My wife is a new teacher here in Phoenix. As a part of the new teacher orientations, there was a presentation by the Arizona Teachers Union, the AEA. She doesn’t want to join because they used very high pressure sales tactics and scare tactics to get people to join, which pissed her off. She also wasn’t very impressed with the benefits you get for $519 a year. However, there was one thing that she was interested in. The liability insurance.
So, I went looking for other options for liability insurance. I found this other organization, the AZPE . It is another educators association. They seem to offer the same list of benefits, they just aren’t the official union. Also, they only cost $195 per year. You get what you pay for, but I am not sure what I am paying for with the additional cost for the official union.
Both organization seem to include automatic membership in their respective national associations.
My questions:
Any idea on how to tell how legitimate the AZPE is?
Do I have any other options for liability insurance?
I’m a member of the NCAE, the equivalent of the AEA. Our folks didn’t really use high-pressure sales tactics, and the liability insurance was the big sales point for me; they also lobby our state legislature for added benefits for teachers, with varying success.
There’s a local organization called PENC, which I wonder may be the equivalent of AZPE. As I understand it, it’s a principal’s union, one founded to dilute the power of the teacher union. Being cheaper is part of that. I don’t much like it at all, but I only know a little about it.
What district is she in? My district has a pretty strong union that, in my opinion, goes a little too far in its sales pitch. Yeah, I’m a member for one reason only - the liability insurance, so I can totally get behind what your wife is saying. Now I’m kind of interested myself in that other organization you mentioned. Gonna have to do some investigating myself…
I am a member of the Mass TA, Nat. EA, and an officer for our local. Mass takes the most of my money, about $350; NEA is about $200; local dues are $30.
One of the reasons that we have over 98% enrollment in our local is that there is a state requirement that all non-union members contribute a “negotiating fee” to the union. (We use ours to bolster our scholarship payouts.) Because the required fee is about 60% of the cost of membership, there are only two eligible folks in our system that have not joined. So, before you make your decision to join a separate union, just make sure your wife won’t get hit with a fee.
When I first started teaching, I decided to join because I felt that the insurance and legal coverage was worth the cost of dues.
I think both the official org and the AZPA both allow anyone who works at school, teachers, counselors, principals, etc. to participate. I think there main thing is that they stay out of politics. From there website:
Dysart (Surprise).
Good to know! I will have her check that. I am pretty sure that this is not the case, because Dysart has the highest enrollment in the state, at 80% (according to the Dysart Union folks). Also, she received her first paycheck last Friday, and there was no fee like that taken out.
Mrs. Slow joined the state union because of the liability insurance, when she taught about 20 years ago. None of the teachers, IIRC, cared much for the union. They felt it was a group almost extorting money from the rank and file in order to pursue their political agenda.
I’m surprised that teachers are weary of liability coverage. I can’t imagine a lawsuit without the school being involved and the school (or district) covering the teacher. Does this happen often? If it does, why don’t teachers go and find competitive rates through a broker? That’s one of my friends did who is a teacher at a relatively poor district.
Damn! I live in Surprise, and thought about transferring to Dysart when they were poaching teachers left and right a couple years ago…but…talking to some teachers there…Well, I certainly wish her the best, though. I don’t think Dysart’s Union is as strong as they make it out to be, though…
As far as the liability issues go, a school will cut ties in a heartbeat if it’s in their interest to do so. There’s not a whole lot of loyalty involved, really. Some homeowner’s policies can cover it, and that’s the reason I hear that many teachers drop their union…it’s something I’ve been meaning to look at.
ETA: Arizona’s a right-to-work state, so they can’t do the fee thing.
This makes me think that you have heard some negative things about Dysart. Care to share? So far, except for the union thing, she really likes it. Of course, this is only the third day with kids.
State Farm is working on a liability quote for me right now, actually. It sounds like it is going to be a little cheaper than joining the official union, about twice as much as the AZPE, I will let you know when I get the exact quote.
Technically, NEA and its state and local affiliates are not not unions. The American Federation of Teachers is the union. The NEA and the AFT are not related.
I was a member of NEA, TEA (Tennessee) and MNEA (Metropolitan Nashville) for all of the twenty years that I taught. At that time almost all of the local teachers joined. It was a powerhouse in Nashville. They negotiated our salaries and benefits. But more importantly, they negotiated our contracts so that our teaching situations were bearable and administrators were not able to play politics with our jobs quite so easily.
I’ve seen local school administrators try to fire teachers for being a male with collar length hair, promoting multi-cultural reading material in the classroom (Blacks and whites together), being women and wearing slacks or boots, and refusing to accept violations of the contract. MNEA was there every time.
Although I often feared the possibility, in twenty years I never personally knew of a teacher who was sued by a parent. I knew some that should have been. I feared the possibility because a parent can take you to court for just about anything.
Being a member of these professional organizations was as routine as doctors joining the American Medical Association. I would hate to think that teachers don’t see themselves as professionals anymore.
As for the dues being used to support political candidates: This may have changed since I retired, but no dues were used for that purpose. Only PAC money was used. That was a separate and voluntary fund.
And, of course, everyone is still free to endorse any candidate of their choosing. No one is to do that within the classroom.
I wouldn’t worry about that. I have yet to meet a teacher that did not consider themselves a professional.
Besides the liability insurance, this is the other item we thought about. RainWife just isn’t sure that she wants to be in an organization that pressures you so much to join. The cost is also a consideration, but it is secondary. We probably wouldn’t be looking at other options if they had not pissed her off.
You may not remember, but we met in Nashville when we had that dopefest at Blackstone (Last Aug I think). If I realized you had been a teacher, I would have picked your brain that night.
Just to add another voice to the ‘hate my teaching union, use it for the insurance’. My union is an embarassment, but I’d still prefer to deal with them for any legal resource.
I’m sure I could get cheaper liability insurance on the open market, but it’s unlikely to be as tried and tested as my union’s is. They have a track record of resolving disputes in the educational arena. And causing them.