The Alabama Education Association (AEA) is a statewide

professional organization A professional association (also called a professional body, professional organization, or professional society) usually seeks to further a particular profession, the interests of individuals and organisations engaged in that profession, and th ...

that represents public school employees in the state of

Alabama (We dare defend our rights) , anthem = "Alabama" , image_map = Alabama in United States.svg , seat = Montgomery , LargestCity = Huntsville , LargestCounty = Baldwin County , LargestMetro = Greater Birmingham , area_total_km2 = 135,765 ...

. It is based in the

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of Montgomery. The AEA is the largest education association in Alabama and is an advocate organization that leads the movement for excellence in education and is the voice of education professionals in Alabama. AEA's mission is to promote education excellence. The AEA provides legal assistance, professional development opportunities, member benefits, and a strong voice for education in the Alabama Legislature. The AEA serves as the advocate for its members and leads in the advancement of equitable and quality public education for Alabama's diverse population. The AEA is an affiliate of the

National Education Association The National Education Association (NEA) is the largest labor union in the United States. It represents public school teachers and other support personnel, faculty and staffers at colleges and universities, retired educators, and college stud ...

(NEA), the nation's largest professional employee organization. The AEA's stated mission is "to promote educational excellence, the Alabama Education Association shall serve as the advocate for its members and shall lead in the advancement of equitable and quality public education for a diverse population."

History

One of the mandates of

Reconstruction Reconstruction may refer to: Politics, history, and sociology *Reconstruction (law), the transfer of a company's (or several companies') business to a new company *'' Perestroika'' (Russian for "reconstruction"), a late 20th century Soviet Unio ...

placed on the former Confederate states was that each had to write a new

constitution A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organisation or other type of entity and commonly determine how that entity is to be governed. When these princ ...

acceptable to Congress before rejoining the Union.

drafted a new state constitution in 1868. In the section on education, the following line was added: "And proper provision shall be made for the education of the children of white and colored persons in separate schools." This helped create a system of education that would come to be known as

separate but equal Separate but equal was a legal doctrine in United States constitutional law, according to which racial segregation did not necessarily violate the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which nominally guaranteed "equal protec ...

. As a result of this divide, two professional associations arose to represent teachers in the divided schools system. The association to represent teachers in White schools was known as the Alabama Education Association while the one representing teachers in Non-White schools was known as the Alabama State Teachers Association. In 1969, the Alabama Education Association and the Alabama State Teachers Association merged, with Paul R. Hubbert as executive secretary and Joe L. Reed as associate executive secretary.

Modern Era

Though it is officially a professional organization, it performs many of the same functions as a

trade union A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and benefits ...

, and is thus frequently referred to as such by the

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and other writers, as well as political opponents. (State law prevents public employees from being represented by a union ''per se,'' hence the designation.) http://www.encyclopediaofalabama.org/face/Article.jsp?id=h-2528 "Thus, AEA is probably one of the leading state education associations in the nation in terms of representing teachers without union representation, which is the case for many states outside the South." As a professional association, AEA is not able to call for strikes or participate in collective bargaining.

References

External links

*{{official website, http://www.myaea.org Organizations based in Montgomery, Alabama Teacher associations based in the United States Educational organizations based in Alabama Education in Montgomery, Alabama Organizations with year of establishment missing

History

Modern Era

See also

References

External links