OCR Text |
Show Opinion Little-known candidate Jimmy Carter promised to make that dream come true, so NEA officials threw their weight behind him. Some political commentators think Jimmy Carter wouldn't be where he is today without the NEA. The President expressed his gratitude, all right, with a full-court press 10bbyingweffort that shoved the new federal agency through Congress, despite opposition from the other big teacher union -- the American Federation of Teachers, an AFL-CIO affiliate. The AFT is headed by Albert Shanker, no foe of big government, and no slouch at lobbying, himself. But despite his protests that the DOE would be a tool of the rival union, legislation establishing the new department squeaked through the House, 210-206. Now the NEA is ready to move on to bigger and better things. It organized an effort to get its members elected as delegates to the 1980 Democratic National Convention that was so effective that the NEA had 302 delegates -- the largest single voting group in Madison Square Garden. In recent Congressional elections, the NEA carefully targeted its |