Teachers' Association Censors Lawmakers' Rankings

The National Education Association is hiding its rankings of Connecticut's Congressional delegation. The NEA ranking grades how well members of congress support education.

The NEA publishes grades for U.S. House members on its website, for the congressional delegations of most states. But the Democratic-leaning organization won't publish the rankings of Connecticut's delegation.

Brian Schubert, a spokesman for Connecticut's Nancy Johnson says it's ironic that an education group would engage in censorship. What is the teachers' organization trying to hide? The fact that Connecticut's Republican members of Congress supported the NEA' positions:

Based on the NEA's published criteria, Schubert said, all three Republican members of the Connecticut delegation appeared to earn an A.

The three Republicans in Connecticut have strong pro-education voting records and agendas, and the partisanship leadership of this group doesn't want the public to know about that.

According to the Hartford Courant Connecticut's Congressional Representatives all deserve good marks from the NEA:

John Larson, Democrat of the 1st District, voted with the NEA four times and missed a vote on funding for vocational-and-technical education funding.

Rob Simmons, Republican of the 2nd District, voted with the NEA four times and was absent on the merit-pay vote.

Rosa DeLauro, Democrat of 3rd District, voted with the union on all five issues.

Chris Shays, Republican of 4th District, voted with the union on all five issues.

Nancy Johnson, Republican of the 5th District, with the NEA on four of the five votes. She supported the merit-pay proposal opposed by the union.

By hiding the good election-year report card for the Connecticut's Republican Congressional delegation, the NEA is hoping to appear less hypocritical when the organization endorses the Democratic challengers over the Republicans who have supported NEA positions. Shame on the NEA.

Comments

[Kent]

The NEA grade isn't really for support of education. It's for support of teachers' unions, which is very nearly the opposite.