Educators or Kingmakers?

by David White - March 10th, 2008 - The New York Times

If the Democratic race is settled at the party’s convention this summer — not unlikely, given Hillary Clinton’s victories over Barack Obama in Ohio and Texas — certain delegate constituencies are going to be the object of much affection from the candidates. Most prominent among these is the delegate and superdelegate bloc affiliated with the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers, the nation’s two largest teachers’ unions. In 2004, more than 400 regular delegates to the convention were members of the two unions, making up a group bigger than every state delegation except California’s.

Good news for the unions, however, might not be good news for education. The union agenda has often run counter to the interests of students and teachers alike.

Maybe we are making some headway in pointing out the anti-education agenda of the education unions, when even the New York Times is conceding the union's goals are "counter to the interests of students and teachers." The NY Times is usually supportive of any of the Democrat pressure groups.

It would be nice if they really cared about our kids. However they seem more concerned with whether this particular special interest group is going to align with the right Democrat candidate.