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The NEA Representative Assembly

Delegates focus on the Association’s mission and core values and plan for the year to come.

Among the significant actions taken by the nearly 9,000 delegates to the 2006 NEA Representative Assembly in Orlando this July was the adoption of a mission statement and core values for the Association.

The mission: to advocate for education professionals and to unite our members and the nation to fulfill the promise of public education to prepare every student to succeed in a diverse and interdependent world. The core values are equal opportunity, a just society, democracy, professionalism, partnership, and collective action.

In other issues of interest, delegates directed NEA to alert its members about threats to academic freedom in recent federal regulations and state legislation preventing educators in the United States from teaching and conducting research in so-called “terrorist states.” A similar item reaffirming an educator’s right to use teaching practices that invite students to think rationally and objectively was referred to a committee for a broader study.

Delegates also celebrated the 40th anniversary of the merger between NEA and the predominantly Black American Teachers Association, honoring those who shaped the face of public education for Black students throughout the South. See more on the NEA Annual Meeting at www.nea.org.

It’s not too early to begin planning for NEA’s 2007 higher ed conference, March 2–4 at the Hilton San Diego Resort on Mission Bay in California. The theme is “The Academy at Work.” Conference registration will be online only and hotel reservation information with a Web link to the Hilton will be posted later this summer at www.nea.org/he.

As the second session of the 109th Congress winds down, NEA continues its fight to restore funding for critical higher education programs, such as student aid, by supporting HR 5150, the Reverse the Raid on Student Aid Act of 2006, and for a reauthorization of the Higher Education Act (HEA) that, among other things, provides adequate student aid, supports college readiness programs like TRIO and GEAR-UP, and protects students against abuses by for-profit distance education providers. You can read a copy of NEA’s letter to the members of the House of Representatives opposing HR 609, the House version of the reauthorization of the Higher Education Act, at www.nea.org/lac/letters/306househr609.html. The Senate committee has passed a bill, but the full Senate has not scheduled action.

NEA’s Legislative Action Center, www.nea.org/lac/index.html, will continue to provide updates on Congressional activity affecting all levels of education.