The RCEA has sent six delegates to the NEA Convention in San Diego. Tammy Wood, Bud McWhorter, Rick Elliott, Thom Ryder, Linda Hogan, and Sarah Hollett all made it safely through two plane switches on the journey to San Diego on June 30. Since then, meetings have been the order of the day. The representative assembly, the largest democratic deliberative body in the world, convened on Friday morning and will run through Monday. We heard an address from Government Bill Richardson, who received the friend of Education Award. We also participated in a "Town Hall" meeting with Education Secretary Arne Duncan. Without a doubt, the town hall meeting was productive. One of Virginia's delegates, Frank Cardella, brought the house down (5,000 est) when he bluntly but repspectfully questioned the Secretary about NCLB.
We've endured a gaunutlet of protestors. On Wednesday, we had to run a gauntlet of anti-abortion protestors who were shouting at us through megaphones and were holding horrific dead fetus posters. What these people neglect to let the world know is that NEA does not endorse abortion. It does endorse reproductive freedom.
Our sessions have mostly consisted of policy battles centering around charter schools, school funding, and basic civil rights issues.
More later.
Thom
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