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Connecticut Education Association
| Connecticut Education Association | |
 | |
| Basic facts | |
| Location: | Hartford, Ct. |
| Type: | 501(c)(5) |
| Top official: | Kate Dias, President |
| Year founded: | 1848 |
| Website: | Official website |
The Connecticut Education Association (CEA) is a teachers union in the state of Connecticut. The CEA is the largest education association in the state and is an affiliate of the National Education Association (NEA). It "advocates for legislation at the state and federal levels, represents the rights of teachers, and works with state policymakers to continue to elevate the teaching profession and promote public education."[1]
Background
Eighty teachers joined together to form the CEA in 1848.[1] It is located in Hartford, Connecticut, and comprises public school teachers working in kindergarten through 12th-grade.[1] The CEA is the state affiliate of the National Education Association (NEA), the largest professional association of public school teachers in the U.S. as of 2025.[2]
The organization works to lobby legislators for issues related to public education and provide professional, legal, and networking support for teachers.[3][4]
Leadership
The following individuals are listed on the CEA's website as the organization's executive officers:[5]
- Kate Dias, President
- Joslyn Declancey, Vice president
- Stephanie Wanzer, Treasurer
- Gail Jorden, Secretary
Work and activities
| Influencers |
|---|
 |
| State affiliates of the National Education Association |
The CEA offers its members a number of professional development opportunities as well as grants and awards for civil rights work, teaching excellence, and professional contributions.[6] The organization is also responsible for collective bargaining for teacher contracts.[7][8]
Lobbying
The CEA actively lobbies the Connecticut State Legislature on issues pertaining to education throughout the state.[9] According to the group's website, the CEA has been involved in legislative work since 1945, when it was involved in passing the Legal Liability Protection Law and the Equal Pay Law. More recently, the group has worked to reform the ways that charter schools are established and to establish an oversight board to review the effectiveness of the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC), the state's standardized testing system.[10]
In 2016, the group called for a permanent end to the use of test scores in teacher evaluations. The organization argued that basing evaluations solely on student scores on the SBAC (which is linked to the Common Core standards) meant that teachers focused on teaching to get better scores rather than using the time for what the CEA sees as instruction and learning. CEA president Sheila Cohen told the Connecticut Post, "We have concluded our new ... guidelines are actually detrimental to student learning. They are doing more harm than good."[11]
Affiliations
As of 2025, the CEA was the state affiliate of the National Education Association (NEA).[12]
Finances
The following is a breakdown of Connecticut Education Association's revenues and expenses from 2014 to 2014. The information comes from ProPublica
| Year | Revenue | Expenses |
|---|---|---|
| 2024 | $21 million | $19.2 million |
| 2023 | $20 million | $20 million |
| 2022 | $21.1 million | $19.3 million |
| 2021 | $20.8 million | $22.1 million |
| 2020 | $20.7 million | $20.1 million |
| 2019 | $21.1 million | $19.7 million |
| 2018 | $20.9 million | $20.7 million |
| 2017 | $20.2 million | $20.9 million |
| 2016 | $19.7 million | $20.7 million |
| 2015 | $20.3 million | $19.6 million |
| 2014 | $20.2 million | $19 million |
See also
External links
- Connecticut Education Association
- Connecticut Education Association on Facebook
- Connecticut Education Association on Twitter
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Connecticut Education Association, "What is CEA?" accessed October 23, 2025
- ↑ National Education Assocation, "History of the National Education Association and the U.S. Labor Movement," accessed October 23, 2025
- ↑ Connecticut Education Association, "Teacher priorities," accessed October 23, 2025
- ↑ Connecticut Education Association, "Member benefits," accessed October 23, 2025
- ↑ Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; no text was provided for refs namedabout - ↑ Connecticut Education Association, "Grants and Awards," accessed October 23, 2025
- ↑ Connecticut News Junkie, "Teacher Unions Reluctant To Support Tenure, Collective Bargaining Changes," February 22, 2012
- ↑ Connecticut Education Assocation, "Teacher priorities," accessed October 23, 2025
- ↑ Connecticut Education Association, "A Sea of Red: Teachers Take Advocacy to the Capitol," April 30, 2025
- ↑ Connecticut Education Association, "Legislative Achievements," accessed October 23, 2025
- ↑ Connecticut Post, "Teachers want evaluation system changed," January 25, 2016
- ↑ National Education Association, "NEA Affiliates," accessed October 22, 2025
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