Advocate Online

Actionline NEA

Spellings Commission Testimony

Massachusetts Teachers Association president and NEA Legislative Committee chair take faculty message to the commission.

Federal cuts to student aid, coupled with rising tuition costs, risk putting higher education out of reach for many students unless members of Congress reverse the trend, the National Education Association testified before the Commission on the Future of Higher Education.

“We need to make sure that opportunities for higher education are available to all students,” said Catherine A. Boudreau, president of the Massachusetts Teachers Association, an NEA affiliate. “If we are not willing to keep college affordable for everyone, then students, the economy, and society as a whole will suffer in the future.”

Boudreau and NEA Legislative Committee Chair Len Paolillo, a  professor of sociology at Massachusets College of Liberal Arts, testified before the commission in Boston in April, at one of the hearings the commission is holding as part of a national dialogue on the future of higher education.

In other efforts to ensure the faculty voice is heard, NEA President Reg Weaver sent a letter to the commission questioning the findings in one of its published papers (see Speaking Out, page 12), and NEA National Council for Higher Education President Kathy Sproles and NEA staff met with commission staff in early May (see From Capitol to Campus, page 3).

Paolillo testified that student characteristics such as part-time enrollment, working full-time, and being a single parent need to be considered if graduation rates are used as an accountability measure at postsecondary institutions.

The full text of President Weaver’s letter to the commission and the testimony submitted by Boudreau and Paolillo have been posted on the NEA higher education Web site at www.nea.org/he.

The National Education Association and its 2.8 million members stood in solidarity with the many faith, labor, community-based, and civil rights organizations demonstrating in rallies and marches across the country last month against punitive immigration legislation proposed in Congress.

Among the most vocal groups protesting the harsh immigration legislation are students. In scenes reminiscent of the civil rights marches in the 1960s, thousands of students are speaking out and participating in demonstrations.

“This is a powerful civics lesson,” said President Weaver. “These marches have opened the way to political involvement for a new generation of students.”

Delegates will gather June 30-July 5 at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Florida, for the Association’s 144th Annual Meeting and 85th Representative Assembly (RA). The RA, NEA’s highest decision-making body, is the world’s largest democratic, deliberative body. During the RA, delegates debate issues that impact education, elect top officers, and set Association policy.