Is Nation's Biggest Teacher's Union Drifting To The Right?

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A teacher protests in Miami.

Fran Eaton, a conservative columnist who attended the National Education Association convention this past weekend, says it is:

The headlines read, “NEA endorses Obama for second term,” but that’s not the whole story. The rank-and-file urged a delay in an early endorsement and to demand that Education Secretary Arne Duncan resign…

Despite such gripes, the NEA’s Representative Assembly did endorse Obama with 72 percent of the vote. But as one observer noted, that 72 percent was the weakest NEA endorsement for a Democratic candidate in decades. Obama’s 79.8 percent support in 2008 was lower than Al Gore’s in 2000 and Sen. John Kerry’s 86.5 percent in 2004.

Other issues before the NEA’s governing body clearly showed a growing number of right-leaning teachers is working its way up through the union’s ranks. Those members are maneuvering within the resolution system to moderate the union’s traditionally leftist positions.