Information about the AAE

AAE and its state affiliates have no collective voice or power to influence change or make positive improvements in public education.

• NEA has 3.2 million members in comparison to AAE’s membership of some 250,000 individuals spread helter skelter around the country.
• AAE is not in a position to influence national or state policy-or to help its members in ways that matter.
• AAE has no in-house staff or expertise to collectively advocate for its members or public schools.

This so-called “professional” organization is deceitful in its claims and actuallyoffers very little in member services and benefits.

• AAE and its affiliates advertise that they offer $2 million in liability insurance coverage.  What they don’t tell you is that this is an aggregate amount, not the $1 million per member per occurrence of NEA coverage.
• AAE does not meet member needs.  AAE affiliates don’t bargain contracts and have no in-house staff to help with legal problems or other employment issues.
• AAE and its affiliates have lower membership dues, but you’ll have a difficult time getting them to show you where your money goes.  Ask for a copy of their budget.
• AAE is out of step with most educators and does not support their interests.

            AAE and its affiliates claim to be “professional” at the same time they support  ABCTE (American Board for Certification of Teacher Excellence)-also known as the “Any Body Can Teach Exam”-where a person with a bachelor’s degree can pay $500, pass an online test and background check, and they are then deemed an excellent teacher.

• AAE and its affiliates support the fundamentally flawed No Child Left Behind law, a law that labels and punishes schools with a flawed one-size-fits-all accountability system and severely underfunded mandates.  Instead, educators support changing the law to one that includes common-sense flexibility and supports educators in implementing programs that improve student learning, reward success, and provide meaningful assistance to schools most in need of help. 
• AAE is not an advocate for public schools or public school educators.

            AAE is funded by a handful of ultra-right billionaires who finance the campaign to replace America’s public schools with for-profit, private schools that do not have to meet accountability standards.

• AAE and its affiliates have no program, staff or other infrastructure to advance improvements needed in our local schools or to offer personal or professional benefits to its members.
• AAE exists to chip away at NEA membership so that the most powerful organization standing in the way of privatizing public education will be weakened.
• AAE and its affiliates don’t account for where their funding comes from-or where it goes.
• AAE state affiliates are funded by AAE, which in turn receives money from a handful of wealthy Far Right contributors who are also the funders of the voucher movement and other attempt to privatize public education and abolish unions.
• Ask for a copy of AAE’s national budget and the budgets of the state and local affiliates.  NEA publishes its full proposed budget before the elected member delegates to each year’s Representative Assembly vote whether to adopt it.  Who adopts the local, state, and national budgets of AAE?

            Go to the web sites of AAE and its affiliates (www.aaeteachers.org) Read what they say.  Follow the links they post.  Judge for yourself.

            Why would a public school teacher join an organization that promotes vouchers and private schools?

Any educator who is considering joining an AAE affiliate should ask themselves and the AAE representative some key questions.

• Who can I call if I have a problem or question?  Call the number to find out how they can help you, and ask where the AAE rep is located.  (Often you will be given an 800 number, and the person you are speaking with is far away.)  Find out how much the person knows about your local district/situation.
• NEA liability insurance costs about $2 per person.  The reason that figure is so low is because there are 2.8 million of us.  Their insurance costs about $30 per person.  What do they do with the rest of their members’ money?  (Budgets are seldom, if ever, shared with their members.)