[J]oel Cook has been at the helm of the Vermont teachers union for 16 years. An advocate for 42 years, a lobbyist for 33 of those — including 25 years representing educators — Cook has decided to retire at the end of the year.
“During those 42 years, something happened. … I got old,” Cook said in an interview. “I haven’t lost my enthusiasm for the work, but there comes a time – and I learned this the hard way – when you get a certain amount of experience under your belt, you are getting on in years, and you probably ought to spend more time with your family.”
A lawyer, Cook went to work for the Vermont-National Education Association in 1992 as its general counsel and became executive director in 2000. The union says it has 12,000 members and a $5 million annual budget.
“While we wish Joel well on his well-deserved retirement, we will miss his steadfast dedication to Vermont-NEA and to its purpose,” said President Martha Allen in a statement. “Joel’s advocacy on behalf of the women and men who work in Vermont’s schools has been as unwavering as his desire to do what’s best for our state’s children.”
Cook has weathered many of Montpelier’s political storms, the most recent being the dust-up over Act 46 caps on allowable growth in education spending.
Calling caps on spending bad public policy, Cook said various versions have cropped up over the years. “What the House, in particular, inserted into Act 46 at the end of the 2015 session was obvious to a lot of us: a very troubling public policy. And for the most part, people came to their senses in early 2016 and understood that policy had to change.”
Cook figures he has testified before lawmakers at least 1,000 times over the years. He said he used to relish educating new lawmakers about education concerns. But he has been around long enough to see the same issues crop up again and again, and restating the same matters has become tiresome. “It doesn’t mean they don’t deserve careful and clear explanations,” Cook said of each new crop of legislators. “I just may not be the best person to do it.”
That said, it will be hard for him to give up being an advocate for teachers and educators. “I didn’t realize when I started just how much respect I would develop for the work they do,” he said. “I will miss being one of their leading voices in the state of Vermont.”
Cook is proud of the Vermont-NEA’s long-standing commitment to health care reforms. “We put a lot of energy and effort and resources into it more than a decade ago, and the job isn’t done. We did it not just because it might have some bearing on the well-being of our members, but because it affects the community of Vermont as a whole,” he said.
He hails the Legislature for spending the last 10 years rectifying a deficit in the teachers’ retirement system after 15 years of underfunding. “Every year since 2006 or 2007 the Legislature has kept its bargain with the teachers and taxpayers of Vermont by fully funding that system,” he said.
But the moment that stands out as the one when he was proudest of the Legislature, he said, came in 2000 as he watched lawmakers facing re-election vote their conscience on marriage equality. “That for me was the high-water mark for what it means to have a citizen Legislature,” he said. “People voting their conscience without regard to the political consequences on something of such great importance as civil rights.”
The union will begin a national search for Cook’s replacement in the coming weeks, according to Allen. That’s why it announced his retirement so early. Cook said he hopes to help make the transition smooth.
“I have been proud of what we have accomplished together over the years,” Cook said. “Vermont-NEA has been — and will continue to be — the state’s greatest champion of children and of the people we entrust to educate them.”
