Turmoil in the Family

As I wrote in this post, the NEA wants President Obama to ditch Secretary of Education Duncan.

Yesterday the New York Times reported that no federal official is scheduled to speak at either the NEA or the AFT conventions this year:

NEW ORLEANS — For two years as a presidential candidate, Barack Obama addressed educators gathered for the summer conventions of the two national teachers’ unions, and last year both groups rolled out the welcome mat for Education Secretary Arne Duncan.

But in a sign of the Obama administration’s strained relations with two of its most powerful political allies, no federal official was scheduled to speak at either convention this month, partly because union officials feared that administration speakers would face heckling.

The June issue of California Educator, mouthpiece rag of the California Teachers Association, has the CTA president, Ole Si Se Puede himself, referring derisively to the "Obama-Duncan reform agenda".

I am not hearing the kumbayyah.