Republican educators form caucus

Across the country NEA members who also belong to the Republican Party are working to reshape the GOP, change the platform to make it more supportive of public education, and lend their voices at the state, local, and national levels on issues important to educators.  Here in Alaska Mat-Su EA member Shawn Arnold has formed the NEA-AK Republican Educators Caucus.  The goal is to give a collective voice to Republicans with experience in the classroom or schools.  The caucus, by serving as a source of information about both NEA-Alaska and the Republican Party, can help build bridges between the two organizations.  Below is an article written for our website by Shawn:

Believe it or not, there are Republican educators who are also proud union members.

It isn’t a well known fact that an estimated 1 million of NEA’s 3.2 million members nationwide are politically Republican. This means NEA has a higher percentage of Republicans than those who identify themselves as Republicans nationally in the latest U.S. polls. NEA Republicans from across the country are working to reshape the Republican Party, change the platform to make it more supportive of public education, and lend their voices at the state, local, and national levels on issues that are important to the education profession. In Alaska, NEA-AK Republican Educators recently began a new initiative to give Republican members of NEA-AK a resource and opportunity to participate in both the association and the party.

A new group, NEA-AK Republican Educators Caucus, has been established and is building momentum. The dream of our group is that all NEA-AK members know that “if I’m one of those one million Republicans,” there is a place to get information about how to get involved in the Alaska Republican Party.
Republican Caucus members advocate for quality education and quality public services within the Republican Party. All NEA-AK members are invited to join the caucus.

As Republicans with experience in the classroom, teachers must understand they have a collective voice. We need to advocate within the Republican Party and NEA to promote strong public schools. Getting involved with state or local level politics is fairly easy to do. Just go to your district or precinct meetings and you can get involved. They’re always looking for volunteers. Tip O’Neill was right, all politics are local.

If we want to change anything within the Republican platform, we have to do it ourselves. We can’t just close the doors of our classrooms and expect things to take care of themselves. We need to be active and work for what we believe in. It takes courage to stand up and say “I’m a Republican!” at an NEA meeting; well, it takes just as much courage to stand up at a Republican Party meeting and say “I’m a proud member of the NEA.” If we want to have an impact, we need to engage in both organizations.

NEA has published a manual to encourage greater involvement by its members in the Republican Party. Participants within the NEA-AK Republican Educators Caucus may receive these manuals at no cost. Each manual is specific to Alaska laws and includes resources regarding the political process at the local and district level, all the way up to state party chair.

Moving through 2010, our goal for the NEA-AK Republican Educators Caucus is to build membership and become a source of political and NEA information. There are many members who would like to be more active within the GOP and in the union who felt that the groups are at odds with one another. As a state we need to work together, educate ourselves on facts rather than listen to sound bites, and elect politicians who realize the importance of public education.

For more information, or if you would like to join the caucus, please check out www.neaakgop.com or contact Shawn Arnold at ShawnAlaska@gmail.com or NEAAKGOPCAUCUS@gmail.com or 907-982-2222.