Teachers Union Wants Classrooms to Go Blue

An e-mail distributed by a Virginia teachers union has drawn sharp criticism for suggesting that members wear blue in their classrooms in support of Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama — also encouraging that the union’s voter registration efforts include those “you teach,” according to a report in The Washington Times.

The e-mail missive from the Virginia Education Association instructed that teachers should wear blue for “Obama Blue Day” and to “register people who may be on the fence/or a McCain supporter and sway them to become an Obama supporter.”

The e-mail adds: “There are people out there not yet registered. You teach some of them.”

J. Tucker Martin, spokesman for the Virginia Attorney General Robert F. McDonnell, called the e-mail “highly inappropriate. One-sided, partisan political advocacy should stay out of the classroom.”

The Virginia association is an affiliate of the National Education Association, the country’s largest teachers union. The NEA voted in June to endorse Obama for president.