Teachers Feel a Lot More Welcome in Democrats’ Camp

When anyone snarled the words “teachers unions” at the Republican convention in San Diego, it brought a cascade of boos, catcalls and jeers.

But here, among Democrats, the National Education Assn. evokes a strikingly different reaction--chest-jutting pride accompanied by cheers, applause and shouts of “four more years.”

As the presidential campaign shifts to overdrive this month, the long-swelling controversy over the role of the NEA and other teachers unions in public education has burst forth as a major issue. Already under siege from reformers who argue that the unions stand in the way of overhauling troubled public schools, the unions are striving to make the 1996 election a referendum on their performance and future.

Teachers unions now are among the most aggressive of labor organizations, which are hoping to use the campaign as an arena to prove that they have regained the political clout they lost during the 1980s.

Bulging War Chest

The NEA, the nation’s largest teachers union, came to the Democratic convention in record numbers with a single-minded goal of reelecting the president. Moreover, the union brought with it a war chest of $5.5 million raised through its political action committee.

More than anything else, the teachers focused their anger on GOP presidential nominee Bob Dole, who leveled a blistering attack on the teachers union during his nomination acceptance speech. “When I am president, I will disregard your political power--for the sake of the children, the schools and the nation,” Dole said in comments directed at the NEA.

As Tuesday’s events demonstrated, the vigor of the Republican attack is matched by the warmth of the Democratic embrace of the unions.

“We love all of our teachers in Tennessee and in America,” Vice President Al Gore told teachers at an NEA rally here Tuesday. Noting that Dole had criticized the administration for being close to teachers, Gore said: “We take it as the highest compliment.”

Education Secretary Richard W. Riley, who was honored at the event, said that Republicans must be prevented from trying to balance the federal budget by cutting federal aid to schools.

“Our children didn’t create the budget deficit and they shouldn’t have to pay for it with their education,” Riley said.

‘Mad and Mobilized’

In return, the teachers shouted their approval and support. During the two-hour rally, some speakers praised the administration for its support of public education. Teachers in the audience urged them on with placards that exclaimed “MAD AND MOBILIZED.”

Among the many unions with a presence at this convention, the NEA is among the best organized. The teachers’ group boasts the single largest delegation of any independent organization with 405 delegates and alternates. Officials said that is an increase from the 365 delegates and alternates who attended the 1992 convention in New York.

Roughly one of every 10 delegates attending the convention is a teacher and only the AFL-CIO’s 800 delegates--representing a consortium of several unions--has a larger labor delegation.

“Why should it surprise anyone that we have the largest number of delegates from any single organization in this room,” NEA President Keith Geiger said. “We have been under the greatest attack of any group. The Congress has gone after federal spending on public education to a greater extent than any other public good.”

Teachers union critics have argued that student test scores are declining and drop-out rates are rising as pupils fail to master basic reading and arithmetic because teacher groups oppose reforms that would compel them to adopt skill-based instructions. Moreover, they have argued that teachers stand in the way of tougher discipline measures and embrace diversity and multicultural studies at the expense of improving performance on standard verbal and math tests.

Bob Chase, the NEA’s president-elect, bristled at the suggestion that the NEA is blocking education reform.

“Anyone who says we’re a hindrance to overhauling the education system doesn’t know what this organization has been doing,” he said Tuesday. The NEA has spent more than $70 million over the last 11 years on programs to upgrade curricula, institute new teaching methods and improve test scores, he said.

“Our desire is to improve education because it’s for the children.”

Clinton’s Literacy Push

As the teachers rallied, President Clinton released the details of a four-pronged “America Reads” proposal. It calls for offering $300 million in grants for programs to train parents to help their children learn to read, $2.5 billion for after-school and summer tutoring programs, additional funding to extend Head Start programs for 1 million 3- and 4-year-old children and partnerships with private and nonprofit groups to encourage reading.

Clinton’s announcement, made during a campaign stop in suburban Detroit as his train made its way toward Chicago, prompted a fresh fight with the Dole campaign over the influence of teachers’ unions in his administration.

“The most important thing we have to do is make sure our children are ready for the 21st century,” Clinton said, standing on the steps of a library at Wyandotte, Mich.

The $2.8-billion proposal is focused on helping preschool and elementary schoolchildren improve their reading skills by the end of the third grade.

Clinton said that $1 billion of the money needed to pay for the new programs would come from the existing budget of his AmeriCorps national service program and the balance could be raised through repeal of 11 tax breaks for businesses. Administration officials said that the changes could raise $8.5 billion for the literacy proposal and other new initiatives that the president plans to unveil during the convention week.

“I am grateful for the people who give their lives to education,” Clinton said of teachers and their unions. “I don’t think it serves the cause of education to attack the people who are educating our children.”

Dole on the Attack

In response, Dole spokeswoman Christina Martin released a statement repeating Dole’s charge that Clinton has failed as an education reformer. Clinton’s proposal is an admission “that our schools cannot accomplish the most basic task of literacy,” the statement said. “But, instead of pursuing fundamental reform--by confronting the teachers unions and embracing school choice--Bill Clinton announces a new government program and a new pot of money for the unions.

“While well-intentioned, today’s announcement--which involves no changes within the classroom during school hours--will do little to help the 40% of fourth-graders who in 1994 were found to scarcely possess reading skills.”

Such comments do not endear the Dole campaign to teachers, said Grace Northrop, who teaches homebound children in Gainesville, Fla.

“He’s talking about the unions but the union is made up of teachers,” she said. “It makes me mad that he would think people can’t distinguish the union from the teachers in the schools. I’m so mad that I can’t wait to go back home and mobilize even more of our constituency.”

Union leaders said that many teachers were outraged about Dole well before he labeled them a “special interest.” But as Dole escalates his attacks, they predicted, more and more teachers will be riled into greater political activism.

Chase and others argued that Dole decided to take on the union at the request of religious conservatives who favor federal vouchers for private schools--a concept that the union opposes because it says vouchers would drain resources and top students from public schools.

As proof, Chase cited the absence of religious right-wing groups from the limelight at the GOP convention.

“His attacks on teachers and [their] unions may very well have been [Dole’s] opportunity to embolden himself with the extreme right of his party,” Chase said. “He got a positive reception to his attacks from them but he didn’t get a positive reception around the country.”

Chase said that public opinion polls--even among Republicans--suggest that the nation opposes vouchers for private schools and favors increased spending on public schools.

“I don’t know who he’s listening to but I think he’s making a mistake,” Chase said. “I was on a radio talk show the other day and a caller said she was a Republican and a teacher, who didn’t belong to any union and had no intention of voting for Bill Clinton until she heard Dole’s speech.”

Chase and other NEA national leaders said that the organization has played only a minor and supporting role in attracting its members to the Democratic convention. Typically, NEA officials urge members to apply for delegate positions and explain the process in newsletters and other correspondence.

“If this had been eight years ago, you would have seen the NEA pushing its members at the local level to get involved in national issues,” Chase said. “But this year none of that happened. The members organized themselves because they were so concerned about the outcome of the elections in November.”