Matt Damon, Mother Snub NEA Friend of Education Award

By Elyse Morrigan

Hollywood star Matt Damon and his professor of education mother, Dr. Nancy Carlsson-Paige, have snubbed the National Education Association’s (NEA) nomination for their Friend of Education Award, writes Anna M. Phillips at the New York Times.

This came after Carlsson-Paige read an opinion article that Dennis Van Roekel, president of the NEA, had co-authored with Wendy Kopp, the founder of Teach for America. The article urged the importance of “evaluating and improving teacher training programs across the country”.

Dr. Carlsson-Paige is said to have been “confused” by the collaboration between the NEA and Teach for America.

“I am very familiar with TFA and believe that its short-term, minimal training of teachers undermines teacher quality and harms children who too often get an inadequate education with its teachers,” she said.

The NEA and the American Federation of Teachers have long opposed the 20-year-old Teach for America, writes Valarie Strauss at the Washington Post.

Their practice of taking new college graduates, who are not education majors, and giving them just five weeks of summer training before placing them in classrooms in high-poverty schools has been heavily criticized.

Unions have argued that the country’s neediest students need highly trained teachers committed to the profession than the two years that are minimally asked by Teach For America.

Van Roekel has been accused of sending “mixed messages” about teacher training, writes Mike Antonucci at Hot Air.

“You know we’ve reached the point of no return when the president of the national teachers’ union can’t pass Matt Damon’s ideological purity test,” writes Antonucci.

Van Roekel issued a statement Thursday about the Carlsson-Paige letter that says:

“I respect Matt Damon and thank him for his support of public education. I believe NEA should talk to those who support public education, even if we don’t agree on everything, and work together to serve students.

“Wendy Kopp and I agree that students will benefit from stronger recruiting and teacher preparation. NEA isn’t going to quit fighting for students and our members, or for stronger teacher preparation. In fact, better teacher preparation is part of our 3-point plan on Leading the Profession that was released last month.”

Damon came under fire back in the summer for spoke at the Save Our Schools rally in Washington.

Speaking on behalf of “an army of regular people,” Damon decried the demoralization of teachers by ruthless, results-oriented free marketeers whom he mocked as “simple-minded.”

But many, including Michelle Malkin at Townhall.com, criticized his involvement.

“What Damon’s superficial tirade lacked was any real-world understanding of the deterioration of core curricular learning in America”, writes Malkin.