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Falling Membership Decline Begs Question: Is Time on the NEA’s Side?

Time is not on my side today, which means I have only a few moments to write something. Which is interesting. Because as Mike Antonucci reports, time doesn’t seem to be on the side of the National Education Association, either:

Officers of the National Education Association expressed some optimism last July that the union’s falling membership numbers were finally reaching their nadir. Active membership losses totaling more than 9 percent since 2008-09 had slowed to a drop of about 17,000 by the end of the 2013-14 school year. While still a significant loss, surely the end of the lean years was in sight.

That is, until the first figures for the 2014-15 school year came in. NEA is down 37,000 active members from this time a year ago.

For those trying to figure out the math, that’s a loss of just over 1 percent. In other words, there’s a difference between “3 million members” and “nearly 3 million members.”

What’s the trend in Colorado? Hard to say. Mr. Antonucci usually comes up with the state-by-state data later. I doubt the trend is as far downward as two years ago, but who knows? Let’s wait and see.

The fact of the matter is teachers in Colorado have some options, though it would be nice to see them have the opportunity to exercise those options on a more level playing field. But one discussion at a time. I’m outta’ here!