National Education Association
The National Education Association (NEA) is the largest labor union in the United States, representing most of the country's teachers along with other school personnel. The NEA has 2.7 million members and is headquartered in Washington DC, and has an annual operating budget of around $150 million. Reg Weaver, a graduate of Roosevelt University, is the NEA's current president. Traditionally a professional organization, it is not a member of the AFL-CIO unlike its smaller rival the American Federation of Teachers (AFT).
History
The NEA was founded by Robert Campbell as the National Teachers Association in 1850, and changed to its present name in 1857. It was chartered by Congress in 1906. In the 1960s it officially became a union.
In 1998, a proposed merger with AFT failed when that union's annual meeting rejected it.[1] The two organizations continue to cooperate, however, through the "NEAFT Partnership." Also, several state NEA locals have merged with their AFT counterparts, effectively forming a single union in those states. Unified NEA-AFT locals include the teachers' unions in Florida, Minnesota and Montana. In New York, AFT and NEA teachers unions are scheduled to unify in September, 2006.
In 2006 the NEA and the AFL-CIO announced that for the first time, NEA locals would be allowed to join state and local labor federations affiliated with the AFL-CIO.[2]
Politics
In recent decades the NEA has greatly increased its visibility in party politics and political issues. Some members and others have criticized its endorsement of several successive Democratic Party candidates for President of the United States and its alignment of resources behind that party's candidates at various levels, although the NEA maintains that it bases its support for political candidates primarily on their support for public education and educators.
NEA opposition to some of the education reforms of Republican administrations have also led to conflict. On February 23, 2004, United States Secretary of Education Rod Paige called the NEA a "terrorist organization" over the union's position on the No Child Left Behind initiative of the George W. Bush administration and its opposition to other reforms favored by the Republicans. Secretary Paige later stated that it was an inappropriate choice of words, but upheld his original argument.[3] Nevertheless, the NEA called for Paige's resignation.[4] Paige eventually did resign in November of that year. [5]