NCAE: Powerful, But Not Yet a Powerful Union

Mission
The stated “vision” of the North Carolina Association of Educators (NCAE) is to lead in advancing and ensuring “equitable, quality public education.” Accordingly, its mission is “to advocate for members and students, to enhance the education profession, and to advance public education.” The fact that “members” appears before “students” in the organization’s mission statement gives a clear and precise declaration of the association’s priorities. The interests of the union’s members come first, and that usually means supporting measures to increase salaries, fringe benefits, reduction of class size, and other amenities that improve the living conditions of these members.

While clear and precise, nothing in NCAE’s mission statement can match the declaration of the late Al Shanker, long-time president of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT). When Shanker was asked why AFT didn’t put more emphasis on students, Shanker replied, “When students start paying union dues I’ll start representing students.”

Background
NCAE is the primary group representing public school teachers and related school personnel in the state. It is affiliated with the National Education Association (NEA). The association is all-inclusive, with all categories of professional school personnel eligible for membership. Teacher assistants are eligible for membership in the North Carolina Educational Support Personnel Association, which is directly affiliated with NEA. The total membership (including all types of memberships active, associate, student, retired, staff) is approximately 70,000.

NCAE has 131 local units in public school districts, special State schools, and institutions of higher education. There are also members in "local units" too small to qualify as official local units (a local unit must have at least 10 members).

Although NCAE acts essentially as a labor union, it does not have some of the tools usually associated with labor unions. It cannot engage in collective bargaining and it cannot strike.

Collective bargaining is the process of negotiation between representatives of workers (labor union officials) and management to determine the conditions of employment, including such things as compensation, fringe benefits, working hours, hiring practices, employee terminations, promotions, and seniority. Agreements reached by labor and management in this process of collective bargaining results in a legal contract by which both parties agree to abide.

In North Carolina, collective bargaining by public employees is governed by G.S. §95-98, the General Statute enacted in 1959 which states that an agreement by a governmental entity in the state is unlawful and shall have no effect. Like the State Employees Association of North Carolina (SEANC-SEIU), NCAE hopes to have the statute repealed.

History
The North Carolina Education Association was founded in 1857. In 1880, the North Carolina Teachers Association was created. The North Carolina Association of Educators was formed on July 1, 1970, when the two organizations combined during a meeting at the NEA Convention in San Francisco, California. The documents of the merger were signed in San Francisco and the new Board of Directors met for the first time there.

In 1974, NCAE amended its Constitution to require a unified membership with the National Education Association, effective with the 1974-1975 membership year. Today, NCAE is one of the larger state affiliates of the National Education Association, ranking 14th of the 53 NEA affiliates. It sends about 250 delegates to the annual NEA convention.

Programs
A look at NCAE’s 2008 legislative program paints a picture of a group focused mainly on conditions of employment for its members with a primary concentration on salary increases. But the group also worked to stifle competition in education, opposing a school voucher program.

As a result of NCAE’s legislative efforts:

• Overall teacher pay increased an average of 3-percent, with administrators receiving a 2.69-percent increase. Those teachers at the top of their salary schedule got a one-time bonus of 1.8-percent, with comparable administrators getting a 2-percent bonus. Starting teachers will be paid $30,430 annually for the 2008-09 fiscal year.
• Educational support professionals received $1,100 pay increase, an average increase of 6.5-percent for most of these personnel.
• Retired school teachers were awarded a 2.2-percent cost-of-living increase.
• Legislation was adopted providing one day of paid personal leave on days when a substitute teacher is required. In the past, when personal leave was used teacher were required to pay $50 to help pay for the substitute. Legislation eliminating the $50 payment was enacted during the 2008 legislative session.
• NCAE opposed all legislative efforts in 2008 to create private and home-school voucher systems, arguing that this would mean transferring $50 million away from the public school system.
• NCAE also supported expanding the Earned Income Tax Credit and an increased income tax credit for long-term insurance (from $350 to $1000).

Other 2008 accomplishments cited by NCAE include reducing proposed spending cuts for literacy coach trainers, supporting instructional technology, increased spending for at-risk students, increased spending for the PTA Parental Involvement Initiative, increased spending for the juvenile justice system, and defeating legislation that could have made it easier to sue school employees civil court.

In 2009, NCAE has indicated that its 2009 will focus on improving the State Health Plan, prohibiting risky investments by the State Retirement System, addressing the teacher shortage problem, obtaining a “living wage” for teacher assistants, and legislation to allow collective bargaining for public employees.

Staff
Sheri Strickland, a Preschool 306 Coordinator in the Pitt County schools (on leave), is the president of the Board of Directors of NCAE for the period 2008- 2010. The vice president is a classroom teacher from the Winston-Salem-Forsyth County schools (on leave). His name is Rodney Ellis and his term is also 2008-2010. There are 19 other board members, mostly classroom teachers, but the board does include two principals and one teacher assistant. In addition to the state president, the organization has five division presidents who have board voting privileges, and five non-voting ex-officio members.

Colleen Borst is executive director of NCAE and Kelvin Spragley is the associate executive director. The Business Affairs division is led by Joyce Jarrett. The manager of the Center for Teacher and Learning is Angela Farthing. Other manager include Jackie Vaughn (Communications), Cecil Banks (Government Relations), Claudia Cole Williams (Field Membership and Legal Services), and Pam Deardorff (Retired Division).

Assets
The 2006 IRS Form 990 covering the tax year ending June 30, 2007 shows that NCAE reported total revenues of $10,173,482 and total expenses of $9,566,153. Net assets or fund balance at the end of the year was $2,790,055.

NCAE PAC
The political arm of NCAE is called the NCAE PAC. According to the disclosure form filed with the State Board of Elections for the third quarter, 2008, total contributions made from the PAC for the current election season amounted to $267,230.  Political contributions made by the PAC are overwhelmingly given to Democrats, with only token amounts contributed to the Republican leadership. Among the total expenditures listed in the report were these:

NC Democratic House Committee	$23,000
NC Democratic Senate Committee	$20,000
NC Republican House Committee	$1,500
NC Republican Senate Committee	$2,500
NC Democratic Party	$22,150
Republican Women's Caucus	$1,000

Campaign contributions by the NCAE PAC are supplemented by the participation of NCAE's national affiliate, the NEA, which spent a whopping $1,905,194.10 to influence North Carolina elections through the third quarter 2008.

 

Summary
NCAE is a powerful political and policy organization, and it's influence in campaigns is increasing with each new election. While NCAE operates as a union in practice, it is not yet a powerful union because it does not have the right to bargain collectively or to strike. But the critical importance of education as a policy issue in North Carolina gives the NCAE enormous bargaining power. Additionally, by virtue of NCAE’s enormous presence in legislative districts, with membership located throughout the state, lawmakers know that the views of NCAE must be carefully considered, thus giving the group political importance.

A careful look at NCAE’s legislative agenda over the years, however, reveals that their support of “education” more often means support of teachers. There is a difference.

Should NCAE ever get the right to bargain collectively and to strike, its power would be unsurpassed in the history of North Carolina. After all, teaching is a profession that can’t be easily outsourced to other countries, so unionization would give the NCAE an upper hand in any negotiations. Should this day ever come, North Carolinians should hope that students and parents are able to acquire equal representation as well – and without having to pay union dues.

Updated November 21, 2008