AP Photo Nation's largest teachers union endorses Clinton for president The National Education Association endorsement comes amid grumbling from some members that it's too soon.

The National Education Association defied some of its state affiliates Saturday with an endorsement of Hillary Clinton for president, which came after an in-person, closed-door conversation between members and Clinton herself.

“This is exactly the right time if you’re going to impact the primaries,” NEA President Lily Eskelsen García told POLITICO after about 75 percent of the 175-member NEA board voted to endorse Clinton.


Eskelsen García called it a resounding endorsement, adding: “If we want to have education’s voice in this primary debate, you get involved now.”

Clinton praised the NEA and teachers in general in a statement after the endorsement was announced. “I know from personal experience that a teacher can make a profound difference in a child’s life,” Clinton said.

But the move by the board of the nation’s largest union to give her a primary endorsement nod is sure to further aggravate many rank-and-file members who wanted more time to consider the candidates — especially as Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders wages an unexpectedly competitive run and Vice President Joe Biden weighs his options.

“There needs to be more input by the membership for these unions and I don’t think it’s being done,” said Lori Mueller, a third grade teacher from Eland, Wis., who is co-president of her local NEA affiliate. “The leaders of my national union are picking for me, and I don’t like that.”





Mueller — a Sanders supporter — said she’s upset by both the timing of the process and that Sanders wasn’t given more of a chance.

After NEA’s announcement, Sanders thanked members like Mueller who back him. “We are going to win this nomination and the general election because of support from grassroots Americans. We are on track to do just that,” Sanders said in a statement.

NEA’s action now positions the union as a more emboldened political player this election cycle. When the union sat out the divisive 2008 Democratic primary between Clinton and then-Sen. Barack Obama, many members felt they had lost an opportunity to influence the race and the policies of the eventual winner.

It’s the opposite approach of the Service Employees International Union, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees and the International Association of Fire Fighters, which have opted to delay endorsements — something labor insiders attribute to uncertainty over Biden and Sanders.

But overall, Clinton is beating Sanders badly in the early bid for labor’s backing, mostly due to the early endorsements from the AFT and now the NEA. Collectively, she has the endorsements of unions representing about 6 million members — or nearly half of the country’s 14.6 million union members. But unlike presidential campaigns of the past, union leaders are seeing a social media uprising among members unhappy about the endorsement process.

Among NEA’s ranks, the New Hampshire affiliate came out for Clinton. But the Vermont NEA arm endorsed Sanders. Branches in Massachusetts, Nebraska and New Jersey asked the national leaders to hold off.

Janet Anderson, vice president of the Massachusetts affiliate with 110,000 members, said teachers are in a particularly “vulnerable moment.” The challenges, she said, range from corporate interests using test scores and charter schools to undermine public education to a case before the Supreme Court involving California teachers that could impose right-to-work rules on government workers nationwide.

“Our members want a more deeply democratic union,” Anderson said. “They want power that emerges from the grassroots and does not come from the top down.”

Though Obama ultimately won NEA’s support in the 2008 general election, teachers unions have been lukewarm or cold to him ever since. The administration has pushed policies the unions largely reject, such as teacher evaluations based on student test scores. Last year, delegates at NEA’s national convention passed a resolution calling for Education Secretary Arne Duncan to resign.

Mueller, the Wisconsin teacher, said she voted for Obama twice and now regrets it. She said she fears Clinton will continue more of Obama’s education policies. “I do think she will carry that on,” Mueller said.

Thousands of delegates to the NEA’s July 4 annual convention will have a chance to vote on a candidate to endorse in the general election.

Eskelsen García said it’s Clinton’s longstanding commitment to children and health care issues that has her and others convinced Clinton is the best candidate. She noted in 1999, NEA awarded Clinton its highest honor, the “Friend of Education” award.

“Everyone was just blown away by the fact that she said, ‘I have an open door. When somebody wants to talk to me, they can come in and talk to me,'” Eskelsen García said about Saturday’s meeting.

Clinton has long advocated for early childhood programs, an issue important to many teachers. Last year, she launched a campaign encouraging parents to talk, read and sing to their babies. And Clinton broke with the Obama administration to back a key union priority just this week. She said she backs repealing the so-called Cadillac tax on pricey health care plans.

But not all of her education positions are universally liked by teachers. At an early campaign stop in Iowa, Clinton said she supports the concept of the Common Core standards. She opposes the use of vouchers that use public money to send students to private schools, but has said she supports charter schools that are “held to the same standards” as public schools.

On the trail, Clinton has pointedly devoted more energy to her college affordability proposal. That’s, in part, likely a reflection of how politicized K-12 education issues have become. K-12 politics have divided the Democratic Party’s historically allied teachers unions and so-called reformers who back charter schools and other forms of school choice as well as using strong accountability measures such as test scores to evaluate teachers and schools.

Clinton has had a keen interest in K-12 education dating to her early days as first lady of Arkansas. Then-Gov. Bill Clinton tasked his wife with reforming education in Arkansas.

Would Clinton have won the teachers' endorsement back then? Consider that one the ideas of the education standards committee she led back then was calling for competency tests for all teachers, which teachers hated. Arkansas wanted to require teachers to pass the test to keep their jobs. Teachers who failed had to get more training.

"Over and over again I was asked, 'What are you going to do about all the incompetent teachers?'" Clinton told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette in 1984, according to Politifact Florida.

Now, many teachers and both unions fume over evaluations pushed by the Obama administration that judge them at least in part based on their students’ test scores.

The NEA statement announcing the endorsement included quotes from teachers praising Clinton’s work to protect special education services and public schools, along with a pledge about testing.

“Clinton will reduce the role of standardized tests in public education because she agrees with educators that no bubble test can measure a student’s curiosity. Teachers need more time to teach and students need more time for learning,” the NEA said.

Brian Mahoney contributed to this report.