The National Education Association has endorsed Joe Biden for the Democratic nomination for president.
The Los Angeles Times reports:
Joe Biden continued to consolidate support in his campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination today when he won the endorsement of the National Education Assn., the country’s largest labor union. With 3 million members, the union’s announcement will probably accelerate Biden’s effort to cement his standing as the Democratic front-runner.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
WTF!
Charleen Heidt Consultant Research & Design Ithaca, NY/Baltimore, MD 607-227-5954
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Behind the backs of membership while all dealing with a crisis. There’s already a petition against their decision. https://www.change.org/p/nea-national-education-association-nea-members-who-endorse-bernie-sanders
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Without discussion or vote of membership. This was a leadership end-run during a crisis when teachers asked for a delay in voting while all are trying to handle school closures and helping their students. Disgraceful. There’s already a petition against this decision. https://www.change.org/p/nea-national-education-association-nea-members-who-endorse-bernie-sanders
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Why
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NEA leadership continues to fail their members.
Biden is a neoliberal. He wants 3 year olds to attend school!!
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This is exactly the reason that Unions have a bad reputation. I know that one doesn’t have to vote for Biden just because “the Union” says to, but it gives the impression that the Dem Party is steering the NEA boat. Sanders has the best education plan and Biden has none, yet the NEA will endorse the candidate without a plan?….give me a break!
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YES. It makes the union’s lack of interest in actually changing the privatization game so very transparent.
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Well this is just pure embarrassment.
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and oh, the stomach-churning acid…
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What is wrong with the NEA leadership?
Bernie’s education plan is far superior than to whatever lip service coming from the cognitively impaired Joe Biden. NEA leaders seem to think we teachers (and our students) do not deserve better. That we continue to deserve an unfair evaluation process. That we continue to deserve to be shackled to the test-and-punish regime so beloved by Obama. “O’Biden” was mute during the 8 year assault on public education by his superior.
Might the fact that Biden’s brother Frank profited handsomely off of charter schools as a result?
Bernie offers the clearest path forward to healing our ailing country.
Shame on the NEA.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/brother-of-vp-biden-promotes-charters-invoking-family-name/2011/11/22/gIQAnhLFfO_blog.html
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Eleanor,
I agree with you, totally.
To answer your question: What’s wrong with NEA? Answer: Got their noses up someone behind or vice versa. Nevertheless, this is disgusting.
SHAME on NEA! SHAME on NEA! SHAME on NEA!
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I wonder is Lily is a Superdelegate, just like Randi was for Hillary Clinton.
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The DNC is steering the NEA vote when the NEA (and AFT for that matter) refuse to use their leverage with Dem candidates to negotiate & demand concessions on privatization before endorsing.
Joe Biden is no friend to public education https://www.jacobinmag.com/2020/03/joe-biden-public-education-segregation-charter-schools
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Joe Biden is NO friend to public education.
Can’t stand Biden.
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Thank you, jcgrim, for stating the truth.
Yet we are all supposed to dutifully fall in line.
I’ve been making phone calls for Bernie via virtual canvassing (very easy; 3 hour shifts) Since our schools will be shuttering Tuesday, I’ve signed up for four more shifts.
Please consider signing up and asking friends to help – Thanks
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Whether we are Bernie, Warren or Biden supporters there is so much we do not know about Biden’s education plans. He’s never been asked by the MSM or, from what we know, by the teacher’s union leadership. His staff is largely from the Obama administration and/or from private financial, law & fossil fuel industries.
When Biden is out on the campaign trail and is asked a tough question, his response is ‘don’t vote for me- go vote for Trump.’ THIS is who the leadership of teacher’s unions think will stop public ed disrupters?
His dismissive attitude suggests to me that he’ll staff his administration with another Arne “Katrina was the best thing to happen to NOLA” Duncan.
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Biden does have a platform for education, but it is vague enough for us to ask for an interpretation of it. https://joebiden.com/education/
This statement from Biden’s platform is not reassuring to public school teachers. He uses the zip code inequality meme that has been overworked by privatizers.
“Systemic racism is persistent across our institutions today – including in our schools – and must be addressed. President Biden will make sure that no child’s education opportunity is determined by their zip code, parents’ income, race, or disability.”
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In the past, delegates voted at the NEA RA for our nominee. I was there 3.5 years ago (in Atlanta?) when we voted. But before we even had the chance, there had been a preliminary vote by The Powers That Be for HRC. She was even on the t-shirt for the NEA Fund. I was plenty mad about that, but now they don’t wait for the NEA RA or our input.
Biden is not the man we want for president, and I believe he will lose. Even as much as Trump is screwing up this whole national emergency, I think he’ll prevail in November.
Unfortunately, unions have become part and parcel of the Democratic Party, even as they use and abuse us. This road to hell that we’re on with Trump didn’t simply begin in January of 2017. It’s been paved by both the GOP and the Democrats for over 30 years. Trump revels in his ugliness and his supporters do as well, but Dems are just as bad, they just tend to have leaders that are more circumspect in their evilness, or they’re so damn polite and cool about it, or they’re funny and amuse us by playing the saxophone.
Over 500,000 humans are dead because of the Iraq War. 500,000! Biden has that blood on his hands for his rush to war, for believing the lies, for presenting as witnesses people who were meant to sway the public to go to war. I can add to the litany of complaints against him, but I don’t need to.
The Democratic Party has spoken loud and clear how it feels about its left-leaning members. If your spouse were that abusive, you wouldn’t stay. Why do you stand for this?
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Who in this list of Biden supporters do NEA and AFT think will be pro-public education? MIke Bloomberg? Jamie Dimon?
https://www.axios.com/joe-biden-cabinet-vice-president-picks-b17882ac-3953-450f-8afb-38a3c8dcda57.html
I think there are many public figures who are afraid to effectively critique the Obama administration on some of its policies. While there are many elements of the Obama administration I want to see restored & expanded, their education policies are a definite never again.
“Joe Biden confidants are privately discussing potential leaders and Cabinet members for his White House, including the need to name a woman or African American — perhaps both — as vice president, top sources tell “Axios on HBO.”
Why it matters: Biden advisers describe a Return to Normal plan — a reversal of President Trump’s unorthodox, improvisational style. Biden wants known, trusted people around him — many from the Obama years.”
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frightening to know that Biden will not have one negative word to say about the reformers: his love for educational ‘experts’ like Duncan and Emanuel will remain high
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I read yesterday (I don’t remember where, and I do not care – if anyone wants to fact check my comment, use Google) that 80 is the average age of someone that dies from COVID-19 and at 60 the risk factor starts to climb (based on current data that could change).
If that is correct, then we will have to wait until November to find out if all of our candidates are still around.
Donald Trump is 73 and it is alleged that he tested negative for the virus, but anything that comes out of his administration must be taken with a ton of salt. But, Trump cannot be healthy because of his fast-food, no exercise lifestyle. Pence is 60, but I suspect he isn’t human and his skull has no brain inside of it.
Joe Biden is 77
Bernie Sanders is 78
Let’s hope that Biden and Sanders select VP running mates that are much younger and would make great presidents.
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It would make me feel better if youth came into the equation. Nonwithstanding the record Biden has toward public education, there is a greater probability of moving Joe Biden than there is in moving the privatization people who are represented by trump and DeVos.
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I agree.
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Of effin course Randi chose Biden.
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As noted, the timing on this is so awful as to be offensive. While teachers across the country are supposed to worry about whether or not school is open, how to avoid spreading the virus if it is, how to educate their students if it isn’t, how to balance keeping their families safe while still providing for them economically, etc., the NEA leadership springs this announcement.
Why isn’t the NEA focused on managing the outbreak and caring for people like the rest of the country instead of propping up support for an impaired old man who probably doesn’t know the word coronavirus?
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Donald Trump will “LOVE” Dienne77’s “perfect” description of Biden as “an impaired old man who probably doesn’t know the word coronavirus”
If both Biden and Trump are alive and running for the presidency in November 2020, I will vote for Biden because he isn’t anywhere close to being as impaired as that other old man that doesn’t have a vocabulary beyond a fourth-grade level.
I wonder if Biden exercises. Trump doesn’t believe in exercise.
I wonder what lifestyle diet Biden eats. We know Trump is in love with “perfect” fast food from McDonalds and KFC.
Dienne77, do you know what a steady diet of fast food does to our bodies and brains?
“Eating McDonald’s regularly — and fast food in general — isn’t a sustainable diet. The 2004 documentary Super Size Me followed documentary filmmaker Morgan Spurlock as he ate three meals a day at the fast-food chain for 30 days. He gained almost 25 pounds and was told he suffered from irreversible heart damage.”
Dienne77, do you know what happens to an old person like Trump when he does not exercise at all?
“The physical decline of older age
About half of the physical decline associated with ageing may be due to a lack of physical activity. Without regular exercise, people over the age of 50 years can experience a range of health problems including:
https://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/health/HealthyLiving/physical-activity-for-seniors
Dienne77, do you know what happens to an old person’s brain, like Trump, when he does not exercise and eat a healthy diet?
“Put simply, what you eat directly affects the structure and function of your brain and, ultimately, your mood. …
“If your brain is deprived of good-quality nutrition, or if free radicals or damaging inflammatory cells are circulating within the brain’s enclosed space, further contributing to brain tissue injury, consequences are to be expected. What’s interesting is that for many years, the medical field did not fully acknowledge the connection between mood and food.”
https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/nutritional-psychiatry-your-brain-on-food-201511168626
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Maybe the NEA history teachers remember the last time the Democratic Party nominated an old fashioned liberal for president they lost 49 of all 50 states. Maybe we fear that a vote for Bernie would be the last vote we ever get to cast.
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Bernie is not an old fashioned liberal. He is decidedly to the left of a Biden. That’s the choice.
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My point was that even a liberal was a disastrous choice. I can’t imagine what would happen if we nominated a socialist.
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It doesn’t matter who wins in 2020, all the candidates are older.
Biden is 77
Sanders is 78, one year older than Biden
Trump is 73, but that is his chronological age. With his lifestyle of fast food, his love of Diet Coke, and no exercise, his biological age has to be much older. It doesn’t matter how long Trump’s parents lived if their lifestyles were healthier than his. A unhealthy lifestyle can shorten Trump’s life despite the genetics he inherited from his parents. Anad, we have already witnessed PLENTY of evidence that Trump’s mind is going, going and almost gone even if his body lives on.
Ronald Reagon was 69 at the time of his first inauguration. Trump was 70 when he took the Oath and said his first lie as president. Currently, Donald Trump is the oldest president ever elected.
“Trump’s Dietary Habits
“President Trump is not known to be a conscious eater. He is reputed to love Diet Coke, along with ample servings of fried chicken. However, Mr. Trump’s appetites don’t end here as he is also said to have a particular fondness for large, well-done steaks smothered in ketchup, as well as thick juicy hamburgers.
“There are even photographs of the President enjoying a second scoop of ice cream with pie as everyone else around him has a single scoop. If you’re wondering how a person with this type of diet can maintain healthy cholesterol levels you’re not alone, which is why his doctor has put him on the prescription medication known as statins. Apparently, this part of his regimen is working as the President’s echocardiograms show normal results. …
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/trump-how-old-is-too-old_b_591c5165e4b021dd5a82904a
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