Teacher of year snubs Bush aide over gaffe

The Massachusetts teacher of the year refused to attend an event in Washington honoring the nation's top educators because US Education Secretary Rodney Paige had called the nation's largest teachers' union a "terrorist organization."

Jeffrey R. Ryan, a history teacher at Reading Memorial High School who lost a friend in the Sept. 11 attacks, said he could not accept Paige's apology for the Feb. 23 remark about the 2.7-million-member National Education Association.

Paige said the reference to terrorism was a "bad joke." But Ryan said: "Nazi death camps aren't funny. Lynching people isn't funny. . . . and terrorism isn't funny. I just couldn't show up and shake that man's hand after he made those remarks."

Forty-four teachers of the year attended Monday's conference.

The secretary made the comment in a private meeting with governors. He later apologized for his choice of words, but maintained that the union uses "obstructionist scare tactics." He apologized again Monday to the teachers of the year.

The NEA called on President Bush to fire Paige. The White House said Paige's job is safe. Ryan, 49, said his refusal to attend the conference also was a protest of the 2002 No Child Left Behind Act, which he called a "stealth tactic by the Bush administration to undermine public schools." Education Department spokeswoman Susan Aspey said the administration has pumped billions more into public education. Had he attended the conference, Ryan could have expressed his opinion directly to Paige, she said.None of the other teachers who missed the conference indicated they did so out of protest.