[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 10]
[Senate]
[Pages 14077-14078]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                   HONORING NEA PRESIDENT REG WEAVER

  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I wish to honor a man who has spent the 
greater part of his life as an advocate for quality public education.
  Reg Weaver has said, ``There is no feeling like seeing children's 
eyes brighten up as they discover the world of opportunity.''
  He should know. For more than 30 years, as a teacher and a national 
education leader, Reg Weaver has helped countless children discover the 
world of opportunity. He has enriched children's lives and helped to 
improve America's public schools. And in doing so, he has helped to 
make America better and stronger.
  This week, after two terms, Reg Weaver is retiring as president of 
the 3.2 million-member National Education Association, America's 
largest teachers union. I know that many of my colleagues join me in 
thanking Mr. Weaver for his dedicated service. We wish him well as he 
begins his next chapter in life. I won't say ``retirement'' because, if 
you know Reg Weaver, you know he is going to continue to champion 
children and teachers--it is who he is.
  Reg Weaver grew up in the central Illinois town of Danville, about 
120 miles south of Chicago. When he started grade school, the U.S. 
Supreme Court had not yet passed its landmark Brown v. Board of 
Education ruling. Reg attended a predominately White public school 
through the third grade. Then his family moved across town, and Reg 
found himself in a mostly Black public school. The differences between 
the two schools were stark.
  Two years later, his mother reenrolled Reg in the mostly White 
school, telling school officials the family lived with Reg's 
grandmother.
  That first-person experience with ``separate but equal'' public 
schools in his hometown made a deep impression on Reg Weaver. He has 
spent his life working to guarantee all children the opportunity to 
attend a good public school, no matter where they live.
  The idea of dedicating his life to that goal evolved gradually.
  In high school, Reg Weaver shied away from science, despite the 
urgings of his homeroom teacher, Mr. Sanders, to take a chemistry 
class. He says he feared the class would be too difficult and other 
students might ridicule him. Instead, he concentrated on Spanish and 
wrestling, both of which he excelled in. He thought of becoming an 
interpreter or maybe even a physical therapist.
  His wrestling won him a scholarship to Illinois State University. 
Only after accepting the scholarship did Reg Weaver realize he was 
attending a teachers college. He couldn't major in Spanish or physical 
therapy at Illinois State so he majored in special education for 
students with disabilities.
  Some might say that Reg Weaver fell into teaching by accident. I 
think it was fate. He discovered quickly that he loved teaching and 
went on to earn a master's degree from Roosevelt University in Chicago.
  In another twist of fate, Reg Weaver found his niche teaching 
science--the very subject he had once avoided--to middle school 
students in suburban Chicago. It was there that he first got involved 
in the Illinois Education Association, the State chapter of the 
National Education Association.
  In 1981, Reg Weaver became the first African American ever elected 
president of the Illinois Education Association. During his 6 years as 
IEA president, the organization increased its membership by 50 percent. 
IEA was also the driving force behind passage in 1983 of a 
comprehensive collective bargaining law for Illinois teachers and other 
school personnel. To this day, Reg Weaver keeps a photo of the bill 
signing in his office.
  In 1996, Mr. Weaver was elected vice president of the National 
Education Association. He was elected president of the national 
organization in 2002. As we all well remember, that was a time of major 
change for public education in America. Less than a year before, 
President Bush had signed the No Child Left Behind Act, the most 
comprehensive overhaul of Federal education law in 40 years.
  As NEA President, Reg Weaver has not only worked to highlight flaws 
in the new law, he has tried to suggest ways the law can be 
strengthened.
  Reg Weaver fought to improve the achievement for all students and 
close the achievement gaps that leave too many low-income and minority 
students behind. He has worked to increase teacher pay so schools can 
attract and retain qualified staff. He has worked to encourage parents' 
involvement in their children's education, always mindful of the 
difference his own mother's involvement in his education made in his 
life.
  From his days as a middle school science teacher in suburban Chicago 
to his tenure as president of the Nation's largest professional 
employee association, Reg Weaver has been a tremendous asset to 
Illinois and to our Nation.
  Over the years, he has received many accolades and awards. Ebony 
magazine

[[Page 14078]]

named him one of the 100 most influential Black Americans. He is also 
the recipient of People for the American Way's 2005 Spirit of Liberty 
Award and the U.S. Hispanic Leadership Institute's 2006 George Meany 
Latino Leadership Award.
  One award that has special meaning for him is his inclusion in the 
Danville, IL, High School Wall of Fame. In the same high school where 
he once feared to take a science class, Reg Weaver now serves as an 
inspiration for students to study hard and go as far in life as their 
talents and passions will take them.
  In closing, I want to thank Reg Weaver's family--especially his wife 
Betty--for sharing so much of Reg with America for so long. Above all, 
I want to thank Reg Weaver for his passionate advocacy on behalf of 
America's students, teachers and public schools.

                          ____________________