Embattled AEA taken over by national teachers’ union, placed under trusteeship

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June 2, 2015

MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Yellowhammer learned Tuesday morning that the Alabama Education Association (AEA), whose precipitous fall from power over the last few years has shocked many longtime observers of Alabama politics, has been placed under trusteeship by the teachers’ union’s national umbrella organization.

After spending roughly $20 million in the 2014 election cycle with little success, the AEA fired its executive secretary Henry Mabry in February after the National Education Association came in to take over operations.

Now, the NEA not only has control over the day-to-day operations of the AEA, it has also placed it under the authority of a trustee. A source with knowledge of the situation says the shift happened because “The NEA recognizes that AEA bet on politics, lost big and is now on organizational life support. They are taking over because AEA can’t support itself.”

The AEA is only the third NEA affiliate in history to be taken over by the national organization, after South Carolina’s and Indiana’s were placed under trusteeship in 2010 and 2009, respectively.

Yellowhammer reached out to the NEA for comment, but had not heard back as of press time. AEA manager of research Amy Marlowe told Yellowhammer Tuesday afternoon that, “Nothing has changed at AEA since Dr. Mabry was placed on leave by the AEA board of directors. The AEA board made that decision and every decision since that night.”

While the AEA and the Alabama Democratic party were virtually synonymous for years, the NEA often tacks even further left than its Alabama affiliate.

Last fall NEA President Lily Eskelsen García hailed President Obama’s controversial executive actions on immigration as “bold,” “necessary” and “morally right,” and pledged that educators in Alabama and around the country will continue pushing for Congress to expand on what the President has done.

“(A) growing number of public school students live in fear that our nation’s immigration policies will break up their families, forcing them to choose between their country and their loved ones,” said García. “That’s why we welcome the president’s proposal to expand Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA).”

The NEA takeover also brings into question the AEA’s ability to adapt to Republican control.

Despite decades of warnings to their members that education funds would dry up without their advocacy in Montgomery, the Fiscal Year 2016 eduction budget passed by the GOP supermajority and signed into law by Governor Robert Bentley (R-AL) is among the highest appropriations for education in the state’s history.