South Carolina Education Association

The South Carolina Education Association (SCEA) is a public education advocacy organization[1][2] in the U.S. state of South Carolina, representing both teachers and educational support professionals.[3] It has local affiliates in each of the state's 81 public school districts.[4] It is the state affiliate of the National Education Association.

The South Carolina Education Association (The SCEA)
The South Carolina Education Association
Founded1881
Headquarters421 Zimalcrest Drive Columbia,
Columbia, SC 29210
Location
Key people
Sherry East, President
Todd Jaeck, Executive Director
AffiliationsNational Education Association (NEA)
Websitethescea.org

The SCEA was founded in 1881 as a teachers' advocacy organization. However, at that time membership was limited only to White educators. On April 1, 1967, the SCEA merged with the Palmetto Education Association, a parallel association of Black educators founded in 1896.[3] The merger[5] of these two educational organizations was the largest combination of racially segregated associations in the history of the state of South Carolina. Membership in the SCEA rose to nearly 25,000 black and white educators immediately after the merger.[3]

The SCEA was an important contributor to the development of the South Carolina Education Improvement Act (EIA) of 1984,[6] where it participated in direct negotiations with Governor Richard Riley. As a compromise for accepting a merit pay structure, it negotiated a 16% pay increase for educators in the state, bringing their salaries near or above the industry average for the Southeastern United States.[7] This legislation was considered to be the most comprehensive state-level educational reform in the United States to date.[8]

The SCEA regularly comments on state-level educational issues and performs advocacy work.[9][10] Members of the SCEA participated in the #REDforEd teacher activities. The organization stressed that events in South Carolina were not officially sanctioned and that it was not an organizer[11] but it did offer to support its members that did participate[12]

See also

References
  1. "South Carolina Education Agencies and Organizations".
  2. "Ballotpedia: South Carolina Education Association".
  3. "About US". The SCEA.
  4. "Local Chapter Affiliates". The SCEA.
  5. Gilmore, Al-Tony (April 2017). A More Perfect Union: The Merger of the South Carolina Education Association & the Palmetto Education Association. ISBN 9781547068869.
  6. "Education Improvement Act".
  7. "The best governor in America - and you've never heard of him. - Free Online Library". www.thefreelibrary.com.
  8. Kirk, L. Roger (1985). "The South Carolina Educational Improvement Act of 1984". Journal of Education Finance. 11 (1): 132–145. JSTOR 40703483 – via JSTOR.
  9. "Press Releases". The SCEA.
  10. "Florence One Schools, South Carolina Education Association bring literacy boxes to five Florence parks". SCNow.
  11. Bowers, Paul. "South Carolina teachers flex their activist muscles after decades of labor losses". Post and Courier.
  12. "May 1 teacher walkout could spark change and repercussions | Carolina News and Reporter". 26 April 2019.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.