What's the Difference Between Teacher Organizations?

What's the Difference Between SNEA and MSTA?


The question comes up frequently during the course of a school year, and there is a lot of misinformation out there. Though both SNEA and MSTA are "teacher organizations", there are probably more differences than similarities in their structure, operation and impact on public education in Springfield.

Collective Bargaining

If there is one issue that clearly separates the two organizations, it's their diametrically opposed views on collective bargaining for teachers and educational support personnel. The constitution of the state of Missouri unequivocally states that "employees shall have the right to organize and to bargain collectively through representatives of their own choosing." (Article I, Section 29)

However, in a 1947 court case (Clouse v. Springfield), the court took this right away from public employees. Now, some sixty years later, Missouri NEA is challenging this ruling with an appeal to the Missouri Supreme Court. Thirty-four states allow teachers and other educational support personnel to bargain collectively for better working conditions. We simply believe that the expertise of the classroom teacher and other school personnel should be an integral part of our district's decision-making process.

MSTA, on the other hand, filed a "friend of the court" brief before the Missouri Supreme Court opposing the collective bargaining rights for teachers and other public school personnel. In their brief, MSTA argued that bargaining is a bad idea because teachers and school employees might try to negotiate about (among other things):

• Before and after school programs (p. 20)
• Lunch duty (p. 21)
• After school meetings (p. 21)
• Class sizes (p.35)
• Textbook selection (p. 35)
• Retirement plans (p. 35)
• Definition of instructional time (p. 35)
• Extracurricular activities (p. 35)
• Calendar and schedule changes (p. 35)
• Length of school days (p. 35)
• Professional development planning (p. 35)
• Professional and non-certified employee evaluations (p. 35)

MSTA's strident opposition to the collective bargaining appeal puts our MSTA friends in a rather awkward position. If the court should decide to allow collective bargaining for public employees, MSTA would then be clamoring to acquire bargaining and representation rights that they vigorously fought against having. Is that the kind of representation you would want at the bargaining table?

SNEA believes that better working conditions for teachers means better learning conditions for students - and that's the ultimate bottom line. SNEA also believes that teachers provide continuity and educational expertise that is routinely overlooked by school administrators during the decision-making process.

Local Differences

With 900+ members, Springfield NEA is the largest and certainly the most active teacher/education organization in Southwest Missouri. It is the only "teacher organization" in Springfield with a full-time president (Ray Smith) and full-time MNEA representative (Gerald Bonham, Uniserv Director).

Contrary to misinformation that frequently circulates during new teacher orientation and membership drives, Springfield NEA does not require its membership to take a litmus test on their personal beliefs, religion or stance on any hot-button social issues. Springfield NEA focuses entirely and completely on educational issues that relate to our work here in Springfield.

Politically Speaking

During the political season, whether it's a school board election, a primary, or a general election, Springfield NEA interviews and endorses candidates that we feel will do the best job of promoting public education. For general legislative elections, Springfield NEA chooses a legislative committee from our membership and sends out questionnaires to area legislative candidates. The legislative committee then conducts a series of candidate interviews and sends our endorsements to Jefferson City MNEA offices.

By contrast, the local MSTA group interviews school board candidates but chooses not to issue endorsements, which begs the question . . . why interview? At the state level, MSTA endorses political candidates for general elections and primaries, and in fact has more active PACs than does MNEA, but MSTA does not ask for input from local membership. The argument that MNEA is more political than MSTA just doesn't hold water - but MNEA is certainly more in tune with their membership when it comes to political endorsements.

Dues

Yes, our dues are higher, but we provide substantial discounts to new members and our dues gradually increase with years of service up to the fifth year. All I can say in our defense is what I hear from our members all the time . . . you get what you pay for. Several local members have told me that the discounts they receive using their MNEA membership card more than make up for the cost of membership. Example: just a couple of weeks ago, a member called to tell me she had lost her membership card and needed it to get a rental car discount. She had saved over $300 the previous summer on a car rental and didn't want to pay full price for her upcoming vacation.

National Affiliation

Springfield NEA is a local affiliate of the National Education Association. MSTA has no national affiliation. One needs to look no further than the cleverly named, under-funded federal mandate called No Child Left Behind (NCLB) to find clear evidence that education professionals need a strong voice in Washington. Teachers have not dodged nor retreated from their accountability in the classroom. Now, it's time for political leaders to be held accountable for correcting the badly flawed NCLB mandate that has stilted public education on so many levels. The 3.2 million member National Education Association leads the way in this effort.

Membership Drive - forward this page to a non-member

Springfield NEA is currently in a new membership drive that allows new members to sign up now and not pay any dues until September's check. It's easy . . . print off the membership form, fill it out and send it via school mail to SNEA . . . or mail to:

SNEA
1525-B W. Sunshine
Springfield, MO 65807

Questions? snea@aol.com or 869-5090