Our Mission Statement

The number one goal of the American Education Association is simple to state but daunting to accomplish: transform teaching from an occupation into a profession. The AEA views this goal as the number one way to elevate student learning and to sustain public education. No other reform will matter if teaching remains unchanged.

The AEA stands for:

• Intensive teacher training at the college level along the lines of medical interns
• Salaries comparable to other professions
• Working conditions comparable to other professions
• Performance-based pay
• Eliminating tenure
• Creating a career ladder for teachers
• Maximizing the expertise of National Board Certified Teachers
• Placing teachers in charge of education, from U.S. Secretary of Education to local school boards

The AEA recognizes that not all teachers may advocate these positions. However, how often do teachers agree with everything their local, state or national unions stand for?

The AEA may not be for all teachers, yet the AEA is for the betterment of all teachers.

Increasingly, research is proving the obvious: that strong teaching benefits students. Public schools will only be able to attract and retain the best and brightest people into the profession if teachers are treated professionally. What does “professionally” mean?

Treating teachers professionally means:

• Paying them for the education they have and how hard they work.
• Providing them incentives to work hard.
• Providing them with essentials to perform their jobs at optimum levels. This means a decrease in teaching workload and an increase in planning time. This means unlimited access to supplies and photocopies. This means an adult lunch break that lasts more than 30 minutes. This means an invitation by principals, superintendents, school boards, state boards of education, governors and the president for their input into improving public education.

Teachers are unique in that there exists no other workers in the United States who are expected to work as hard as they possibly can but are given as little back in return for that work. Yet, besides national security, what job has the greatest impact on the future of the nation? Not even doctors and police officers who perform essential duties can match this long-lasting impact.

The AEA strives to become as well known and respected as the AMA and the ABA. For many years, the main national organization of teachers has been the National Education Association (NEA) which acts more as a union organization rather than a professional association. The public has positive views of teachers yet negative views of unions.

Therefore, in order to accomplish the goal of having teachers control their own profession as well as having public support, the best teachers in the country need to unite in a non-political way. A tremendous grassroots effort needs to take place.

Teachers need to act together in order to raise the bar for the profession. Until this is done, until teachers are the masters of their own domain, little systemic progress will be made in the teaching of young people in America.

The AEA is committed to work tirelessly towards achieving this goal.