National Education Association (NEA)

The National Education Association (NEA) is the largest labor union in the United States. It represents teachers in grades kindergarten through post-secondary, as well as secretaries, education support professionals, administrators, student and substitute teachers, and retired members of any of these groups. What began as a gathering of just a few dozen teachers in the mid-nineteenth century grew to around three million members by the early part of the twenty-first century. The NEA's mission is to advocate for educational professionals and work toward a public education system that prepares students for success.

Organization

The NEA membership consists of teachers and other professional school employees from across the country who contribute financially and volunteer in support of the work of the organization. It is governed by a board of directors and an executive committee that sets national policy.

The NEA's three million members elect nine thousand delegates to represent them in creating policies, debating relevant issues, and selecting the organization's top officers. The representative delegates elect the three executive positions—president, vice president, and secretary-treasurer. There are affiliate offices at the local, regional, state, and national levels to provide coordination and support for the efforts of the volunteers in more than 14,000 communities. Depending on the needs and interests of the membership, NEA volunteers can be involved in contract negotiations, providing continuing education, raising funds for scholarships, or other functions. They may also raise awareness or interest in issues related to education, including those with a political component such as funding.

Early History

Education through the first part of the nineteenth century was less formal and organized than modern education. Children often left school to help with family farms or businesses or to care for younger siblings. No child was required to attend school or was even guaranteed the opportunity to do so. By the middle of the century, however, interest arose in reforming education by standardizing what was taught and establishing requirements for educators. In the midst of this, forty-three teachers gathered in Philadelphia in 1857 and formed the National Teachers Association (NTA), which later became the NEA.

Key Initiatives

As the country rebuilt after the Civil War, emancipated formerly enslaved individuals who wanted to learn to read and write were a key factor in education reform. The NEA sought government aid for this and endorsed the establishment of a federal Department of Education.

From its start, the NEA actively campaigned for programs that made education more available to children, including efforts to educate Native Americans, support for child labor laws, and the establishment of compulsory schooling. It also improved teacher conditions by campaigning for increased wages and reduced class sizes.

The success of the organization in these efforts grew its membership. More teachers sought a voice in education and the conditions under which they worked by joining the NEA. By the time the organization celebrated its centennial in 1957, it had more than seven hundred thousand members.

As the twentieth century continued, the NEA campaigned for federal assistance for education. Its Black membership, along with another similar but smaller organization called the American Teachers Association (ATA), was very active in pursuing desegregation in the 1950s. The NEA and ATA merged in 1966, and its combined membership remained active in the civil rights movement.

With the needs of teachers key to its mission, the NEA offered help to teachers who were subjected to criticism or persecution as part of the surge of anti-communist sentiment of the late 1940s through the 1950s known as the "Red Scare."

In the latter half of the twentieth century, states began to allow public employees such as teachers to engage in collective bargaining. This allowed something that had rarely happened before: teacher strikes. There had been a brief spate of strikes in the mid-1940s and some big-city strikes that drew significant attention in the 1960s, but the NEA publicly discouraged strikes as contrary to the professional image of teachers.

Throughout its history, the NEA has taken a stand on several issues related to education, such as supporting tenure for teachers, endorsing reform of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, mandating high school graduation or its equivalent for all Americans under twenty-one, opposing school choice vouchers, and supporting laws calling for increased transparency and accountability from charter schools. In the 2020s, the group prioritized student loan issues among their members. The NEA worked with the US Department of Education to help form the Saving on a Valuable Education (SAVE) plan and helped make Public Service Loan Forgiveness more accessible for teachers. Other areas of focus include lobbying for legislative change to minimize mass deportation, which traumatizes students.

Criticism and Competition

The NEA has come under criticism for endorsing initiatives that are more supportive of teachers than students. The organization has resisted efforts to reform teacher tenure policies and implement merit pay arrangements as well as opposed school voucher programs that would allow students to choose which schools they attend. Conversely, it has also been accused of opposing initiatives that a majority of its members favor, such as the Common Core State Standards Initiative that went into effect in 2010.

While the NEA is the largest teachers' union in the United States, there are other national organizations for teachers, including the American Federation of Teachers, a trade union with one million members, and the Association of American Educators, a nonunion, nonprofit organization formed in 1994.

The National Education Association Staff Organization (NEASO) union represents the NEA's staff. In 2024, the NEASO enacted an Unfair Labor Practice (ULP) strike in protest of practices concerning health benefits, telework, and wages. The strike disrupted the NEA’s four-day annual assembly, during which President Biden was set to give a speech until the controversy began. This resulted in more than three hundred NEASO members being locked out of the Washington DC headquarters without pay until the parties could come to an agreement and sign a new contract. The NEASO was widely supported by other unions and individuals throughout the US, and after six weeks, the groups signed a new contract with terms that better supported America’s teachers.

Bibliography

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"About AAE & FAQs." Association of American Educators, www.aaeteachers.org/about-us. Accessed 2 Jan. 2025.

Buer, Mel. "Teachers Union Staff Faced An Unexpected Labor Adversary—The Union That Employs Them." In These Times, 19 Nov. 2024, inthesetimes.com/article/teachers-union-lockout-solidarity-strike-podcast-workers. Accessed 2 Jan. 2025.

Foster, Stuart J. “Red Alert!: The National Education Association Confronts the “Red Scare” in American Public Schools, 1947-1954.” Education and Culture, vol. 14, no. 2, 1997, pp. 1–16, docs.lib.purdue.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1425&context=eandc. Accessed 2 Jan. 2025.

"Members: Students, Educators, Workers, Allies—We All Have a Home in Our Union." National Education Association, www.nea.org/our-members. Accessed 2 Jan. 2025.

"National Organizations—Supporters of We Shall Remain, National Education Association." PBS, WGBH Educational Foundation, www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/weshallremain. Accessed 2 Jan. 2025.

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Schultz, Brooke. "NEA’s Staff Union Is on Strike—Halting NEA’s Biggest Annual Gathering." Education Week, 7 July 2024, www.edweek.org/teaching-learning/neas-staff-union-is-on-strike-halting-neas-biggest-annual-gathering/2024/07. Accessed 2 Jan. 2025.