Everyone's been buzzing about the dust-up between NEA's prez Dennis Van Roekel and Hollywood celeb Matt Damon—well really, Matt Damon's education-professor mom. The two had been nominated for a "friend of education" award by the NEA but turned it down after Van Roekel co-wrote a public letter with Wendy Kopp, founder of Teach For America. The Damon perspective was that the letter constituted collaboration with the enemy on the part of the NEA, consorting with an organization which "undermines teacher quality and harms children."  Not that there's a smidgen of evidence to support that perspective on TFA.  Since we think Damon is a really cute guy and high on the nice-guy meter, we'll chalk-up his role in this fuss to not wanting to diss his own mom. But there are those who think he's an up-and-coming education activist.

Our rating of Damon:

100% Matt Damon: movie star
100% Matt Damon: supporter of teachers
  100% Matt Damon: son
0% Matt Damon: education policy analyst



Julie Greenberg