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OUR
BELIEFS
Together with the Association of American Educators, Northwest Professional Educators holds that public education will be improved if:
1) We always remember that our first duty is to the student;
2) We aim to develop a young person's character as well as his or her intellect;
3) Our schools are free from strikes or any other work stoppage tactics or coercive threats;
4) Educators are free from all forms of compulsory membership and are not forced to join or otherwise pay dues to a labor union in order to teach or hold membership in a local or state association; and,
5) Public schools are primarily accountable to their local communities.
MORE
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
1.
We are a professional association of educators - not a
teachers' union. We
are not affiliated with the NEA teachers union. Our focus is on
what is best for our students and for their education.
We welcome educators of any education entity including
teachers, support staff, and administrators.
2.
We are academic professionals.
We do not believe in strikes, picketing, or in militant,
adversarial, or unprofessional confrontations.
One teacher put it this way, "We
are Teachers, not Teamsters."
3.
We focus on the classroom - not on the host of
non-education political issues and social agendas that teachers
unions often pursue. These
non-classroom issues involve partisan politics and are often
matters of personal conscience and faith.
They are also divisive and should have no part in a true
professional association.
NWPE does not contribute any money to political parties
or to candidates. NWPE
honors the reputation of its teachers by staying focused on
education issues.
4.
We believe that character education, personal
responsibility, and a strong work ethic should be reinforced
with all students in public schools.
5.
We support educators as professionals, and we support
accountability in public schools for all key stakeholders -
teachers, principals, superintendents, school board members,
parents and students.
6.
We believe educators should have the option of joining a
different kind of professional organization other than the NEA
teachers union and its affiliates.
Quality, professional teachers should have a choice of
organizations. The AAE and its affiliates have become that
choice for many thousands of teachers nationally.
7.
Over 300,000 teachers across the country have joined
nonunion professional educator organizations.
8.
There are currently large, active Independent State
Teacher Associations in over half the states in the nation.
In three of
these states, independent state teacher associations actually
outnumber the NEA and AFT unions in membership. (Georgia, Texas,
and Missouri) AAE
has members in all 50 states.
9.
We help teachers understand their legal and professional
rights in a variety of situations.
And we train them to avoid potentially dangerous or
problematic situations where they may incur liability for
themselves or for the school district.
COLLECTIVE
BARGAINING
Although NWPE is not a union,
we support educators’ collective bargaining rights including the right
to form “local only” teacher unions that are not
affiliated with the NEA. Contact NWPE for information on establishment of
accountable, cost-effective local only bargaining units to which
NWPE can provide nonbargaining support services.
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