It is, arguably, the most powerful union and lobbying group in the country. And you cannot envy what its members are up against.

Day after day, the National Education Association (NEA) sees the same statistics we do.

Plunging test scores. Floods of incoming college freshman who can’t read at even a sixth-grade level. Principals and school boards groping for incentives that will draw better teachers into lifelong service for high stress and infrequent appreciation.

Instead of embracing the joys of books and learning, America’s children are gorging junk food on the couch, dabbling with R-rated music videos and video games while their synapses run headlong down blind brain alleys.

Teacher morale remains low, as many grapple daily with parents who are disengaged and apathetic, neurotic or demanding, angry or eager to move their child into alternative educational settings.

Add to all that the professional pressures inherent in “No Child Left Behind,” and you can understand how the NEA leaders who gathered this summer in Orlando for their annual convention had their work cut out for them. The toughest question was undoubtedly the first one: where do we start, when it comes to fixing America’s schools?

Well, they figured it out. And, really, faced with so many incredible challenges, their priority makes sense. This is, after all, the NEA. They know the classroom. They know the teachers. They know the real challenges of education.

Which is why their elected leaders decided that, before anything else, the first thing our teachers have to do is win popular support for homosexual “marriage.”

That’s right. The all-knowing members of the NEA decided that what our kids need to know – more than math, geography, grammar, science, or computer skills – is what men and men see in each other, why women and women fall in love, and what our government and society “owes” those who practice homosexual behavior.

You can see why that kind of information is critical to a third grader, can’t you?

Of course not. The NEA didn’t think so. That’s why they’re taking the matter out of your hands. Listen, when the world’s largest teacher’s union elects to endorse same-sex “marriage,” they’re not talking tacit support. They’re talking posters and projects, classroom lectures and guest speakers, testimonials and textbooks – at every grade level, and in every public school, in every school district in America.

Questions, of course, accumulate. Among them:

What if a teacher or principal objects to same-sex unions, for reasons of personal faith or experience? What if said educator doesn’t want his (often mandatory) NEA dues going to support those who promote homosexual behavior? What if parents don’t want their children learning about sex (or sexual politics) at school? What if children are ill-equipped, mentally or emotionally, to handle the information presented by a zealous instructor? Continued...