NEA Board OKs Principles for AFT Merger

By Ann Bradley

The National Education Association's board of directors has approved, by exactly a two-thirds majority, the "principles of unity" that would govern its steps toward merging with the American Federation of Teachers.

The more than 9,000 delegates to the NEA's Representative Assembly, which will meet in New Orleans in July, will now be asked to approve the principles. They must do so by a two-thirds majority for merger talks to move forward.

Members of the board voted in favor of the guidelines 106-53 after a five-hour debate on the issue, one of the most significant to face the organization since public school teachers began to engage in collective bargaining...