For some reason, these days all the big people are talking a lot more about health care than education. Hey, I’m not a huge fan of going to the doctor or going to school. But at least at school, you’ve got some of your friends around you. And learning can be fun, too (but don’t tell my friends I said that).

Anyway, my other friends in the Education Policy Center provide one overlooked example of how the two issues overlap with this post on the Independent Teachers blog:

If you were a full-time member of the National Education Association (NEA) through joining your local teachers union, then you sent money during the 2007-08 school year to support the current proposal from Congress and President Obama to promote socialized medicine.

According to the latest disclosure report filed with the U.S. Department of Labor, NEA gave $500,000 in 2007-08 to the group Health Care for America Now, a 501c4 political organization that is backing President Obama’s health care plan. (It is likely that NEA has made further contributions to this group since 2007-08, since NEA is listed as being a member of the HCAN steering committee.)

Wow, you think the union could at least bother to ask first. No luck, though. I happen to know of another group that represents Colorado teachers that doesn’t take sides on the health care debate and costs considerably less to join: the Professional Association of Colorado Educators (PACE).

Maybe the union leaders change their minds on the issue if they watched this cool new animated health reform video made by my friends at the Independence Institute.

Okay, back to your regularly scheduled edublogging now.