By STEPHANIE BANCHERO
WSJ
CHICAGO—The nation's largest teachers union voted Monday to endorse President Barack Obama's 2012 re-election bid, during a raucous convention that highlighted widespread unhappiness with the president's education policies.
The vote, during the annual convention of the National Education Association, was supported by 72% of the union's representative assembly. The assembly is the top decision-making body for the union and the endorsement allows the NEA, which represents 3.2 million teachers, to start campaigning for Mr. Obama.
NEA President Dennis Van Roekel said the endorsement gives the union leverage to push for changes more favorable to labor and teachers, especially overhauls to No Child Left Behind, the controversial education policy up for renewal this year.
"He needs much more than a recommendation by 72% of 9,000 people," he said. "He needs the votes of our 3.2 million and his policy decision will influence that vote."
The NEA has never endorsed a presidential candidate this early in the campaign cycle, but union leaders, anticipating a tough re-election campaign, wanted to bolster support for the president early on. In 2008, 80% of delegates endorsed Mr. Obama.
Organized labor, a power base for Democrats, could be crucial to Mr. Obama's re-election bid, especially in swing states such as Ohio, Pennsylvania and Indiana. The NEA is the nation's largest union and officials have said they are prepared to spend up to $60 million on the re-election effort.
Although the NEA has never supported a Republican for president, the early endorsement for Mr. Obama was not a foregone conclusion. During the convention, a stream of teachers took to the floor to complain about the president's education agenda and many assailed Arne Duncan, his hand-picked U.S. Education Secretary. Delegates passed a resolution directing Mr. Van Roekel to tell Mr. Obama that teachers are "appalled" by things Mr. Duncan has supported.
NEA members are particularly unhappy with Race to the Top, Mr. Obama's initiative that awarded states that embraced education overhauls such as linking teacher evaluations to student test scores and opening more charter schools, public schools run by nongovernment entities. Last year, members voted a no-confidence in Race to the Top and no one from the Obama administration spoke at the convention.
This year, Vice President Joe Biden addressed the assembly and tried to downplay the tensions, calling them a "fight within the family." He said the new Republican majority is hostile to public education.
Fred Klonsky, a Chicago-area teacher and delegate to the convention, said the Obama administration should take note of the 72% vote. "For an incumbent Democratic president to receive less than 75% of the delegate vote at an NEA convention ought to cause some concern for the administration," he said.
In other business, the delegates approved—after an impassioned debate—a measure that supports using student test scores in teacher evaluations, something the NEA has opposed in the past. But the measure, put forth by the NEA's board of directors, states that only "scientifically valid and reliable" tests can be used. NEA leaders said during the convention that no such tests currently exist, but hope such assessments will be developed soon.
