NEA Delegates Reject Merger Plan, But Door to Unity With AFT Still Open Delegates to the National Education Association's annual meeting soundly rejected a plan July 5 that would have paved the way for the union's merger with the American Federation of Teachers. J uly 18.
Unity is far from a dead issue for the nation's two major teacher organizations.
Read reactions to the votes and look ahead to what's next in unifying the two groups. The National Research Council last week mapped out an ambitious, 15-year strategy for increasing the usefulness of education research. In recent years, states have taken a more active role in everything from curriculum to funding, from textbooks to discipline. In some cases, such policy initiatives have been coupled with moves to decentralize oversight of schools. In With Proposals on Construction With members of Congress from both parties lining up behind various proposals on aid for school construction, the big question this year may not be whether, but how, the federal government will tread into this new territory.