Forty percent of American fourth graders have less than basic reading skills–and only 26 percent of 12th graders are considered proficient in math, according to the federal government’s National Assessment of Educational Progress.

So you might think that there wasn’t much else on the minds of teachers at the latest annual gathering of the nation’s largest teachers union.

You can read a description of every approved business item in this summary published by the NEA. But one convention delegate from Texas summarized them by telling me the response that a friend of hers got while trying to talk to other union members about the best ways to teach reading and writing.

“We don’t have time for that. We’ve got to fight Trump,” her friend was told.