Pat Dollard | Young Americans

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The presumptive Democratic nominee angered teachers (again) at the NEA conference Saturday when discussing his proposal to pay teachers more if their students perform well on tests or if they take on added responsibilities.

They did the same thing last year when he mentioned the plan at their meeting in Philadelphia. Obama addressed the group Saturday via satellite.

“I know this wasn’t necessarily the most popular part of my speech last year. But I said it then and I say it again today because it’s what I believe.”

Full remarks here.

Gets mostly cheers on his other plans for education, including mending No Child Left Behind. The group endorsed him Friday.
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The article from :

USA Today

The crowd was mostly supportive and at times very enthusiastic today when Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama addressed the National Education Association. But USA TODAY’s Greg Toppo reports that Obama also got some boos, as he did when he spoke to NEA last year, by calling again for teachers’ pay to rise if their students do well on tests or if they take on added responsibilities.

That kind of “merit pay” plan is an idea that many teachers oppose because they say it would discourage collaboration and because they believe it would be more effective to raise pay across-the-board in order to make teaching a more attractive profession.

Here is Greg’s report, followed by a comment from Republican John McCain’s spokesman:

WASHINGTON — A day after representatives to the USA’s largest teachers union here voted resoundingly to endorse Obama for president, the presumptive Democratic nominee addressed its big annual meeting from Butte, Montana.

Saying he was “hunting for votes here in formerly red states,” Obama spoke to the NEA’s 10,000 or so delegates this morning. They watched him on video screens at the Washington Convention Center.

Surrounded by a group that he said included Montana teachers, Obama spoke for nearly 20 minutes and repeated many of his by-now surefire applause lines. Dressed in a blue suit with a blue-striped tie, he got his first big cheers when he proclaimed, “I’m tired of hearing teachers blamed for our problems. I want to lead a new era of mutual responsibility in education.”

But the applause dropped out when he ticked off a list of challenges, including poor math and science scores, the “highest high school dropout rates in any industrialized nation” and “six million students who are reading below grade level.”

Obama brought the crowd back when he promised to mend “the broken promises of No Child Left Behind,” President Bush’s six-year-old education reform plan.

He has made most of these points before, and he made them again on Saturday, complaining that the law forces teachers “to teach to a test at the expense of music and art … ” He didn’t get a chance to finish the thought in the din of cheering — and actually, the video feed at times seemed like a one-way street, as he talked through thunderous applause and cheers.

Obama mentioned twice that his sister is a teacher, adding, “I know how hard she works. You’re the people who stay beyond the last bell — spend your own money on books and supplies.”

But the cheers briefly turned to boos when Obama brought up his proposal to pay teachers more if their students perform well on tests or if teachers learn new skills, take on added responsibilities, such as mentoring, or teach in hard-to-staff schools.

“In some places we’ve already seen that it’s possible to find new ways to increase teacher pay that are developed with teachers, not imposed on teachers,” he said, the crowd’s boos engulfing the rest of his thought. The teachers did the same when Obama mentioned the plan at NEA’s meeting last year in Philadelphia.

“I know this wasn’t necessarily the most popular part of my speech last year,” he said, “but I said it then and I say it again today because it’s what I believe.”

He quickly changed the subject to his “Teacher Service Scholarships,” which would pay for four years of undergraduate tuition (or two years of graduate tuition) if a teacher pledges to teach at least four years in a “high-need field or location.”

“If you commit your life to teaching, America will commit to paying for your college education,” he said. The line earned Obama his first — and only — standing ovation.

The union, which represents some 3.2 million teachers, aides, college instructors and others, was largely cut out of the 2001 debate on No Child Left Behind. It has long hoped for a Democrat in the White House, and took its time deciding whether to endorse Obama or Hillary Clinton during the primaries. Its board of directors ultimately held off on an endorsement until Obama mathematically sealed up the nomination — the nation’s smaller teachers union, the American Federation of Teachers, endorsed Clinton last fall.

By Friday, there was little suspense as Obama cinched the endorsement, with 6,841 of 8,578 voting delegates — 79.8% — choosing him. (The union has consistently supported Democrats in recent elections. Obama’s “score” is the lowest in recent history. Four years ago, Sen. John Kerry received 86.5% of the NEA delegates’ votes. In 2000, then-vice president Al Gore got 89.5%. In 1996, then-president Clinton got 91.5% and in 1992 then-governor Clinton got 88.2%.)

The union didn’t offer totals for other candidates who got votes this year because members were simply voting up or down to concur with the NEA’s board of directors.

“We have waited eight long years,” outgoing NEA President Reg Weaver told the crowd as he introduced Obama. Like the candidate, Weaver is African-American and from Illinois. “I say to you the time for waiting is over!” said Weaver, who led the crowd chanting, “O-bam-AH! O-bam-AH” before and after Obama’s speech.

McCain campaign spokesman Tucker Bounds’ comment about Obama’s speech: “Improving America’s schools will take bipartisan leadership and a commitment to the issue, but Barack Obama has never spearheaded education reforms while in the U.S. Senate and has no record of working across the aisle for change. On the issues most important to Americans, Barack Obama’s arguments are built on lofty rhetoric and empty words, so it’s no coincidence that a major education magazine noted that during his entire career Barack Obama ‘hasn’t made a significant mark on education policy.’ ”