition to the Contras.
The NEA demands a nuclear freeze. The NEA demands gun control. The NEA opposes a Balanced Budget Amendment and demands repeal of tax indexing. The NEA demands that the United States submit ourselves to the jurisdiction of the World Court. The NEA demands a constitutional amendment to treat Washington, D.C. as though it were a state. The NEA policies sound more like those of a radical left front than an organization of people interested in excellence in education. And the NEA has a budget of $108.5 million to pursue its goals.
