MTA Retired activist Neil Clarke has learned that nothing in politics is a slam dunk.
"In the first election I could cast a ballot for president, I voted for McGovern. I came out proud as punch. I knew he was going to win," Clarke recalled. History, of course, told a different story in 1972. The incumbent president, Richard Nixon, trounced George McGovern.
Saying he no longer relies on instincts, Clarke puts in a lot of work to support pro-public-education candidates as one of the MTA’s Senate District Coordinators and political activists. In the 2020 election, that included working for Joe Biden.
When Biden won the Democratic Primary in Massachusetts, there was little fear that incumbent President Donald Trump would take the state in November. But so much of the rest of the country was in play that Clarke joined dozens of MTA members — and a legion of NEA members across the nation — in making calls to fellow educators in states where the race was tight.
He urged them to vote for Biden and Democratic vice presidential candidate Kamala Harris — and he made sure they had firm plans to cast their ballots.
"You don’t want to wake up the next morning saying ‘woulda, coulda, shoulda,’" Clarke said.
The NEA and the MTA backed the Biden-Harris ticket, which was not surprising given the hostile anti-student, anti-educator and anti-union policies put forth by Trump and his education secretary, Betsy DeVos.
Following Biden’s victory, NEA President Becky Pringle said that educators are encouraged "in knowing that there is finally a true partner in the White House who will listen, value the ideas, and act in the best interest of students, educators and families."
MTA President Merrie Najimy said that the defeat of Trump is crucial to the union’s work in promoting education equity and racial justice.
"We know our power comes from our members and not from elected officials," Najimy said. "But it’s great that we will not have to endure another four years of such disgraceful rejection of the values that unionists and public education advocates hold dear."
Hatfield reading specialist Sarah Woodward, also an MTA SDC who made phone calls for Biden, said that whenever she reached someone who felt that voting didn’t matter, she would spark a conversation by saying something like, "I’m an educator, too, and this is how the election affects me."
Woodward said she was able to connect with other educators around issues such as health and safety and that she listened to the concerns of educators in many other states where schools are requiring more in-person learning despite the continuing coronavirus pandemic.
The election victory signals a brighter future to Woodward, who noted the historic moment of having the country’s first woman — and the first Black American and the first South Asian American — become the nation’s vice president.
"This election really affected the lives of people who value public education, and I was scared of the outcome because the country felt so divided," Woodward said. "But I watched the Inauguration and saw so many women up there and saw so many ‘firsts’ that I felt a lot of hope and a lot of promise."
