NEA to celebrate 150th anniversary in Philadelphia

More than 9,000 NEA members will gather from June 29 to July 5 in Philadelphia for the NEA Annual Meeting and Representative Assembly, marking the association’s 150th anniversary.

Led by NEA President Reg Weaver, delegates will discuss, debate and vote on critical issues facing public education, such as teacher recruitment and education funding. A major topic at the NEA RA will be “No Child Left Behind,” the Bush administration’s controversial education reform program up for congressional reauthorization this year. In his keynote address, Weaver will outline tactics to help teachers and educators provide great public schools for every child, regardless of race or background.

In addition to setting the NEA’s agenda for the coming year, eight presidential candidates are set to appear, laying out their visions for the future of America’s public schools.

Confirmed presidential candidates who will address the NEA RA include:

• Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.)
• John Edwards (D-N.C.)
• Chris Dodd (D-Conn.)
• Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio)
• Bill Richardson (D-N.M.)
• Barack Obama (D-Ill.)
• Joe Biden (D-Del.)
• Mike Huckabee (R-Ariz.)

 Other highlights of the 2007 NEA Annual Meeting and RA include:

• More than 300 volunteers will help paint, landscape and clean Gotwals Elementary School as part of Outreach to Teach. The NEA Student Program started Outreach to Teach in 1996 to give back to a local school in the city hosting the annual meeting.
• Delegates will take time out to read to local children as part of NEA’s Read Across America, a year-round program to promote adults and children reading together on a regular basis.
• NEA member Veronica Henderson of Maryland will be honored as the 2007 NEA Education Support Professional of the Year.
• NEA member Andrea Peterson, a music teacher at Monte Cristo Elementary School in Granite Falls, Washington, will address the delegates as the 57th National Teacher of the Year.
• The association will honor the 2007 NEA Friend of Education – Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).

The NEA was created in Philadelphia in 1857. Delegates to the NEA RA are elected locally by NEA’s 3.2 million members to participate in the association’s pre-eminent decision-making body, the world’s largest democratic deliberative body.

For more information and a full listing of scheduled events: www.nea.org/annualmeeting.

Posted June 14, 2007