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UESF
COPE
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What is COPE? How does it work?
COPE stands for the Committee on Political Education.Why COPE?
Public education relies on public money to exist. Public money, usually in the form of taxes, is controlled by elected and appointed politicians. To influence decisions and the spending of public money for public education, teachers participate in politics through their unions.How?
The parent bodies of UESF collect money to use in politics. Both CTA and CFT use a portion of the dues they collect for state politics. NEA relies on individual voluntary contributions from members for its efforts in national politics. AFT primarily uses voluntary contributions made through local unions. Though CTA and NEA call their political groups "ABC" (Association for Better Citizenship) Committee and "NEA-PAC" (NEA Political Action Committee), CFT and AFT use "COPE" for Committee on Political Education.UESF collects voluntary contributions in addition to dues to use in local politics. The separate contributions are made into a COPE fund. The Executive Board of UESF sits in separate session as the Board of Directors of COPE. The UESF President appoints a COPE director who is responsible for coordinating COPE activities.
Decisions on candidate endorsements are made by the Assembly or by the Executive Board if they must be made at a time the Assembly does not meet. Although the bias is toward the endorsement of incumbents who have been cooperative with UESF, the UESF president can call for interviews in any race. All COPE members are usually invited to interview serious candidates. Not all candidates for every endorsed office are interviewed.
At the end of the interview session, COPE members take an advisory vote to give direction to the decision of the Assembly or Executive Board.
For more information about COPE and/or how you can contribute, email UESF's COPE director, Ken Tray. You can also download a UESF COPE application and mail it to the UESF office.
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