NEA has produced more than a half dozen national political ads this season supporting candidates friendly to education and attacking politicians who are not.
According to Executive Director John Stocks, the ads are part of a very intentional move by the organization to engage more directly in politics. “We made a conscience effort to lift our members’ voices up,” he said. “Lily has said that we can’t have the circumstance in the next presidency that we are now facing with failed policies from the Department of Education.”

The condemnation of President Obama’s Race to the Top policies follows on the motion by the Representative Assembly this summer calling for the Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan, to resign.

And Stocks said the organization is looking ahead past November. “The campaign for president in 2016 will start the day after this election finishes,” he said. The NEA PAC passed a motion on Sept. 18 to begin conversations around the 2016 presidential election.

The board of directors viewed six of NEA’s most prominent ads at the meeting. The ads are well produced and hard-hitting. Here are some of the toughest statements:

• From North Carolina, a teacher says, “the fact is Tom Tillis hurts North Carolina students.”
• From Alaska, a teacher says, “Sullivan sold Alaska’s teachers out.” (Dan Sullivan is running against NEA-endorsed incumbent Mark Begich)
• From Arkansas, a teacher says, “Tom Cotton should be ashamed of himself.”
• From Florida, a narrator says, “Rick Scott, just too shady for the Sunshine state.”
• From Michigan, a teacher says, “I don’t understand how Gov. Snyder can think those things are more important than our schools.”
• From Kentucky, challenger Alison has incorporated NEA’s campaign against unfair student loans—known as “Degrees not Debt”—into their own campaign ads.

Stocks said the ads are intentional. “We are trying to use our political work to bring voice to our members,” he said.