Retired delegates elected to IEA RA.
– Fred Klonsky, SORE President
The Illinois Education Association was founded in 1853.
It became an affiliate of the National Education Association in 1857.
In 1966 the NEA and the African American American Teachers Association merged. We also merged in Illinois.
The NEA essentially removed administrators from leadership and became a union in 1970.
Over the 150 years of our Association existence we have taken steps forward and we have taken some steps backward.
Certainly the ending of teacher union segregation and requiring minority representation in our leadership was of huge historical importance and a major step forward.
A much smaller but important step forward for IEA Retired took place today as members of our slate were elected as delegates to the Representative Assembly of the IEA, scheduled for April in Rosemont.
To my knowledge, it has been many years since a slate of delegates has run – with some of us getting elected – on specific issues including some points critical of the current leadership.
After a month-long period of mail-in voting three of the five members of our slate of candidates were elected to be delegates to the meeting.
Our platform:
We are running as candidates to represent the IEA Retired at the 2015 IEA Representative Assembly. We share the following beliefs. (This is not a criticism of others who are running as delegates. We strongly believe in a diversity of views).
1. We believe the IEA leadership needs to improve communication with its membership.
2. We believe the IEA leadership should be more transparent in its decision-making process.
3. We believe retirees should have a stronger voice (more representation) in the decision-making process of the Association.
4. We believe our Association should take a more significant and active role in defending our schools, our members, and our students from corporate school reform schemes such as charter schools, vouchers, Common Core, Race to the Top and teacher evaluations based on student test scores.
5. We believe in defending our contractual and constitutional pension benefits and rights without apologies, concessions or compromise.– Jack Tucker, Mary Richie, Glen Brown, John Dillon and Fred Klonsky
Jack Tucker received the second highest vote total of all those running. Glen Brown and I were also elected. John and Mary did well as first-time candidates, although they were not elected.
Jack, Glen, and myself along with Bob Kaplan and Linda Stolt – members of our chapter of the Skokie Organization of Retired Educators (IEA Retired) – were elected.
Also elected were past IEA presidents Bob Haisman and Ken Swanson who have, of course, name recognition among many retired members.
Ed Rosenthal, David Bishop, Char Haley, Barb Gilhaus, Mae Smith, Dottie Beeler, Wesley Heyduck, Melody Sexton, Pearl Mack, Jane Nolan, Chuck Weishaupt, Paula Mueller and Marge Houghland were all elected to represent IEA retirees.