September 11, 2007
Rep. George Miller: The CTA Is Lying And They Know It
Has the National Education Association overplayed its hand on the NCLB reauthorization?
First there was the testy exchange at yesterday's NCLB hearing where Congressman George Miller pretty much accused the NEA of acting in bad faith for opposing some teacher pay language which the union had previously approved. (The AFT seems to have covered its tracks on that front - welcome back Michele!)
Now Miller is lashing back at the California Teachers Association for spreading bad information in its "war" against him and Speaker Nancy Pelosi. We'll see if making the chairman declare "liar liar, pants on fire," is a winning strategy for Team Weaver.
Read an extended excerpt from the statement (courtesy of David Hoff's NCLB blog) after the jump.
From the Congressman's statement:
"The CTA claimed today that the legislation would judge teachers’ performance solely on the basis of their students’ achievement gains, even though the organization knows this isn’t true. Contrary to the CTA’s assertions, the legislation would consider achievement gains along with other measures, like principal and master teacher evaluations. The CTA also wrongly implies that I don’t support things like class size reduction, teacher professional development, and mentoring programs for teachers. I do support those things, which is why they are included in the bipartisan discussion draft of NCLB reauthorization legislation that we have circulated. From the very beginning, I sought the input of teacher organizations to craft the legislation."
