Calling this is a "defining moment," the president of the nation's largest labor union urged educators to take the lead in fighting for the future of America's public education system so that all students have the opportunity to succeed.
"There is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the drug of gradualism,'" National Education Association President Dennis Van Roekel said in the keynote address to the NEA Representative Assembly, at which NYSUT President Dick Iannuzzi led a delegation from New York.
Van Roekel called on the 9,000 delegates in attendance to "act in the urgency of now," and said: "It will take courage for us to raise our hands today and show the nation that NEA, the largest labor union in the country, is committed to change; that we take responsibility for student success; and that we will empower our members to make those changes."
The NEA Representative Assembly was held in Atlanta last week. NYSUT Executive Vice President Andrew Pallotta, Vice Presidents Maria Neira and Kathleen Donahue, and Secretary-Treasurer Lee Cutler also joined Iannuzzi and other NYSUT delegates at the convention.
Van Roekel's full speech and other RA news can be found here.