NEA Committee Proposes $17 Million in Budget Cuts
NEA's budget committee this morning presented a modified 2010-2012 strategic plan and budget for feedback and review that would cut some $17 million from the budget that the Representative Assembly approved last year.
NEA Secretary-Treasurer Becky Pringle said the modification was necessary due to a "double whammy" of membership losses coupled with projected teacher-salary raises that didn't materialize.
(99 percent of NEA's budget is based on dues. And the dues formula for classroom teachers, for instance, is basically the number of members times the average salary of active full-time-equivalent teachers.)
The union lost 20,000 members last year, expects to lose 10,000 more by the end of this year, and an additional 30,000 in 2012. So, the cuts are based on a projected loss of 60,000 million members in total, a $14 million hit, plus a $3 million increase in the cost of its unified legal-service program, which helps protect teachers' employment.
The modified budget is just a proposal at this point; the entire Representative Assembly will vote on it in a few
