Nearly two weeks ago, I posted on one of the strange coalitional line-ups surrounding the reauthorization of NCLB, namely how odd it was to see a union like the United Farm Workers lining up on the opposite side of the National Education Association. (I noted that this was all relatively speaking, since there seems to be so much nuance behind everyone's various positions on NCLB that it isn't a clean coin-flip.)
I thought it was pretty interesting, and others like NEA's Joel Packer and EIA's Mike Antonucci have also found some of the splits here to be noteworthy.
But not Old Man Casey or the artist formerly known as PREA Prez, both of whom seemed to think it was total bullshit that an organization that was started by Cesar Chavez might actually have concerns about how the children of farm workers are being educated by their local public school systems. (You can read the letter after the jump and decide for yourself – but be warned, it's a doozie.)
What is interesting here is that neither of these guys is just an armchair blogger who spouts off on stuff here and there in their free time. Both are elected teachers union officials, aka "Teacher Voice" as they never get tired of telling you. In Leo's case, he's a vice president with the nation's largest local. With little more than a Google search, Leo seemed to conclude that the United Farm Workers couldn't possibly be supportive of NCLB. That's teacher territory only, I suppose.
(This seems to be one of those anecdotes which gives credence to the complaints many of us hear from organized laboristas that teachers unions tend to take them for granted.)
So, who speaks for the United Farm Workers, teacher union bloggers or… Arturo Rodriguez, president of the United Farm Workers???
*** Note: I didn't link to this letter because I don't think it is online. I simply did what Leo could have done: I asked for a copy after it came up in Sonia Hernandez' testimony at the House Education and Labor Committee hearing.
*** Note II: I took the liberty of bold facing some of the really yummy parts.
*** Note III: Leo accuses ME of besmirching the good name of Cesar Chavez? Good grief.
UPDATE: PREAPrez corrects that he should be known as the "artist formerly known as sourpuss" and complains that I didn't make reference to the Jack Coons paper which quoted Cesar Chavez saying he couldn't support vouchers or he'd lose a bunch of cash that Al Shanker was sending the UFW's way. There. Let it not be said that I don't cave to elected "teacher voice" like everyone else!