Parents who wonder why the public schools teach so many things parents don't approve of need look no further than the official policies of the nation's largest teachers union, the National Education Association. Meeting in Orlando, Fla., this year in annual convention over the Fourth of July weekend, the NEA adopted a long series of left-liberal resolutions.
Word leaked out several weeks ahead of time that the convention was ready to take the plunge and endorse same-sex marriage. That would be no surprise, because the NEA usually passes at least a dozen resolutions promoting the gay rights agenda.
Apparently, the advance negative publicity had a salutary effect and, although already circulated, the same-sex resolution did not come to the floor for action. A compromise resolution, however, was easily adopted as part of resolution B-10 on Racism, Sexism, Sexual Orientation, and Gender Identification Discrimination.
It reads as follows: "The Association also believes that these factors should not affect the legal rights and obligations of the partners in a legally recognized domestic partnership, civil union, or marriage in regard to matters involving the other partner, such as medical decisions, taxes, inheritance, adoption, and immigration." "Factors" refers to "race, gender, sexual orientation, gender identification, disability, ethnicity, immigration status, occupation, and religion."
Other NEA resolutions promote the gay rights agenda in public school curricula by demanding funds to alleviate "sexual orientation discrimination," to use multicultural education to reduce "homophobia," and even to put "diversity-based curricula" and "bias-free screening devices in early childhood education." Another resolution demands that schools hire "a diverse teaching staff."
But the NEA certainly doesn't believe in diversity when it comes to schools. The NEA is positively paranoid about any kind of competition, passing resolutions against voucher plans, tuition tax credits, parental option or choice plans, sectarian schools, for-profit schools, distance learning, and home schooling.
The NEA beefed up its anti-home-school resolutions this year by demanding that home-schooled students "meet all state curricular requirements," and that they not be permitted to participate in any public school extracurricular activities. The NEA even opposes renting or selling empty public school buildings to any non-public school.
NEA resolutions again endorse the principal goals of the feminist agenda, including abortion, the Equal Rights Amendment, Comparable Worth, non-sexist language, and a federally funded women's commission to pursue feminist goals at taxpayers' expense. The NEA also supports "community-operated, school-based family planning clinics that will provide intensive counseling," which is a thinly veiled welcome to Planned Parenthood to put its clinics in schools.
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