The University of Hawaii’s faculty union will decide this month whether to end its affiliation with the National Education Association, a move proponents say would save money and sharpen the union’s focus.

The issue is being hotly debated in UH circles, and the faculty union is conducting a straw poll to gauge members’ opinions.

The 26-member UHPA board of directors, which is scheduled to vote on the matter Saturday, is roughly split on whether to disaffiliate from the NEA.

Adrienne Valdez, president of UHPA, does not support breaking from the NEA. She says the cost of affiliating with the national teachers union is a "terrific value for what we are receiving."

She said the NEA provides the UH union with guidance, consultation and financial support for specific efforts.

Her most prominent opponent on the issue is UHPA Executive Director J.N. Musto, who wrote an 11-page memo to members on why UHPA should disaffiliate from the NEA.

Musto said the NEA is not providing anything to the UH union that it couldn’t do on its own "at the same, or less, cost."

Musto also argues that the NEA’s views do not represent the interests of higher education.

The Hawaii State Teachers Association is the state affiliate for the NEA, and Musto said it should be noted that there is a "continuing divergence" between the HSTA’s approaches to collective bargaining versus those of UHPA.

"Although I have nothing but sympathy for the plight of public elementary and secondary education … the simple fact is that they want nothing to do with us. Our mutual affiliation with the NEA has no meaning," Musto wrote in his memo to members.

Disaffiliating from the NEA would save UHPA about $350,000 a year.

The discussion comes as the faculty union is gearing up for contract negotiations, which will begin in 2014. The current UHPA contract ends June 30, 2015.

Musto acknowledged that most university unions are affiliated with national entities.

But he also said that this isn’t the first time that UHPA has decided to end its affiliation with a national union.

UHPA was established in 1974 as a "jointly affiliated" organization of the NEA and the American Association of University Professors. But in 1992, UHPA’s board of directors voted to end its affiliation with the AAUP so it could direct more of its resources to local efforts.

Supporters of disaffiliation with the NEA note that the union’s national agenda is geared toward K-12 public school districts. Of the NEA’s 3.2 million members, about 200,000 are higher-education faculty.

William Puette, director of the Center for Labor Education and Research at UH-West Oahu, could think of only two local unions without national affiliation: the union for Hawaii police officers and the Kamehameha Schools Faculty Association.