NEA against homeschoolers?

Question

Last September I wrote a petition addressing the fact that the NEA is very unsupportive on homeschoolers. I have tried several times to contact them via email and gotten no response. The petition is almost up (with over 7500 signatures!).

Any advice on how I can:

1-Get those final signatures to reach my goal?

2-Get the NEA to respond to the comments?

If you haven't seen the petition yet you can read it here: http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/homeschoolers-against-nea-philosophy

Answer 1

It's "National EDUCATION Association", not educator''.

If you want them to receive your petition with more than utter disdain, you might first educate yourself and get their name right.

Seem to me you're wasting your time.  The NEA, like any union, is required by law to promote its members' interests.  While that's open to interpretation, any union that encourages or even tolerates non-union goods or services is, by definition, failing to serve the members' interests.

IMO it would be good for there to be a new corporate model that bridged that adversarial relationship between management and labor.  But adversarial is the status quo, and any hope you have of convincing the NEA to cozy up to homeschoolers is nothing more than quixotic.

Answer 2

The National Extortion Agency is a very liberal organization to be sure, you can make bet on it. They are against home schooling mainly because of two reasons.

The first is the most obvious. For every student that is home schooled they lose funding. The state funds are appropriated by the number of children enrolled, and you are a threat to them.

The second reason is that once the students are part of the school they become subject to their agenda, which is to brain wash the students into believing in their leftist view point. Ever hear of Global Warming ? Just take a look at the History text books they use. Important parts of our history have been changed or omitted.

The public schools in the USA are bad save for the ones in the upper middle class suburbs. I knew a very intelligent kid about the age of 14 who told me that he and some others were tutoring their math teacher in Calculus, because she was having trouble with her college class… sad but true.

Answer 3

Yes, the NEA is against homeschooling.  They have been for years, and they will continue to be, probably until the end of their days.  Turning from that would be like HSLDA being supportive of mandatory public school.

My dad is a lobbyist for the NEA, and I'm a homeschool mom.  Trust me, that gets fun at family reunions!  However, I can honestly tell you that even if you were able to get a million signatures on the petition, they would still not be required to change their position.  They are allowed to be against it, just as large homeschooling groups are allowed to hold the belief that public schools are failing our kids.  What they are doing is not illegal; it is annoying, yes, but they are allowed to do it.

I'm not trying to slam you here, please know that; but realistically, the petition is not going to sway them.  I grew up in the NEA - I attended the national RA conventions with my parents, as well as political endorsement meetings, I've been in on it all my life, and I can assure you they are not going to change their stance.

Sorry...

Edit - yep, they do - but they have a right to be closed-minded.  They haven't done anything illegal, though what they say isn't all that logical.  (Now, if they would just teach logic in schools today, none of this would be a problem, because people would see straight through it.)  I'm not saying don't do the petition, I'm just saying that there really isn't a way to get them to listen.  They just plain don't want to, and won't.  I know it isn't the answer you're looking for, but it is the answer to your question, much as I wish it wasn't.

Answer 4

Good thing to bring up! The NEA has always been hostile to homeschooling which is why I find it ironic that many teachers say oh well I am a ps teacher but I support choice --- OH REALLY? then stop being a card carrying member of the NEA.

Blessings to you.

Answer 5

explain what NEA IS...

Answer 6

You are wasting your time.  The NEA is never going to support homeschooling for one simple reason: we take their jobs aways.

You might have more success if you aimed your petition at your local state government (but not much more, since the NEA has a very powerful lobby).

I must say, I admire your spunk.  :)