The American Federation of Teachers (AFT), a union of over 1.3 million members just delivered it’s petition on No Child Left Behind (NCLB) to Congress. Actually, they delivered it to Hilary Clinton. They got a nice photo op too!
A whole 10,000 people signed it. That’s online and offline. That’s members AND supporters. That’s less than 1 percent of their membership!
I’m so underwhelmed just thinking about it.
If 10,000 people sign something in my town of 27,000, that’s a huge message. But a whole 10,000 people out of 1.3 million members? AND additional supporters?
The AFT has been doing a very good job of promoting discussion on NCLB. They support bedrock national goals, qualified teachers, and extra help for children. They affirm the attention given to the problem of failing schools. Their ongoing discussions about chronic under funding, qualified test results, special education and hurricane related concerns, access to universal high quality early childhood programs, and advocacy for those districts serving students with limited English proficiency are very detailed and valuable.
The petition itself is very small and not too specific. It just says in two brief paragraphs that NCLB is not living up to its promise and that politicians need to listen to teachers and parents.
But then it doesn’t say much. How did it not live up to its promise? And what message specifically will the AFT presumably convey on behalf of teachers and parents? To find out, you need to do more than read a petition.
The AFT has the resources to really promote solid evaluation and detailed discussion of NCLB. They have the ability to truly educate politicians and the public about how the policies are working or not working. I am very disappointed in this weak grandstanding from such a powerful and prominent group of people. It makes a very serious matter look silly.
NCLB needs a lot of attention, evaluation, and change. It is a complicated piece of legislation, and it needs to be evaluated over time with the input of teachers’s unions, parent associations, and community supporters. Nonsense like this just makes it easy to overlook the very people whose opinions and experiences matter so much.