Professional Oklahoma Educators

December 14, 2009 by Anonymous

ROPE supports Professional Oklahoma Educators wholeheartedly.
Please visit their site here: http://www.professionaloklahomaeducators.org/

Professional Oklahoma Educators:

* Is an independent association.
* Is dedicated to professionalism.
* Is doing what is best for the children.
* Provides liability protection and legal services for Oklahoma educators.
* Offers quality professional development opportunities to members and other educators.
* Is non-partisan, which enables us to work with all political parties in the pursuit of positive educational change.
* Lobbies on the issues related to education only.

Professional Oklahoma Educators is a non-union, nonpartisan professional organization for all school personnel. Our goal, like yours, is to achieve what is best for Oklahoma students. As a nonpartisan organization, we do not endorse or make contributions to political candidates. Because of our commitment to professionalism and our dedication to our students, we believe it is wrong for teachers to strike or walk out of the classroom. We believe our focus as educators should be on educating our children. Therefore, it is imperative that administrators, teachers, and parents work in a respectable manner to help each student in Oklahoma achieve his or her highest level in academics and leadership.
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Commentary by Jenni White: One of the problems in schools today is the presence of teachers unions in our schools such as AFT (American Federation of Teachers - and the OEA (Oklahoma Education Association - the arm of the National Education Association (NEA).

Please note that the NEA - among other things - uses its legislative arm to demand Health Insurance for Everyone http://www.nea.org/home/LegislativeActionCenter.html - supports Ken Jennings GLSEN organization http://michellemalkin.com/2009/12/07/whos-funding-glsen/ and advocates that its teacher/members read Rules For Radicals by Saul Alinsky.

Saul Alinksy is considered to be the Father of Modern Community Organizing. His ideas formed SEIU/ACORN and he dedicated his book to Lucifer “Lest we forget at least an over-the-shoulder acknowledgement to the very first radical: from all our legends, mythology and history (and who is to know where mythology leaves off and history begins-or which is which), the first radical known to man who rebelled against the establishment and did it so effectively that he at least won his own kingdom – Lucifer” – Saul Alinsky.
http://westernfrontamerica.com/2009/08/04/know-your-enemy-
saul-alinskys-rules-for-radicals/
http://www.nea.org/tools/17231.htm

You might check out the other things the NEA 'likes' here http://www.nea.org/tools/16507.htm

Though the AFT doesn't seem to rear its ugly head in politics quite as much as the NEA, here is some interesting information about them:

They support Universal Health Care http://www.aft.org/fight4america/

They support charter schools so long as they are unionized. "The AFT believes strongly in Shanker's vision and the vital connection between charter schools and unions. In fact, the AFT represents charter school teachers and support staff in 10 states. Our largest affiliate, the United Federation of Teachers in New York City, operates two charter schools of its own and is partnering with innovative charter school operator Green Dot to run a third school in the fall of 2008."
Please note that these schools are in NY - one of the most liberal and heavily unionized states in the union.
http://www.aft.org/topics/charters/index.htm

The AFT supports "green" initiatives http://www.aft.org/topics/green-jobs/index.htm and the Employee Free Choice Act http://www.aft.org/topics/efca/index.htm which prevents members from having a CLOSED vote to unionize. This, of course, prompts YES votes to unionize as it is hard to go against unionized members in an open vote.

They supported Hate Crimes Legislation "As a member of the AFT and a voter in your district, I urge you to co-sponsor H.R. 3017/S. 1564, the Employment Non-Discrimination Act of 2009 (ENDA)." http://www.unionvoice.org/campaign/ENDA101909

In fact, go to the URL below and look at the numbers and kinds of legislative efforts supported by the AFT and ask yourself if these are the people you want supporting teachers in your child's school?
http://www.unionvoice.org/afteactivst/legislative_action_center3.html