Premium ContentMouse over Home then click on Premium Content for information.The board of directors of Nebraska's state teachers union has voted to support President Barack Obama for re-election in 2012.
Nancy Fulton, the president-elect of the Nebraska State Education Association, will carry that vote with her to Chicago this week, where the national union will consider a similar resolution of support.
The National Education Association is poised to become the first major labor union to endorse Obama for a second term.
“I anticipate that will be approved after a lot of heated debate,” said Fulton, 57, an elementary school teacher from Wilber-Clatonia schools who takes the helm of the state union Aug. 1. “In the end I think President Obama is supportive of education.”
The endorsement vote will take place at the NEA's Representative Assembly in Chicago from Saturday through July 5. The assembly is a policy-setting meeting of about 9,000 delegates representing local and state affiliates, teachers, education support professionals, higher education faculty, and student and retired members nationwide. The Nebraska association is a state affiliate of the NEA.
The delegates will consider a recommendation from NEA's political action committee to support Obama.
With 3.2 million members, the NEA is the nation's largest labor union. The Nebraska State Education Association has about 27,000 members.
The NEA supported Obama in the 2008 presidential election, but not all the president's policies have won the favor of teachers.
Obama and his secretary of education, Arne Duncan, have pushed for states to adopt higher academic standards, improve data systems for tracking student achievement, raise the quality of teachers and principals and turn around low-performing schools.
Some educators, however, have opposed the administration's push to allow charter schools, make states compete for some federal funding, institute merit-pay systems and remove teachers and principals at the worst-performing schools.
Fulton served six years as the association's vice president before her election as president this spring. She replaces Jess Wolf, who was president for six years.
Fulton taught elementary school in the Wilber-Clatonia Public Schools for 34 years.
Contact the writer: 402-444-1077, joe.dejka@owh.com
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