Callahan talks education, boasts teachers’ support

ALLENTOWN— Joined by 40 teachers representing area school districts, Bethlehem Mayor John Callahan unveiled his education plan and accepted the endorsement of a major teachers’ union Wednesday, as his congressional campaign continued to hit incumbent Congressman Charlie Dent (R-15) for his votes in Washington.

“[Callahan] is proof of what a good public school education and a good early education program like Head Start can do for a kid that comes from a less than ideal situation,” Kevin Deely, local union president for the Easton Area School District, told reporters outside Trexler Middle School here. “He won’t turn his back on our children like Charlie Dent did.”

Deely and the American Federation of Teachers, which typically backs Democrats, hammered Dent for voting against the so-called FMAP funding legislation that provided states $26 million in federal aid and averted layoffs of teachers. Some Republicans tried to frame the bill as a bailout of states that mismanaged their finances, and House Minority Leader John Boehner at the time called it a measure for “special interests”—prompting outrage from teachers.

“Not once has [Dent] helped or made good on the promises he made to look out for our kids and their education,” Deely said. “Instead, he voted to fire 5,900 teachers in Pennsylvania.”

In past election cycles, Dent has received the endorsement of the National Education Association, the nation’s largest teachers’ union, but the NEA has yet to make an endorsement in the Lehigh Valley race this year.

Callahan, the White House recruit for the race, called for putting more teachers in high-risk schools and pointedly criticized the Obama administration’s so-called Race to the Top contest, which awarded states federal education funding for enacting certain reforms. Pennsylvania recently failed to win during the second round of funding awards.

“While I agree with some of the goals laid out in the ‘Race to the Top’ program, I fundamentally disagree with President Obama’s ‘Race to the Top’ policy.” Callahan said. “It is a flawed program that does not treat all of our kids equally.”

Callahan spoke out against using standardized test scores as the sole metric in measuring teacher performance but also advocated for merit-based pay.

“Teachers should be rewarded for their successes,” he said, “but we must not punish them for taking on difficult assignments.”