Jill Bader, who is a staffer for Lamar Alexander, sent me a congrats on being hired onto the Duncan Hunter campaign. Afterwards, she chatted a bit about what her boss was doing, and she mentioned this, which was too ironic not to post (She gave me permission):

"Finally I know you must be swamped with emails, but I thought you may find this of interest. Senator Alexander, who's a leading advocate of school choice has often said, "I've never seen a school get better from a distance before" and the Teacher Incentive Fund is one way he believes keeps control in the schools by paying teachers more for teaching well.

Tuesday my boss got a letter from the National Education Association that said,

"DEAR SENATOR ALEXANDER: …we urge you to vote NO on … An amendment to be offered by Senator Alexander (R-TN) that would provide $99 million for the Teacher Incentive Fund"

The NEA asked him to vote against his own amendment- I guess the NEA opposes measures paying their own members more for good teaching.

Interesting huh?

So, Senator Alexander then went on the floor Lamar Alexander to explain the Democratic House has killed the funding for the Teachers Incentive Fund and that Senator Durbin had joined him in arguing that "we need this program." He then goes into the irony of the NEA is blocking merit pay for its own teachers – an amendment with bipartisan support."