What An Awful & Misleading Video About Our Schools

Michele Molnar over at Education Week has just posted about a new campaign for school choice begun by the ultra-conservative American Federation For Children. The campaign is called Parents Know Best, and is immediately joining The Worst Parent Engagement Ideas list.

They’re kicking-off their campaign with an incredibly misleading video, with statements taken completely out of context, that I have embedded below:

The quote from Bob Chanin, formerly of the NEA, was made in the context of what made NEA an effective advocate — its power. Here is his full statement, and you can read more about it at the NEA site.

“So the bad news, or depending on your point of view, the good news, is that NEA and its affiliates will continue to be attacked by conservative and right-wing groups as long as we continue to be effective advocates for public education, for education employees, and for human and civil rights. And that brings me to my final and most important point. Which is why, at least in my opinion, NEA and its affiliates are such effective advocates. Despite what some among us would like to believe, it is not because of our creative ideas. It is not because of the merit of our positions. It is not because we care about children. And it is not because we have a vision of a great public school for every child. NEA and its affiliates are effective advocates because we have power. And we have power because there are more than 3.2 million people who are willing to pay us hundreds of millions of dollars in dues each year because they believe that we are the unions that can most effectively represent them, the unions that can protect their rights and advance their interests as education employees.”

For more information on how this campaign will hurt schools, students, families and teachers, you might want to see The Best Resources For Learning Why School Vouchers Are A Bad Idea.

For more information on the American Federation For Children, you can see:

Source Watch: The American Federation For Children

First Street Research Group

If you want to see another misleading video about schools, see a previous post, What A Terrible Video About Parents & Schools With A Terrible Message.

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