Delegates make history by voting for new leadership team to head nation’s largest union
DENVER – July 04, 2014 -
Students across this country will have a historic new team advocating for their interests and the empowerment of the educators dedicated to their success this coming school year. Delegates attending the National Education Association’s 152nd Annual Meeting and 93rd Representative Assembly, meeting this week in Denver, elected new officers and executive committee members to lead the nation’s largest union, representing nearly 3 million educators. NEA’s new officers include a former state teacher of the year and elementary school teacher from North Salt Lake, Utah; a physical science teacher from Harrisburg, Pa.; and an elementary school music teacher from Louisa County, Va.
Lily Eskelsen García, a former Utah Teacher of the Year who started her 20-year career in education as a lunch lady before becoming an elementary teacher who worked with homeless children, was elected to head NEA. Eskelsen García previously served two three-year terms as NEA vice president and was named by President Obama to serve as a commissioner on the White House Commission on Education Excellence for Hispanics. An outspoken advocate for preserving and promoting public education for every student, she has been a vocal critic of high stakes testing and other policies that detract from student learning and exacerbate inequity in our education system.
“We must measure what matters and put students’ needs at the center of the system once again. We can no longer allow politicians who have never stepped into a classroom define what it means to teach and learn,” said Eskelsen García. “At a time when nearly 50 percent of public school children live in low-income families, our country must refocus its priorities on the needs of the whole child and bridge the gaps that have only grown over the last decade. We know what is at stake, and it is why we are educators. It is why we are fearless and why we will not be silent.”
After teaching only nine years, Eskelsen García was named her state’s top teacher. The daughter of an immigrant, she is one of the nation’s top Hispanic educators and used her leadership position to speak up on behalf of DREAMers seeking a path to U.S. citizenship and has been a vocal opponent of policies driven by the standardized testing mania. Her trajectory led to NEA, where she was elected an executive committee member in 1996 and secretary-treasurer in 2002; she was elected NEA vice president in 2008, and has been an outspoken advocate for the teaching profession, students, and learning. She also served as president of the Utah Education Association, an affiliate of NEA.
Delegates also elected Rebecca S. “Becky” Pringle, a middle school physical science teacher from Harrisburg, Pa., as NEA vice president. Pringle, now one of the highest-ranking African-American female leaders in the labor movement, has served since 2008 as NEA secretary-treasurer. She oversaw the fiscal NEA elects Latina to leadership at annual meeting « NewsTaco: