Our position statement and background are based on input from NSAII members. During the Spring of 2025, NSAII conducted a survey of its members across the nation.  Survey responses were received from 25 states plus NEA.  Our conclusions are also based on observations of events in two additional states, Louisiana and Oregon, whose leadership has eliminated staff whose primary focus is to provide teaching and learning resources for members. 

Over the past 8 years, many state affiliates have reduced staffing and resources allocated to professional support programs.  Such reductions have come in various forms, all of which significantly dilute or altogether eliminate the availability services for members.  In addition to the decimation of professional support programs in Louisiana and Oregon, we have observed a trend toward consolidation of programs, mergers into other departments, and reductions of staff through reassignment and attrition.  The net result is a reduced relevance of state affiliates to the professional interests of members as educators. 

Reports by NSAII members indicate that where state affiliates work to reduce professional support programs, they do so based upon faulty reasoning.  For example, some affiliates that have, with good reason, elevated their commitment to organizing, have done so on the false assumption that they must reduce their commitment to professional support programs.  We do not believe that strategies to organize members and the provision of professional support programs are mutually exclusive.  In fact, professional support programs have a greater likelihood of appealing to educators who might otherwise be agnostic toward union membership and core union duties.  

In another example, NSAII members report and praise greater investments by their affiliates in social justice programming.  Programs for social justice respond to the interests of educators, including potential members, in much the same manner and capacity as professional support programs.  However, some affiliates have reduced investments in professional support programs in order to elevate social justice programs.  This is a misguided zero-sum-approach that does not provide a net benefit toward attracting and retaining affiliate membership.   

The most counter-productive trend NSAII members report is the consolidation, or in extreme cases the elimination, of professional support programs and departments.  Whether done for philosophically refocusing the union or for cost-cutting reasons, affiliates are left less relevant and attractive to prospective and existing members.  Moreover, in cases where affiliates have sought to provide professional support services using resources outside of the affiliate, they engage outsourcing that is antithetical to the core union mission.

The totality of these shifts sacrifices affiliate relevancy and results in fewer reasons for educators to seek or to maintain membership. For affiliates claiming to be member-driven, they are driving potential members away.  For affiliates appealing to fiscal prudency, they are reducing the number, and with it the revenues, of members who would pay dues.  The trend is short-sighted. 

Description text Professional support departments bridge the work of organizing, local affiliate support, and government relations departments. They tap into members’ (and potential members’) interests in teaching and learning.  They are the change management wing of affiliates that help members manage shifts imposed by local, state, and federal policies.  They promote professional growth and leadership from within the classroom that increase job satisfaction for members.  

Professional support departments help elevate member voice and advocacy on issues affecting the profession, social justice, students, and the school community.  It cannot be understated how critically important it is to elevate voice and advocacy on decisions impacting teaching, learning, the profession, and the school community.  Failure to do so emboldens opponents to public education.  Failure to engage members on teaching and learning cedes decisions to under-informed decision makers, misguided policy hobbyists, and dogmatic political zealots.

More specifically, respondents to the NSAII survey shared the many ways that illustrate the comprehensive benefits of the professional support programs.  Leaders of NEA and its state affiliates should consider the following benefits when making decisions on the allocation of resources to professional support programs.goes here

Membership Recruitment and Retention: Professional support programs cast a wider net that engages more members and non-members into our professional learning opportunities.  Here are some examples:

·      Professional and instructional growth – Cost-effective professional development, National Board Certification support, Certification enhancement (potentially connected to salary lane enhancements)

·      Development of leadership competencies – Promoting teacher leadership and elevating member involvement in creating and delivering content for professional growth. NEA’s Leadership Competencies are a resource for state affiliates to initiative and enhance their work in this area

·      Involving members in the creation of micro-credentials, blended courses, and webinars, etc.

·      Direct member support in teacher evaluation and improvement plans

·      Partnerships to provide credit-bearing coursework

·      Public/private partnerships for educator pipeline work

·      Aspiring educator programs provide Praxis support and high-interest professional learning opportunities in cultural competence and trauma-sensitive classrooms

·      Early Career Educator programming

·      Advocacy and training on professional issues (e.g. Community schools, SPED, school climate and culture, play-based- learning, Testing, etc.)

·      Elevating members voices in school and district level accountability plans

·      Services to help drive professional growth and learning across multiple career continuums, including for educator support personnel and teacher mentors

Membership Engagement Strategies: Members who flourish in professional learning find their space in the organization and become more engaged members.  State affiliates that do this work well exhibit creative strategies that could be informative to other affiliates and their leaders.  Here are some examples:

·      Advertising the benefits of professional development to members (e.g. for CEU/PLU) has shown to recruit new members.

·      Holding professional development events and conferences recruits new members, especially Aspiring Educators and Early Career Educators

·      Including information about professional support programs in membership materials during orientations helps recruit members

·      Using statewide culture and climate surveys and plans to drive local improvements

·      Implementing a teacher leadership program to promote member leadership within the school community

·      Coordinating with NEA’s Learning Management System (LMS) to provide professional growth opportunities to members

·      Connecting to members based on interest in federal law and implementation, with the potential for affiliates and members to tap into NEA’s expertise

·      Building affiliate brand visibility to greater a number of potential members, as well as credibility in the eyes of policy makers

NSAII recommends that state affiliate leaders incorporate these points into budget and resource allocation discussions with governance, board members, management, and rank and file membership.  The collective benefits are clear:  enhancing professional support programs – and not cutting them – will make the union relevant to more potential members and improve member satisfaction with their state-wide association. 

NSAII’s Call to Action: Reclaim and Reinforce Your Affiliate’s Commitment to Professional Support, Development, and Practice. They are at the Heart of Our Members’ Interests and the Core of Our Union’s Work

This is the foundation. This is the frontline. Professional support, development, and practice programs are not extras – they connect directly to what educators value most: growth, leadership, voice, and justice in their profession. They fuel organizing, deepen equity, strengthen advocacy, and build lasting union identity. This is the work that drives our power, our purpose, and our future.

This is a moment for courage, not caution. The path forward is not just clear – it is urgent. NEA and every state affiliate must act now.

NSAII calls on NEA and ALL state affiliate leadership to:

●      Reinvest – Boldly elevate professional support programs in affiliate budgeting process.

●      Prioritize – Commit to protecting professional positions and resources tied to professional support programs across all aspects of the union.

●      Center and Connect – Professional support programs to members as the heart of our union’s work, from organizing and bargaining to planning, staffing, and budget development.

This is what makes NEA – and every state affiliate – indispensable.

NSAII is an independent organization of staff from NEA-affiliated state associations and NEA staff.

The goals of the NSAII are to:

●      Provide structured vehicles for effective collaboration among staff members of exchanges of professional development resources, inquiries and information aligned to serve educators’ and students’ needs;

●      Support national, state, and local programs that promote rigorous instruction, as well as a global education vision for educators and students;

●      Serve as an advocate for keeping staff members current on policies and trends that elevate professional learning and educational reform; and

●      Act as a catalyst for change by transforming the association through collaborative organizing around professional learning, networking and sharing among states.

NSAII is a vehicle for advocating instructional issues for state and local NEA affiliates.  It is an agent for transforming the association through collaboration, issue organizing, community building, and networking.