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As we progress through and head towards 2012, one of the fronts where our President will maybe not find any support at all is among teachers. Education is an area where Democratic candidates have always found support. Teachers unions and classified workers support these candidates in return for their support to public services.

As a candidate, during the 2008 campaign, he spoke to the National Education Association members and promised to fix issues. Though the endorsement for our President has been renewed by the NEA, it does not mean that all is safe for him. Among teachers, he has to face major problems.

The Obama administrations as well as some of the prominent candidates in the Republican primary have taken a strong stand against NCLB. They are not happy with many expansions initiated by the Department of Education. This is in keeping with the views of a conservative base that rejects the idea of government instructing local school districts and states on how to do their jobs.

All this also resonates with parents and teachers who are not very happy with the government constantly labeling their schools as failures. They are also not happy about federal dollars being linked to reform proposals.

In our nation, there are over six million teachers and at least fifty percent of them are part of unions. The unions are not happy about being unable to represent its members in aspects that matter the most. They are at a risk of becoming irrelevant as far as affecting the conditions of work and other teacher’s rights issues.

Claiming to support collective bargaining, the Obama administration shows a characteristic coyness about the situation. Many policies reduce seniority rights and reduce due process making teachers unhappy.

Double talk has been the specialty of Arne Duncan, our Education Secretary’s speeches. In his speeches, he has called for teachers not to teach to the test. At the same time, test scores have become mandatory for teacher evaluation and pay. There has been a great expansion of scope, frequency and importance of tests now.

These discrepancies have of course been noticed by teachers. They have not forgotten President Obama’s promise to come down in his walking shoes and stand with workers if there was ever an attack on collective bargaining. When he missed out on an opportunity to do this in Wisconsin recently, he was questioned about it.

Obama said without blinking an eye that it was the responsibility of every public employee to share the burden and to accept any cuts to their benefits and pay. Today there is a massive teacher involvement to protest against his policies. From at least a dozen states, grass root activities took part in the recent Save our Schools March. Interestingly, most of them were a part of fundraising campaign in 2008 in support of Obama.

Now they are all actively involved in defending their schools from his administration’s policies. Republicans seize this opportunity to promise to reduce federal interference, but teachers are wary. They are convinced that no one will do much to improve their schools.