Our Proud History
1852: The Michigan State Teachers Association (MSTA)
was formed by 20 charter members in a meeting
at the State Normal School (now Eastern Michigan
University) in Ypsilanti.
1857: National Education Association was organized in Philadelphia.
1911: MSTA’s constitution was amended to make membership fee of $1 for both men and women. MSTA membership—8,288, with 7,148 women. 1926: MSTA changed its name to Michigan Education Association.
1960: MESSA, the Michigan Education Special Services Association, was chartered to provide affordable health insurance to school employees.
1964: MEA completed a petition campaign, gathering 325,000 signatures, to get a mandatory statewide tenure bill before the Legislature, which approved the measure.
1965: Passage of the Public Employment Relations Act (PERA) gave public education employees the right to organize into local bargaining units to negotiate salary, benefits and other working conditions.
1973: MEA established MEA Financial Services, a wholly-owned subsidiary offering an array of financial products and services for school employees.
1984: MEA and Michigan Educational Support Personnel merged, making MEA one of the first state associations to offer full membership rights to school support personnel.
1994: Anti-union forces in the state Legislature rewrote the Public Employment Relations Act of 1965 to restrict MEA members’ bargaining rights.
2000: MEA members led the fight to defeat the statewide voucher initiative.
2007: MEA membership exceeded 160,000.