“help us carry out our policy agenda on Capitol Hill.”
This was one of the messages, although not as baldly phrased, from the ISTE president yesterday. There was a definite note of triumphalism in the speech last night, amounting to the idea that we have a president and a congress who can be bullied/persuaded/convinced to buy into the educational technology program, and we can get everything we want and need for our vendors.
It’s important to remember that any organization as large as this one winds up becoming a lobbying group on Capitol Hill. There are allegedly 18,000 people present at NECC this year, and ISTE is probably 2-3 times that size. So it’s no wonder that they want to engage in a little bit of lobbying while they’re here.
But please remember, when you go home, that this means we are now part of one of the many “special interests” that influence Congress. And try not to rail against us too much when the folks on Fox News or the pundits on CNN or CNBC get on our case. We have met the enemy and he is us.
