Teachers ‘Going to War’ for ‘Education President’

The president of the nation’s largest teachers union said Thursday that teachers are “going to war” to replace the Reagan Administration with “the first education President.”

Mary Hatwood Futrell, in a punchy keynote address to nearly 8,000 teachers at the start of the National Education Assn.’s 125th annual convention in Los Angeles, vowed that the 1.86-million-member union would build the biggest political action committee of the 1988 campaign.

Futrell left little doubt that the NEA’s ideal candidate looks nothing like Ronald Reagan as she spelled out the union’s specifications for the next occupant of the White House.

“In 1986, the voters of America finally rejected voodoo economics,” she said. “In 1988 they will reject voodoo education (and) elect the first education President.”

She said the NEA’s political action committee ranked third behind the American Medical Assn. and the National Realtors Assn. in political contributions in 1986, when it took in $1.7 million.

“In 1988 we will be No. 1. We will have the biggest campaign war chest because we are going to war--a war for a better future for the children of America,” Futrell said.

December Endorsements

Several Democratic presidential hopefuls planned to court the teachers at their convention. The NEA plans to make its endorsements in December. Futrell said she invited the Republican candidates, but none accepted.

Futrell also challenged the NEA members to drive the union’s largest rival, the American Federation of Teachers, out of business.

The AFT claims 640,000 members. About 300,000 public school teachers in the nation do not belong to either union.

“Our membership growth is the harbinger of the day when only one organization will represent all education employees in America,” Futrell said, “and that organization will be the National Education Assn.”

AFT President Albert Shanker said in New York: “They say it about every five years, but we’re still around. In fact, we’re stronger than ever. Teachers want a choice.”