Sam Dillon of the New York Times wrote a piece this morning about soon to be new president of the AFT ( American Federation Of Teachers), Randi Weingarten - “New Vision for Schools Proposes Broad Role”. She will be elected next Monday since she is running unopposed. Dennis Van Roekel, current vice-president, was recently elected to succeed Reg Weaver as the president of the NEA (National Education Association). According to Dillon (who received a copy of Weingarten’s upcoming acceptance speech in advance), she, too, will call for a complete makeover of NCLB.

Her vision, which is not new, is consistent with the “Broader Bolder Approach” when she envisions comprehensive community schools for America’s neediest children. She imagines schools “…that are open all day and offer after-school and evening recreational activities, child care and preschool, tutoring and homework assistance - schools that include dental, medical and counseling clinics.” If her union adopts her vision, this will place both unions on the side that says yes to accountability, but the schools cannot do it alone.

Meanwhile Senator Kennedy, while enduring the follow-up chemo and radation treatment for his brain tumor, is marshaling forces for what may well sadly be his final push for universal health care in the United States. What if Kennedy joined forces with Obama to meld the two efforts to shape a new comprehensive federal policy toward children that seamlessly joined the concerns of children’s physical, emotional,and social well-being with their intellectual development? Now that is a prospect I could wholeheartedly embrace.

After all it was Senator Kennedy who back in January reflected on his brother Robert’s words in an op-ed piece in the Washington Post (How to Fix No Child):

Four decades ago, my brother Robert F. Kennedy, asked a Senate hearing on education”What happened to the children?” That question is as appropriate today as it was in 1966. We’re still not doing enough for the nation’s schools and children.