Public education is under attack on the national stage, but educators from across the country are ready to organize, engage, and stand up to the challenges we face. The more than 6,000 delegates to the National Education Association’s Representative Assembly (NEA RA), including almost 100 Connecticut educators, wrapped up business in Portland, Oregon, yesterday with an unprecedented day of training to meet the moment.
Delegates voted to spend most of the last day of their meeting empowering themselves with the knowledge, strategies, and tools they need to build campaigns and organize effectively to protect and strengthen public education in communities nationwide. They are returning home ready to advocate for their students and colleagues—at the bargaining table, in school board meetings, at state legislatures, and at the ballot box. Trainings covered a range of topics from effective advocacy, fighting vouchers and privatization, promoting inclusive and just schools, protecting immigrant students, and building power for the common good.
Every year, delegates come together at the NEA RA 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. Among the new business items delegates considered this year were those on workplace concerns like teacher safety and the role of artificial intelligence in education as well as broader issues including immigration and housing.
Delegates elected Illinois high school science teacher Bill Farmer and Louisiana special education teacher Dr. Tia T. Mills to NEA’s executive committee.
NEA President Becky Pringle is now in the final year of her second term and, due to term limits, is not eligible to run again. A new president will be elected at the 2026 NEA Representative Assembly in Denver, Colorado.
CEA President Kate Dias and NEA Vice President Princess Moss have each announced their candidacy for the position.
Standing together for our students
CEA members discuss their positions on issues in caucus before heading to the floor of the RA.
In remarks to delegates, 2025 National Teacher of the Year Ashlie Crosson shared her own journey to becoming an engaged and empowered union member. During the difficult times facing our public schools, she said that union solidarity is more important than ever.
“If our schools falter—if education is disrupted by disinvestment or division—then we don’t just lose a school system. We lose our future,” the Pennsylvania English teacher said.
“In this moment of challenge and consequence, I keep coming back to a poster that has hung in my classroom since my first day of teaching, Margaret Mead’s words of truth: ‘Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has,'” Crosson said. “We are that group. In every classroom, on every playground, at every board meeting. We are thoughtful. We are committed. And we are powerful. A union of educators is a union of advocacy, of camaraderie, of empathy. And it is one more opportunity for us to lead by example for the students we serve.”
“Fellow delegates, as the highest governing body of the NEA, our country is depending on us—on this community—to lead the way . . . from dogmatism back to decency and democracy, ” Pringle said. “We must lead the way from callousness and the castigation of society’s at-risk communities. It is up to us to lead the way toward the care, consideration, and compassion that is everyone’s right.”
She continued, “We cannot simply fight against. We must also fight forward: for our vision of a public school system where every student—every one—attends a school that is safe, welcoming, and plentiful in resources; a school where every student is celebrated for who they know themselves to be; a school that is steeped in excellence and care; where education justice is recognized as a birthright; where educators—you—are valued as the professionals you are.”
“Delegates, our mission statement declares that, ‘Our work is fundamental to the nation,'” NEA Executive Director Kim Anderson said. “America needs our strength. America needs our resilience. America needs our vision and power to create something new … something beautiful … a public education system that welcomes and prepares every student and a democracy that delivers for everyone!”
