By Amy Goldstein
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, February 24, 2004; Page A19

Education Secretary Roderick R. Paige yesterday told the nation's governors that the largest teachers union in the United States is a "terrorist organization" -- a remark that prompted a torrent of criticism and an apology by the end of the day.

Paige made the comment about the 2.7 million-member National Education Association in a private meeting at the White House with the National Governors Association, less than a week after he announced the administration was relaxing testing requirements under the No Child Left Behind law. The landmark education law has come under mounting opposition, and the NEA has been among its strongest detractors.

Sources familiar with the incident, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Paige's remark was in response to a question about his opinion of the NEA toward the end of a two-hour panel discussion that included five other Cabinet members.

The sources said Paige drew a distinction between his disdain for the union and his admiration for classroom teachers, whom he called "the real soldiers of democracy."

Democrats and leaders of labor groups and other liberal organizations immediately condemned the terrorist analogy. Terence R. McAuliffe, chairman of the Democratic National Committee, accused Paige of using "the most vile and disgusting form of hate speech." Stephanie Cutter, a spokeswoman for Sen. John F. Kerry (Mass.), the front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination, said: "Teaching is one of the most important professions, and we should celebrate -- not chastise -- those who make such heroic contributions."

NEA President Reg Weaver said in an interview that the secretary had "outraged" the union's members "and by extension many of their families as well as many of the children we work with day in and day out." Weaver said the NEA's disagreement with the administration over the 2001 education law "is no cause for the administration or anybody else to call anybody a name."

By late afternoon, such pounding had produced a written apology from Paige, although not a more conciliatory tone toward the union. "It was an inappropriate choice of words to describe the obstructionist scare tactics the NEA's Washington lobbyists have employed against No Child Left Behind's historic education reforms," Paige said. "As one who grew up on the receiving end of insensitive remarks," said the secretary, who is black, "I should have chosen my words better."

In his apology, Paige continued to criticize the NEA, saying the organization's "high-priced Washington lobbyists have made no secret that they will fight against bringing real, rock-solid improvements in the way we educate all our children."

Susan Aspey, an Education Department spokeswoman, said, "The secretary certainly is not prone to this type of remark. He realizes the remark was wrong, and he moved quickly to issue an apology."

Gayle Fallon, president of the Houston chapter of a rival education union, the American Federation of Teachers, who knows Paige from his days as that city's school superintendent, said last night she believes his words were intended as humor. ". . . I can hear him saying it as a sarcastic remark. This was a man that would come up to me and say, 'How's my favorite labor terrorist?' " Fallon said. "Granted, the country wasn't as sensitive about the word then.

"The NEA isn't militant enough to be a terrorist group," Fallon said. "They're barely militant enough to be a labor union."

Others were less charitable. "I know President Bush wants to run as a wartime president, but this is ridiculous," said Robert Borosage, president of the Institute for America's Future. "Our public school teachers protect millions of children from the terrors a lack of education brings. They are not terrorists."