Joyce Dunn is a proud member of the National Education Association.

She also teaches in a school that's so close to where Flight 93 crashed on Sept. 11 that she could see the smoke from her classroom window.

So when U.S. Education Secretary Rod Paige made his now infamous comment that compared teachers unions to terrorists, it struck her personally.

"It was an insensitive remark," Dunn, a teacher at Shanksville-Stonycreek Elementary School in Somerset County, said yesterday.

"He's admitted that himself ... It was a very unfortunate thing to say."

Still, Dunn saw an all-expenses-paid trip to Washington, D.C. , to meet with Paige on Monday as an "opportunity" -- a chance to let him and other government officials know what she doesn't like about federal education laws.

"We talked to them and they listened," Dunn said yesterday, after returning from the trip with 42 other educators who had been named Teacher of the Year in their respective states. "They seemed receptive."

But to Jeffrey Ryan, Massachusetts' 2003 Teacher of the Year, not making the trip to Washington also was a chance to be heard.

"I had a friend who died on one of those planes on 9/11," said Ryan, a history teacher at Reading Memorial High School just outside Boston. "There are some things you shouldn't joke about -- the Holocaust, slavery, mass murder."

Paige, speaking to a group of governors at a private meeting at the White House last week, was referring to what he called "scare tactics" of the NEA when he compared the organization to "terrorists." The 2.7 million-member teachers union has long supported Democratic administrations and has complained vociferously about the Bush administration's federal education overhaul under No Child Left Behind.

Paige apologized the next day for his poor choice of words, but the NEA and some state affiliates have called for his resignation.

The White House says Paige's job is safe.

"Teacher of the Year" is an honor sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education.

Like Ryan, Les Nicholas, a Luzerne County teacher who is the 2004 Teacher of the Year from Pennsylvania, sent Paige a note of complaint.

"I can understand a slip of the tongue," said Nicholas, a journalism teacher at Wyoming Valley West High School. "But I was outraged at his apology."

During that apology, Paige criticized NEA leaders for using "fear, distortions, misinformation and disruptive tactics ... My frustration is that the Washington-based union leadership is making no secret of the fact that they are fighting against any real reform of our education system."

Nicholas said, "Instead of being contrite, he took the apology as another opportunity to take a shot at teachers."

Dunn said that although she was offended by the remark, "The issue of No Child Left Behind is so much bigger than anything that was said by Paige."

At least, she added, the outrage over Paige's comment has led to more attention to teachers' concerns.

"It sort of got things stirred up a little bit," she said.