National Education Association

NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION

NATIONAL EDUCATION ASSOCIATION

Ask top members of the NEA what type of organization they are, they would probably say they were a “professional organization” representing millions of education professionals. Founded in 1857 and headquartered in Washington, DC, they are the largest professional organization, along with being the largest labor union in the United States with membership totaling over 3.2 million with an affiliate located in every state and Washington, DC.

As with all organizations, top issues the NEA is concerned with are funding for the many programs in its elementary, secondary schools and colleges and fair and competitive wages for its many members. These issues have been of major concern lately because of the declining funds coming from the national government due to the economic situation, and because of Bills like the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) and No Children Left Behind (NCLB) where there’s pressure to assist in the creation of more charter schools and the use of standardized tests to use student scores as a gauge for teacher performance. The NEA has been consistently opposed to more charter schools and voucher programs because they divert more funds from the public school system. A student’s ability to learn is tied to many variables: home and family life, peer groups, personal interest in school, to name a few. The NEA has issues with judging teachers performance from the results gathered from these tests.

The NEA has always presented itself as not endorsing any political party specifically, but it has supported or endorsed every Democratic presidential candidate from Jimmy Carter thru President Obama. It has never endorsed a Republican presidential candidate, and recently endorsed President Obama for reelection in 2012. One of the reasons this might be so is because the NEA view the Republican Party as being anti-collective bargaining and anti-public education. The actions in...