The Alabama Education Association is a professional organization that represents the teacher

Teacher

A teacher or schoolteacher is a person who provides education for pupils and students . The role of teacher is often formal and ongoing, carried out at a school or other place of formal education. In many countries, a person who wishes to become a teacher must first obtain specified professional...

s of public schools in the state of Alabama

Alabama

Alabama is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Tennessee to the north, Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico to the south, and Mississippi to the west. Alabama ranks 30th in total land area and ranks second in the size of its inland...

. It is based in the state capital of Montgomery

Montgomery, Alabama

Montgomery is the capital of the U.S. state of Alabama, and is the county seat of Montgomery County. It is located on the Alabama River southeast of the center of the state, in the Gulf Coastal Plain. As of the 2010 census, Montgomery had a population of 205,764 making it the second-largest city...

.

Though it is officially a professional organization, it performs many of the same functions as a trade union

Trade union

A trade union, trades union or labor union is an organization of workers that have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labour contracts with...

, and is thus frequently referred to as such by the news media

News media

The news media are those elements of the mass media that focus on delivering news to the general public or a target public.These include print media , broadcast news , and more recently the Internet .-Etymology:A medium is a carrier of something...

 and other writers, as well as political opponents. (State law prevents public employees from being represented by a union per se, hence the designation.) As a professional association, AEA is not able to call for strikes or participate in collective bargaining.

The AEA is headed by Executive Secretary-Treasurer Paul Hubbert

Paul Hubbert

Dr. Paul R. Hubbert is a Democratic politician from the U.S. state of Alabama. Since 1969, he has served as executive secretary-treasurer of the Alabama Education Association, a professional association for teachers...

, who was the Democratic Party

Democratic Party (United States)

The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...

nominee for the 1990 gubernatorial election.