Eighty-seven CEA members are joining nearly 7,000 educators from around the nation in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, this week for the 2024 National Education Association Annual Meeting and Representative Assembly (RA). Philadelphia is the site of NEA’s first meeting and founding on August 26, 1857.
The RA is the world’s largest democratic deliberative body and the top decision-making body for NEA’s nearly 3 million members. Every year, delegates come together to draft and debate new policies, adopt a strategic plan and budget, listen to speeches from NEA leaders and other prominent educators and activists, and elect new leaders.
RA delegates will hear from NEA President Becky Pringle as well as from 2024 National Teacher of the Year Missy Testerman, Education Support Professional of the Year Jen Bramson, and Higher Educator of the Year Susan Williams Brown.
At every RA, the delegates take on some of the most pressing issues facing public education and will consider a host of new business items (NBI) that will define much of NEA’s advocacy work going forward. CEA delegates plan to introduce an NBI calling on NEA to initiate a campaign to repeal WEP/GPO.
This year delegates will also weigh in on NEA’s new policy statement on artificial intelligence (AI) in education. Since the fall of 2023, a task force of NEA members, led by NEA Secretary-Treasurer Noel Candelaria, has been meeting and talking with other educators and experts. Their 5-page, proposed policy statement was reviewed at an open hearing of RA delegates on June 24, and will be voted on during the RA.
“Where AI once seemed like something coming in the future, it’s clear the future is now,” said Candelaria. “For NEA, we need to be at the forefront of how this technology is regulated and used.”
Pre-conference events
In addition to the RA itself, a number of other events make up NEA’s annual meeting, which kicked off with NEA’s Aspiring Educators (AE) Conference held June 29-July 2. The Aspiring Educators Conference offers future educators the chance to connect with their colleagues, learn about their profession, and act on important education issues. The CCSU chapter of CEA’s Aspiring Educators Program took home the emerging chapter award this year—learn more.
At the NEA-Retired Annual Meeting, held June 29-July 1, members established legislative and political action goals, passed a new business item to support the repeal of WEP/GPO, and celebrated winners of annual communications and distinguished service awards.
On June 29, NEA’s Center for Racial and Social Justice presented the Conference on Racial and Social Justice—a unique space for educators, students, and community members to address fundamental issues of equity and social justice facing public education.
Subscribe to the CEA Daily for more news from the NEA RA.
