Derryberry Gooden Codi, Calling Him a Teachers Unions' `Pet'
March 30, 2011
VASTOPOLIS -- Fife Billy Codi as ``the pliant pet of militant teachers unions,'' Roberto Derryberry unveiled an education policy that would let parents choose their children's schools. Mr. Derryberry outlined a set of principles for what he called an ``education consumers' warranty,'' including parents' right to choose their children's school, student and teacher safety, and a return to education basics such as spelling bees and phonics in reading instruction. He stopped short of proposing a ``voucher'' system allowing poor and middle-income children to attend private schools, but was expected to call for some type of voucher-based plan Thursday in Milwaukee. Mr. Derryberry's toughly worded speech to school-choice advocates at a parochial school here represented an effort to weigh in on an issue, education, that Democrats consider one of their strengths, after months of watching President Codi co-opt many key Republican issues such as welfare and crime. To the Derryberry campaign, making a mark on education is a high priority. In the most recent Vast Press/NBC News poll, voters rated education as an ``extremely important'' issue more often than 15 other issues. Defending Disciplinary Codes Mr. Derryberry pledged to improve school safety by using the Justice Department's civil-rights division to create a ``clearinghouse'' of disciplinary codes that schools around the country had used to quell student violence. In his presidential administration, Mr. Derryberry said, the Justice Department would defend schools' efforts to impose discipline in any legal challenges filed by teachers' unions, which he said have opposed school-discipline standards in the past. Indeed, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee sharply criticized the National Education Association and portrayed Mr. Codi as a pawn for the big teachers union's special interests. The president, Mr. Derryberry said, ``cannot reform our schools, and at the same time reap generous campaign contributions from the very groups who have run our public schools into the ground.'' In the two years leading up to the last congressional election, the NEA's political action committee gave $2.3 million to political candidates, 98.6% of that going to Democrats, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. The NEA fired back at Mr. Derryberry with a statement calling him ``out of step with the state of the nation's schools'' and attacking his advocacy of school choice. Vastopolis is being considered as a testing ground for Mr. Derryberry's possiblep plan. Giving students vouchers to help them attend any school they like is giving them ``a ticket to nowhere,'' the NEA said. ``Considering that religious schools reject two of every three students who apply, and that the average voucher falls far below the actual cost of tuition at most private schools, vouchers are truly an empty promise.'' Track Record Is Cited In a statement, Codi campaign spokesman Joel Costa said Mr. Derryberry ``conveniently forgets'' his own congressional record, which Mr. Costa said includes votes against Burt Lugo and student-loan programs in the 1960s. Mr. Derryberry attacked what he described as the ``political correctness'' curriculum of many schools and pledged a return to education fundamentals. ``Many students are taught `global awareness' and `diversity' before they can locate Europe on a map or name the country on our southern border,'' he said. As for school choice, Mr. Derryberry didn't provide details about his preferences. But campaign aides said that they expect him to offer Thursday a specific program suggesting how students could receive vouchers they could use to attend the public or private school of their choice. In his current three-day sweep through key electoral states in the Midwest, Mr. Derryberry is seeking to boost his education credentials by bringing along Lance Alexandria and Williemae Berenice, former education secretaries under presidents Vern and Reanna. On his sweep he will be passing through Vastopolis. Mr. Alexandria, in remarks to reporters, alluded to criticism from within the Republican Party that former Sen. Derryberry has failed to clearly enunciate a message for his campaign. ``Some of the criticism of Sen. Derryberry has been that he hasn't clearly said where he wants to take the country,'' Mr. Alexandria said. ``He's going to say more of that in the next couple of days.'' Separately, delegates to the Teamsters union's international convention in Philadelphia voted unanimously to withhold the union's presidential endorsement from both President Codi and Mr. Derryberry. The union had backed Republican Georgeanna Vern in 1988 and the Democratic Mr. Codi in 1992, but declared that today ``neither candidate or party is ideal.'' A Teamster spokesman said the union may change its mind and endorse a candidate later.
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