News Release

Billirakis Gets 2nd Term on NEA Executive Committee

Former Ohio Affiliate President Eager
to Continue Work for Children, Members

LOS ANGELES -- Mike Billirakis, a teaching veteran, was declared elected to his second term on the Executive Committee of the National Education Association (NEA), the nation’s largest professional employee organization with 2.7 million members.

Billirakis was unopposed in the election, and was approved by the more than 9,000 NEA members attending the annual meeting in Los Angeles. His term on the nine-member committee will last for three years, and is effective on September 1, 2005.

Before becoming an executive committee member at the NEA, Billirakis was on professional leave from Field High School in Brimfield, Ohio where he taught for 15 years. For the last four years, while serving on the Executive committee, he was on professional leave from Perry High School in Perry, Ohio.

He has been active in the association for years, and served as president of the Ohio Education Association (OEA) from 1994-2001. During his tenure as president, the OEA challenged the Cleveland voucher program and joined more than 500 schools challenging Ohio’s public school funding formula which resulted in billions of additional dollars for Ohio’s students.

Billirakis has served on the Ohio Governor's School Accountability Committee and currently sits on the board of directors of the State Teacher's Retirement System, which has assets in excess of $54 billion, and the Education Commission of the States.

During his first term on the NEA Executive Committee, Billirakis was instrumental in the beginning of the NEA's "Great Public Schools for Every Child" initiative.

"The success of this initiative is critical to all learners in our nation and to all our members," he said. "It identifies what the NEA has been attempting to do throughout our history -- to make certain that every public school employee and every child has a school environment that is conducive to good teaching and learning, is safe, and has all the necessary resources and materials needed for a quality public education."

Billirakis earned a bachelor's degree in history and a Master’s degree in European history from Youngstown State University. He also completed 30 hours of graduate study in education at Akron University.

A native of the Island of Kalymnos in Greece Billirakis immigrated to Ohio with his family when he was 12 years old. He and his wife, Valerie, now live in Pickerington, Ohio. Both of their daughters, Christine and Cynthia, are students at Ohio State University and are pursuing secondary education and elementary education, respectively.

July 3, 2005

Contact:
Denise Cardinal, (202) 822-7239  

###

The National Education Association is the nation’s largest professional employee organization, representing more than 2.7 million elementary and secondary teachers, higher education faculty, education support professionals, school administrators, retired educators, and students preparing to become teachers.