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Neira outlines vision for pre-K through post-grad
April 28, 2005 NYSUT Vice President Maria Neira issued a call to convention delegates to defend and strengthen education from pre-K through higher ed. More than 20 years ago, Neira said in her inaugural RA report, the legendary Al Shanker, president of the American Federation of Teachers, declared that "it was as important for our union to strengthen the institutions where we work as it was to negotiate contracts and process grievances." Growing threats to public education make that mission more imperative than ever, Neira said: "We need to face those threats now by implementing what works. That will strengthen where we work." Thanking her predecessor, Antonia Cortese, for her leadership on education policy, Neira pledged to continue building on Cortese's record "of advocacy and strength." In a speech punctuated more than a dozen times by applause, Neira summarized for delegates the political threats to public education - many of them disguised under the term "flexibility." In higher ed, she noted, "college presidents and boards of trustees wanted 'flexibility' in the hiring of full-time faculty in teacher education programs. Of course, in this case 'flexibility' meant 'fewer' -fewer faculty ... and fewer course offerings for students." Fortunately, she said, "we were able to restore most of the standards for teacher preparation programs and keep the standards for higher ed faculty high." And when administrators and school boards wanted the "flexibility" to eliminate middle-level exploratory courses, the union prevailed in a three-year effort to convince the State Education Department "how important these classes are," Neira said. "NYSUT convinced SED to make sure that 'flexibility' didn't translate into 'elimination.'" To enthusiastic applause, Neira declared: "Middle schools will not be allowed to eliminate exploratory courses - and we will demand enforcement." She ticked off a long list of ongoing challenges to the union: math curriculum revisions; vouchers; charters; the Campaign for Fiscal Equity; underfunding of higher education; health care cuts; and the Bush administration's No Child Left Behind Act. "The issues we've faced and the challenges we've taken on have been almost unbelievable," she said. She spoke of the need to ensure early childhood programs for every child, quality mentoring, professional development and strong Career and Technical Education programs. Breaking into Spanish halfway through her speech, Neira then translated: "If you can't understand what I'm saying, how can we expect students who don't speak English to pass the English Language Arts Regents when they've only been here two or three years?" She called for accountable, high-quality bilingual and ESL programs to "give English language learners the foundation they need to be successful." Neira also bashed the Bush administration's recent proposal that could leave teachers out of the process of developing and monitoring Individualized Education Plans for special ed students. "We are getting together with the PTA and other advocacy groups to send this plan to the graveyard of bad ideas," she said. Neira reiterated the need to "double and triple our efforts to get more state funds for higher education," noting that New York State United Teachers is building a higher ed database to help in this fight. Noting that the union's "to-do" list is long, Neira said, "We have our work cut out for us. The challenges we face are real; they are here today and they will be here tomorrow. "We will face these challenges together," she vowed. |
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