NEA President Lily Eskelsen García joined the CEA Caucus, including NEA Director John Horrigan and CEA Executive Director Don Williams, in Boston this morning.
Some of your Connecticut colleagues are in Boston this week as members of the world’s largest democratic deliberative body: the NEA Representative Assembly (RA). The more than 100 CEA members are some of the over 7,500 elected delegates who are representing three million NEA members.
Delegates will debate the vital issues that affect American public education and set NEA policy and activities for the year ahead.
Earlier this year, CEA members elected their peers to represent their concerns as delegates to the NEA RA. Delegates represent state and local affiliates, student members, retired members, and other segments of the NEA membership.
Every year new delegates mix with those who have attended the NEA RA in the past. Delegates say the chance to meet and talk with new people, from Connecticut and around the nation, is one of their favorite parts of the RA.
The days at the RA are busy ones for CEA members, with meetings that last from 7:00 in the morning until 6:00 at night. State delegation meetings precede the NEA RA every morning.
Delegates adopt the strategic plan and budget, resolutions, the legislative program, and other policies of the Association. By secret ballot, they vote on proposed amendments to NEA’s Constitution and Bylaws.
This year, among the many business items to be voted on, the RA will consider a revised NEA policy statement on charter schools. Developed by a task force of nearly two dozen educators over the past year, the statement makes clear NEA’s support for public charter schools that are held accountable for their students’ success while decrying their privately managed, unaccountable counterparts.
On July 3, NEA will present the 2017 Friend of Education Award to actor LeVar Burton for his leadership and decades of work to build a generation of readers. Through the relaunch of Reading Rainbow in an online format, Burton is continuing to have a positive impact on children’s literacy.
Stay tuned for more NEA RA news here at BlogCEA, and by visiting http://ra.nea.org.
