WASHINGTON Stressing the conflict’s profound impact on Palestinian and Israeli schoolkids, and others worldwide fearfully eyeing the war, the National Education Association’s board reaffirmed the union’s prior demand for a total cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war.
This year’s gathering further exposed the chasm between the NEA officials and rank-and-file educators who are battling COVID-19, stagnant wages and further cuts to school funding.
NEA teachers union convention ignores a year of COVID-19 deaths and teachers’ resistance, salutes Biden
The National Education Association (NEA), the largest union in the US with roughly 3 million members, concluded its annual Representative Assembly (RA) on July 3. The convention was characterized by a cover-up of the immense toll of the COVID-19 pandemic on educators, school staff, parents and children, with the pandemic reduced to an “exacerbation of inequities and racism.”
Remarkably, the union failed to host an “In Memorium” for those NEA members and school workers who died from COVID-19 over the past 16 months. The teachers unions have admitted that over 1,000 educators have perished from the virus so far, but refuse to publish precise numbers or the names of those lost. The traumatizing events of the last year were swept under the rug while newly installed President Betsy Pringle and other top officials provided platitudes about “resilience,” “creativity” a