By Ben Velderman
EAGnews.org

WASHINGTON, D.C. – It’s no secret the National Education Association has a crush on President Obama.

The infatuation is so powerful that the nation’s largest teachers union endorsed Obama’s re-election bid 10 months before he even formally kicked off his campaign. Of course the union didn’t bother to wait and see who the Republicans might nominate as an alternative.

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Mary Kusler, the NEA’s director of government relations, says the union supports Obama because of “the incredible legacy and vision of this current administration.”

If a group of educators is gushing over the president’s education legacy, that must mean student learning has improved dramatically, right?

Not according to an editorial from the Post-Journal. The paper notes that student test scores have stagnated during the president’s time in office.

Citing statistics from the U.S. Department of Education, the Post-Journal notes that fourth grade reading scores have remained absolutely flat from 2009 to 2011, and that fourth grade math scores have only increased one point.

SAT college entrance exam scores have also flat-lined.

So if the kids aren’t learning more under President Obama’s policies than they did under President Bush’s, what accounts for the NEA’s unabashed adulation of our 44th president?

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The Post-Journal offers an explanation.

“The White House has sent tens of billions of dollars in taxpayers’ money to states where budgets were managed so badly (that) federal bailouts were needed to keep teachers from being laid off. Often some of those states’ budget woes were because of lavish benefits for educators, with no thought of how they would be funded.”

In other words, the NEA loves Obama for his checkbook, not the effectiveness of his policies.

Many Americans already know that the union is more concerned about money and left-wing politics than it is about education.

The NEA should just be upfront about it, because to hear them say they love the president for his “incredible legacy and vision” is as believable as Kim Kardashian’s boyfriend saying he’s attracted to her mind.