Membership Renewal & Peace & Justice at the RA in Philadelphia

A Letter to Midwest Regional
Peace & Justice Members
from Tom Wolfe, Midwest Region
Peace & Justice Caucus Director

Dear Midwest P&J members,

Hello to all. Most of you are done or nearly done with school this year, so I thought I'd mention a couple of things before everyone goes his own way. First of all, our P&J Caucus guided a new business item through Delegate Assembly in April that will have our state delegation present the following to the NEA-RA this summer in Philadelphia.


The NEA will lobby Congress to completely overhaul the current, fundamentally flawed “No Child Left Behind” version of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act.

RATIONALE:

The basic premises behind NCLB are fallacious. We must have an ESEA that moves beyond a top-down, simplistic accountability framework to a framework based on shared responsibility, trust, equity, and quality teaching and learning, with federal support, not control, that empowers youth to thrive in a democratic society and diverse, changing world. We must have an ESEA that tries to help public schools, not hurt them.

NEA reports that six national education groups have rallied together to push congress for significant changes in the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. We must be more active in our lobby to see that this is changed.

Congress will consider reauthorization of it in September, I believe, so action this summer should be timely. Our ISEA leadership is in charge of the motion now, but those of us at the RA this summer can be supportive.

For those of you who will not be attending the RA in Philadelphia, I hope you will consider renewing your membership. We are including a downloadable version of the form for your convenience.

Please click here for a PDF version of the NEA Peace & Jusice Caucus Membership Renewal Form.

Please click here for a Microsoft Word version of the NEA Peace & Jusice Caucus Membership Renewal Form.

Once you've opened the file, please print three copies of the form, send one with a check to the address on the form, a second to me at

Tom Wolfe
1905 Emerald DR
Davenport, IA 52804

and keep the third for your own records. I hope the rest of you will renew your memberships in Philadelphia or Storm Lake. We'll have forms available in Philadelphia and, hopefully, a table in Storm Lake.

We'll have a membership meeting along with a reception at the Summer Conference in Storm Lake this August, and at that time we'll hold elections for president and secretary. I have no particular desire to continue as president, and I urge you to consider that position. We need new ideas, and I can help any new president with the transition.

I'll see many of you in the next few months, but for the rest I hope you will renew your memberships, and I wish you a good summer.

Sincerely,

Tom Wolfe

Tom Wolfe

Peace & Justice
Midwest Region Director