McCain Supporting Teacher: McCain’s Education Policy Needs Improvement

I spoke to this McCain supporting NEA member about John McCain and why he likes him — he has his reasons, but he doesn’t seem to think much of McCain’s education policy:

Meanwhile, the NEA’s official press materials want you to know that “Nearly one-third of the 3.2 million members of the National Education Association are Republicans. Nearly 20 of those NEA members will be on hand and play a part when Sen. John McCain accepts his party’s nomination for president of the United States next week during the Republican National Convention in Minneapolis-St. Paul.”

It’s worth saying that while John McCain doesn’t have a very union-friendly education policy, there’s something of a union-’winger convergence around No Child Left Behind. The unions don’t want the federal government imposing any kind of system of standards and accountability on schools and their staff. And a certain strain of conservatism doesn’t want the federal government doing anything with regard to education. Meanwhile at his acceptance speech, Barack Obama said: “I’ll invest in early childhood education; I’ll recruit an army of new teachers, and pay them higher salaries and give them more support; and in exchange, I’ll ask for higher standards and more accountability.” This is basically the kind of thing the DC teacher union affiliate decided it wasn’t interested in when the Fenty administration put it on the table.