As the nation’s largest teachers’ union comes to Philly, its leader talks vouchers, Israel-Gaza and the ‘surreal bizarro world’ educators must navigate
We need to understand that it’s a chronic problem. And the reason I point that out is because if we try to solve things like we usually do in education, silver bullet one time this and that — we’re not going to solve it. The NEA has been following this for almost two decades ... Fifty-five percent of our members reported to us that they weren’t thinking about it — they were planning to leave the profession. With our Latino teachers, that went to almost 60%. With our Black teachers, it was over 63% ...We’ve always suffered from what we call a wage penalty gap, where other professions — same amount of schooling, same level of experience, teachers earn 23% less.
NEA members will be voting this week on calls for the union to align with the Boycott, Divest and Sanctions movement, defend educators who support Palestine, and withhold endorsement of President Biden until he ends military aid to Israel. Do you have a position on this? In the classroom, what should teachers’ roles be in navigating these conflicts?, the return of all hostages. We talk about the need for working toward the future where both Palestinians and Israeli people have a homeland ...