The National Education Association’s President Becky Pringle started screaming and pounding the podium at their huge annual assembly in Philadelphia. She declared they needed to push for more power, to “win all the things”. Pringle, a Democrat who was an advisor to Obama, shocked social media. Pringle wanted to transform American education into a “racially and socially just and equitable system”.
The president chanted
“Keep going, NEA, to preserve our democracy! We must win all the things. Our students are depending on us to win all the things. All the things! All the things! All the things! We are the NEA!”
She was furious at what happened to the system with Trump as president and that Biden or a Democrat has to remain in that seat of power.
“To unite not just our members, but the nation to reclaim public education as a common good, as the foundation of our democracy, and then transform it into something it was never designed to be—a racially and socially just and equitable system. We worked hard to rid ourselves of a tyrannical, deceitful, and corrupt White House, but the reality is that the seeds that were sown during that horrible season continue to germinate.”
She thinks the NEA can get the job done. “We are the ones who help shape the heart of this nation’s hope and dreams. We are the ones who hold steadfast to the belief in the plausibility of the possible. We are the heirs of all who did this work before us. We must keep going. NEA Delegates, we can do this work. We must do this work.”
The president resembled Dwight Schrute
Her speech often departed from what she’d prepared to say and she channeled Schrute.
“Blood alone moves the wheels of history! It has been a lifetime struggle. A never-ending fight. I say to you, and you will understand that it is a privilege to fight! We are warriors!… Rise and be worthy of this historical hour! No revolution is worth anything unless it can defend itself! …We must never acquiesce, for it is together, together, that we will prevail!”
His character made similar gestures. School choice advocate Corey DeAngelis poked fun at Pringle by putting flames behind her.
DeAngelis sees their lust for power and thinks they should be defunded.
“These power-hungry control freaks think they own your kids. They’re in a cult that worships government and detests parents. It’s time to defund teachers unions and allow the money to follow the child. Becky Pringle pulled a Dwight Schrute. She is off-the-rails and desperate to maintain control over the minds of other people’s children.”
Among things the president left out
Nicki Neily is founder and president of the nonprofit group Parents Defending Education. She mentioned Pringle said nothing about student hearing loss in that half hour address.
Pringle doubled down on the NEA’s opposition to school choice. “With determination and defiance, we will protect public education. We will fight privatization. We will fight vouchers. We will fight any and all schemes to drain resources from our beloved public schools!”
Her speech included her disgust with a Supreme Court not filled with Democrats.
“Today, they sprout as vitriol toward our profession, increased marginalization of black, brown, AAPI, and Indigenous communities, rising hatred toward our LGBTQ+ siblings. The seeds of hate manifest themselves as attacks against our freedom to teach and our students’ freedom to learn. They’ve mushroomed into poisonous spores of a stacked Supreme Court — one that continues to render decisions that attack, diminish, and disregard the needs and lived experiences of far too many Americans.”
