The Alabama Education Association (AEA), Alabama's public school employees' labor union, is still holding district elections based on race while also codifying discrimination into policy. Its bylaws also show that race is a factor in state leadership and participation in the NEA Representative Assembly (NEA RA), consistent with the National Education Association (NEA) bylaws.
1819 News reached out to the AEA by phone and email to request comment on its policies, but did not receive a response.
In a document prepared by Courtney Pettway, the elections secretary from AEA’s legal department, the 2025-2026 “Regular Election Results” show that the association still maintains segregated races, with district positions delineated as “white” and “non-white.”
In the March 2026 issue of the Alabama School Journal, the association's digital newsletter, the results did not include racial designations.
The NEA publishes an annual report on its national assembly attendees, broken down by race, with the intention of increasing non-white participation.
“Bylaw 3-1(g) is the Association’s primary policy for promoting and monitoring racial and ethnic diversity across our leader ranks in pursuit of a remarkable goal—to attain representation at the NEA RA among our delegates who self-identify as American Indian or Alaska Native, Asian, Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Middle Eastern or North African1, Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander, Multiracial, or some other race/ethnicity that is proportionate to our state and national populations,” the introduction to the 2026 report states.
Alabama sent 141 state and local delegates; 102 self-identified as non-white.
According to the AEA Constitution and General Agreements, Article V, Section B, as of 2023, the organization has an "ethnic-minority guarantee." For the roles of president, vice president and secretary-treasurer, if after two terms an ethnic-minority has not been elected, then the next election "shall be restricted to members of such group."
The AEA remains funded through membership dues collected by payroll deductions.
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