NEA Takes Stand Against Bush Education Law

By Bess Keller

New Orleans

The National Education Association put up its dukes here at its annual meeting, vowing to build political muscle and fight much of President Bush's sweeping federal education law.

Union President Reg Weaver told more than 9,000 cheering delegates in his keynote address that the "No Child Left Behind" Act of 2001 poses as Dr. Jekyll but is really the evil Mr. Hyde. Combined with the worst state budget crisis since World War II, the law is draining money from wiser efforts to lift student achievement and is shaping up to be "the granddaddy of all underfunded federal mandates," he charged.

To counter that direction, the nation's largest union is stressing recruitment of new members as never before, while launching what Mr. Weaver called "a full-court, legislative press to fix and...