NEA voice heard in both parties

NEA Today, Nov 1999

From the Indianapolis News, August 4:

"The National Education Association has no plans to pull back from its intense political activity of endorsing presidential candidates and others running for public office.

"The NEA is well known for sending the largest bloc of delegates to the Democratic National Convention every four years. What is not so well known is that it also sends a large bloc of delegates to the Republican National Convention.

"`We're not going to back away from political involvement,' NEA President Bob Chase says. `So many decisions made about education are by those in the political process."'

"The Republican takeover of Congress in 1994 has encouraged NEA involvement in both parties. The result was a boost in endorsements for Republican candidates for Congress in 1998. `We have more Democrats than Republicans,' Chase notes, `but we still have a lot of Republican members."'