OCEA’s Political Action Committee

OCEA has been serving educators in Osceola County for 50 years. In this time, we have seen countless changes in laws and policies that have directly impacted our wages and working conditions. We believe it is essential for educators to have a voice in the politics that affect educators. When we bargain, we negotiate with the District, so having school board members we trust is an essential piece to making sure we can enact policies that best serve Osceola educators. State level legislation also directly impacts teachers in regards to pay (22 laws govern this alone!) and working conditions. By endorsing candidates we believe prioritize educators, we live up to our responsibility of serving Osceola educators.

The Political Action Committee is an affiliate of OCEA which operates separately from the main organization. Our committee is made up of volunteer OCEA members from all political affiliations: Republicans, Democrats, and Independents. Any member can volunteer to be on the committee. Endorsements by the PAC reflect the views of the PAC, not all OCEA members.

The goal of our process is to be fair and consider how to best meet the collective needs of all our members. To begin evaluating candidates, PAC developed a candidate questionnaire with questions related to the individual’s experience and views on various education issues. The PAC compares the responses from all candidates in a race and votes on follow-up steps (interviews, endorsements, etc). When a race involves candidates who could also represent areas outside of Osceola (i.e. State House / Senate seats which overlap with parts of Osceola and other counties) education unions from those counties are consulted and a joint decision is made. OCEA is a member of FEA, NEA, AFT, and AFL-CIO, so we defer to endorsements by these parties as well. We do not endorse or make statements on non-education matters.

Are you a candidate interested in endorsement? Please contact PAC Chairwoman, Wendi McFarland, at [email protected].

Are you an OCEA member interested in learning more?