Intercepts

Thank you for your patience. I'm having some technical issues with Blogger.com and, in traditional EIA manner, I am using an indirect approach to bring this blog entry to you.

* The United Teachers of Dade have had an awful time trying to get former president Pat Tornillo to repay the money he stole. Now the Miami Herald reports the two parties have come to a court settlement. Tornillo will make UTD the beneficiary of his life insurance policy (and that of his wife) to cover his remaining debt. Tornillo is scheduled to be released from prison in February 2006.

* It took a New Zealand study to tell us what should have been obvious from the start: a major cause of childhood obesity is too much television. Congratulations to the Kiwis for getting in front of the fat pack!

* EIA once told you about the Philadelphia school district's search for "truant ghost children." Well, evidently they were riding the bus in Cleveland. Some schools reported that as many as 86 percent of their enrolled students were using the school bus, while the actual percentage was 5 percent. The Cleveland Plain Dealer reports that the state and the school system actually cannot agree on how to count bus riders! No wonder math scores are so low.

Posted by Mike Antonucci at 11:25 | Permalink | Comments

* How do you feel about rent subsidies? Check out the latest Contract Hits.

* Outpost of the Odd: Russian official to Lenin - "We will bury you."

Posted by Mike Antonucci at 12:03 | Permalink | Comments

Yesterday the Boston Globe published a piece by Vivian Troen and Katherine C. Boles that pretty much stomped on merit pay with a high-heeled shoe. They called it a "misguided plan to waste money and further strain an already exhausted system."

Fair enough. But the authors' names seemed familiar to me, and I went through the EIA archives and found this item from February 7, 2000:

Recommended reading: “America’s New Teachers: How Good, and for How Long?” by Katherine C. Boles and Vivian Troen in the February 2 issue of Education Week. An excerpt: “In the rigid school culture, star performance is discouraged by the egalitarian notion that each teacher is the ‘equal’ of every other teacher. This is a system which rewards only seniority and not merit, or knowledge, or expertise, or contributions to the profession. If all teachers are equal, then none is outstanding, and there are no failures.”

Well, we're all entitled to change our minds, or maybe Troen and Boles have a plan to reward teachers on merit without calling it merit pay. In any event, the Arizona Republic published a serendipitous article today on performance pay that sums up the various experiments across the country.

Posted by Mike Antonucci at 07:49 | Permalink | Comments

From the Hartford Courant: "The Hartford school system has stopped providing snacks to hundreds of children in after-school programs because of a union grievance by food service workers who are demanding they be paid to distribute them."

Posted by Mike Antonucci at 10:20 | Permalink | Comments

* The Los Angeles Times gives the California Teachers Association the comprehensive treatment. Especially note the quotes from prominent state Democrats and you'll get a good sense of who really runs education policy in California.

* The Sacramento Bee notices something that skeptics of paycheck protection measures (including EIA) have long recognized -- they don’t really deter union political action.

* People often ask EIA how unions influence the day-to-day operations in school districts. An investigator in Maine found out, and his findings are being censored.

* Intercepts is an Editor's Choice in this week's Carnival of Education, hosted by The Education Wonks.

Posted by Mike Antonucci at 07:47 | Permalink | Comments

I know we live in the age of the short attention span, but this is ridiculous.

California Teachers Association President Barbara Kerr wrote an op-ed for the Riverside Press-Enterprise in which she waxes poetic about dreams and respect, but also tries to revive the long-since-staked-in-the-heart vampire of a state teacher shortage.

"While not affecting every school district yet, the teacher shortage is real. California will need at least 100,000 new teachers during the next 10 years, warns the Center for the Future of Teaching and Learning in Santa Cruz," she writes.

What can be done? "Three issues top the list of things we must address: poor pay compared with other professions, unacceptable conditions for teaching and learning, and the lack of respect," comes the response.

By way of reply, EIA will merely reprint here an item from the June 9, 2oo3 EIA Communiqué headlined "The Incredible Shrinking California Teacher Shortage":

Section III D of the California Teachers Association’s (CTA) Statement of Mission, Goals, and Objectives states that “California faces the need to recruit well over 200,000 new teachers in the next five years.”
* February 22, 2000: “California faces a severe teacher shortage and will need an estimated 330,000 new teachers over the next 10 years.” – California Teachers Association (CTA) press release.
* November 16, 2000: “Our state alone will need at least 300,000 [new teachers] during this same 10-year period.” – CTA Vice President Barbara Kerr, in testimony to the Little Hoover Commission.
* January 2002: “In fact, we need to hire 20,000 new teachers every year for the next decade just to hold our own.” – CTA President Wayne Johnson in a radio ad.
* June 8, 2002: “No wonder there is a huge teacher shortage and growing worse every year.” – CTA President Wayne Johnson to the union’s State Council.
* December 2002: “[W]e must do something about the problems that are creating the frightening teacher shortage.” – CTA President Wayne Johnson in his column in the California Educator.
* June 5, 2003: “If you don’t care where you’ll go, you can find a job.” – CTA President Wayne Johnson to the Sacramento Bee.

Posted by Mike Antonucci at 07:33 | Permalink | Comments

* Michigan determines state funding to public school districts by how many students attend on two days of the year, one of which is tomorrow. The extent to which some districts will go to get kids into school tomorrow is breathtaking (a town crier?). But if they don't show up on Thursday, how much effort will the district expend? A clear illustration of misplaced motivations.

Meanwhile, the burgeoning Clark County School District in Nevada overestimated its fall enrollment by some 4,000 students. That will reduce the district's state aid by $17 million. But the district's financial officer says no academic programs will be cut, and that the district will have to forego filling some administrative vacancies and computer purchases, and monitor its travel expenses.

Sounds like the marginal costs of additional students are pretty low in Clark County. We could use some good economic research on this issue (item #4).

* Breaking News: The North Carolina Association of Educators (NCAE) is informing its activists that it expects Gov. Mike Easley to increase teacher salaries using his discretionary powers. A provision of the state budget allows the governor to draw from the Reserve for Contingent Appropriations for such a purpose, after consulting with the Speaker of the House and the President Pro Tempore of the Senate.

"Since the legislature's adjournment, NCAE has been in daily contact with the Governor's office about the salary provision," reads a union e-mail alert. "NCAE anticipates that Governor Easley will soon use this discretionary power to direct a substantial pay raise to teachers."

* Fat Pack Update: The Sacramento Bee (again) and the Stamford Advocate join the herd.

* Outpost of the Odd: Woman attacks police officer with plate of chicken wings.

Posted by Mike Antonucci at 11:04 | Permalink | Comments

On September 9, I noted the unusual number of independent news stories on childhood obesity and school nutrition. There didn't seem to be a compelling reason for the issue to be suddenly splashed across the pages of America's newspapers just at that time. But now there's no escaping it. In just the last 18 days, here are the publications that I've caught joining the fat pack journalism movement:

Associated Press
Los Angeles Times (twice)
Minneapolis Star-Tribune
Salt Lake City Tribune
Sacramento Bee
Detroit News
Baltimore Sun
San Diego Union-Tribune
Kansas City Star
Washington Post
New York Times
Parade

And now, to add the latest pups to the pack:

Washington Post (again)
Nashville Tennessean
Arkansas News Bureau

Thank you. Now we can all get back to our doughnuts.

Posted by Mike Antonucci at 07:27 | Permalink | Comments

Click here to read:

1) Washington Staff Questions Union Expenditures
2) NEA and Norma Rae
3) Is New York City Teacher Retention Really a Problem?
4) No Reciprocity in North Carolina Union Arguments
5) Big Story Headed Your Way
6) Quote of the Week

Posted by Mike Antonucci at 15:29 | Permalink | Comments

Any student enrolled in the Miami-Dade Public Schools gets free breakfast simply by showing up. But the Miami Herald reports that only 85,000 kids are taking advantage of it, less than one-quarter of the student population.

Uh, maybe their parents choose to feed them at home, rather than rearrange their schedules to get the kids to school early enough for breakfast. Or maybe they've been reading the mountain of stories on childhood obesity written by the fat pack journalists -- including yesterday's New York Times and a Parade magazine article on the topic by Bill Clinton!

Posted by Mike Antonucci at 07:18 | Permalink | Comments

* Considering California's lofty position in the state education rankings -- barely edging out Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi in the reading and math NAEP tests -- one might conclude that students aren't learning. But it's clear even the poorest performers are are absorbing certain lessons.

* Mickey Kaus boldly strolls into the minefield -- contrasting the real world with that of unions and Democratic Party politics.

Posted by Mike Antonucci at 12:34 | Permalink | Comments

The National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation (NRTWLDF) held a press conference yesterday to announce its lawsuit against the California Teachers Association's political dues assessment. And, as might have been predicted, all their speakers were shouted down by a mob of union activists.

Let's tell the story in quotes from the players:

- "In the spirit of silencing dissent, they came out to try to intimidate the teachers who were trying to assert their constitutional rights," said NRTWLDF Vice President Stefan Gleason. "It didn't work."

- "We bend over backwards to observe the rights of members and fee payers," said CTA President Barbara Kerr.

- "This is an example of the kind of intimidation, bullying and thuggery that our public school teachers are enduring (from the union) every day," said state Sen. Tom McClintock, R-Thousand Oaks, who was there to support the lawsuit.

- Asked about the fact that the dues assessment is ostensibly targeted for debt service and not political action, CTA spokesperson Sandra Jackson said, "To my knowledge, there is no loan. I don't know about any loan." (Maybe the Union Fairy left the $21 million CTA spent in one day earlier this month.)

- But the quote of the day goes to Paula Caplinger, member of the CTA board of directors. After warming up with "Proposition 75 is all about silencing workers' voices. I guess it's a little taste of what a silenced voice is like," Caplinger really hit her stride by stating that the $6 per month assessment was merely the cost of "a hefty latte and a muffin."

No doubt Ms. Caplinger would object to my taking $6 per month from her paycheck so I can buy a hefty latte and a muffin, or maybe just use the money to support EIA. Alas, the law says when I do it, it's stealing.

Posted by Mike Antonucci at 07:48 | Permalink | Comments

* Considering that students are somewhat, eh, lacking in certain subject matter knowledge, EIA wonders why parents spend their time worrying most about exposing their children to a) the Bible; b) military recruiters; and c) Mountain Dew. If only we could get them this riled up about algebra, spelling or chemistry.

* Are you a seniority junkie? Well, check out the new Contract Hits anyway.

Posted by Mike Antonucci at 12:09 | Permalink | Comments

* The National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation will announce the filing of a class action suit against the California Teachers Association over its $54 million special assessment to fund its campaign against November's ballot initiatives. A press conference will be held at 11 a.m. Pacific time.

* Attorneys for the NEA-affiliated Education Support Employees Association (ESEA) asked the Nevada Supreme Court to cancel a union representation election for some 8,000 school employees. The union has been embroiled in a battle with Teamsters Local 14 for more than three years. ESEA claims the Teamsters need to provide a membership list to force an election. The Teamsters claim they have enough signature cards to satisfy the law. A Teamster win would be devastating to NEA in Nevada.

Posted by Mike Antonucci at 07:40 | Permalink | Comments

EIA has previously commented on the "fair weather federalists" who suddenly discovered the Tenth Amendment when the No Child Left Behind Act came along. Apparently the contagion is spreading. Now we have Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA), one of the leftmost members of the U.S. Congress, voicing her concerns in the wake of Hurricane Katrina about eminent domain abuse and the circumvention of property rights guaranteed by the Fifth Amendment.

"The taking of private property for private use is in my estimation unconstitutional, unAmerican and is not to be tolerated," Rep. Waters said.

If this trend continues, we'll soon have Ted Kennedy noticing that the Commerce Clause only permits Congress to regulate commerce.

Posted by Mike Antonucci at 11:08 | Permalink | Comments

George Will and Linda Chavez whack the teachers' unions, while the Teachers Association of Anne Arundel County in Maryland whack those who failed to pony up for the union's teacher party (see “Tacky Gesture” here, and the bottom of page 5 here).

Posted by Mike Antonucci at 07:53 | Permalink | Comments

* All 1,733 slots are filled in the Washington DC voucher program. Forty-seven students were turned away.

* The Kansas City Star joins the Fat Pack!

* Outpost of the Odd: It was a bad day for chickens in Delaware and Texas.

Posted by Mike Antonucci at 11:01 | Permalink | Comments

* There are few things more predictable in life than the fact that the incumbent vice president of an NEA state affiliate will run for, and win, the presidency of that affiliate when the position opens up. EIA once checked, and discovered that more than 60 percent of state affiliate presidents had acceded in that fashion (another nine percent were incumbent state treasurers).

So it's unusual when the incumbent vice president decides to run for president, and his challenger receives the endorsement of the sitting president and the previous president.

Connecticut Education Association President Rosemary Coyle is term-limited out, and Vice President Phil Apruzzese is running for the office. But both Coyle and former CEA President Daria Plummer have endorsed challenger William Murray, the president of NEA Danbury (Danbury was the launching point for the union career of former NEA President Bob Chase).

I don't know who Apruzzese cheesed off, but the CEA election will now feature a singular contest between endorsements and tradition.

* The U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals decision in the NEA Alaska case is making lawyers all over the country sit up and take notice.

Posted by Mike Antonucci at 07:15 | Permalink | Comments

AFT press release here.

Posted by Mike Antonucci at 14:12 | Permalink | Comments

Click here to read.

1) Thanks to NEA Alaska, Sex Harassment Doesn't Have to Be About Sex
2) Ninth Circuit Rules for Employer Free Speech Regarding Unionization
3) AFT Raises the White Flag in Puerto Rico
4) Associated Press Covers Washington Staff Picket Line
5) No Stories on This Trend
6) The Best Union Story Ever
7) Quote of the Week

Posted by Mike Antonucci at 14:09 | Permalink | Comments

Hardly shocking news, but California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger put his support behind Proposition 75, the paycheck protection initiative. Get ready for total war on the left side of the country.

Posted by Mike Antonucci at 07:26 | Permalink | Comments

"Esta página está en proceso de remodelación."

Thus ends AFT's formal presence in Puerto Rico. As EIA has reported (exclusively for a long, long time -- see here and here for example), AFT's efforts to regain control of the disaffiliated Federación de Maestros de Puerto Rico (FMPR) have been defeated at every turn. The national union conceded defeat by shutting down the AFTPR web page with the above notice, and overnighting a letter to FMPR President Rafael Feliciano Hernandez on Wednesday, notifying him that AFT was revoking FMPR's affiliation!

Additionally, the AFT Executive Council terminated the administratorship over FMPR (which never took practical effect anyway), and included a pointed reference to outstanding loans and back dues payments. AFT wants the latter repaid by next Friday. Good luck.

It bears repeating that it has been almost a full year since the FMPR disaffiliation vote, and following months of investigations, protests, rallies, lawsuits, an administratorship, court decisions, a referendum, and a charter revocation, you will still search in vain for any public statement about these events from AFT national headquarters. Can't have the loss of 32,000 members undermine the message, can we?

Posted by Mike Antonucci at 11:09 | Permalink | Comments

It was a pretty bad week for unions in the normally accommodating U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. Two cases that will reverberate. Tons of details from the court, and EIA has many to add -- too many for this type of format. Let's just say, "Stay tuned for Monday's EIA Communiqué."

Posted by Mike Antonucci at 07:09 | Permalink | Comments

Read the latest "Contract Hits."

Posted by Mike Antonucci at 12:05 | Permalink | Comments

* The Landmark Legal Foundation, noted for filing federal complaints against NEA for violations of political expenditure reporting requirements, yesterday asked the California Public Employment Relations Board to investigate the California Teachers Association’s $54 million dues assessment.

In particular, Landmark questions the union's characterization of the dues assessment as "debt retirement," when the debt is obviously caused by political campaign spending. Non-members can be forced to pay the former, but not the latter. In either case, full dues plus assessments are deducted from all paychecks -- member or non-member -- with reimbursement of political expenses made to non-members upon their annual written request.

Since CTA's attorneys determine which union expenditures are chargeable or non-chargeable (subject to challenge through arbitration or court filing) at the end of each fiscal year, it is not yet known whether the union planned to claim the assessment as a chargeable expense. The Landmark complaint ensures that that determination will be made in the public eye.

* Ormsby County Education Association President Jeff Greb and another union member were fined $15 each by the Nevada Ethics Commission for using class preparation time to organize a campaign walk for a state assembly candidate last fall.

Greb's activity isn't all that newsworthy, but EIA thinks his defense was. He claimed:

1) He was not a public employee.
2) As OCEA president, he was permitted by contract to contact his members about the campaign walk.
3) The district allowed the union use of school facilities and equipment for similar purposes "as a matter of practice."

If he wasn't a public employee, he should have been charged with trespassing on school property.

Posted by Mike Antonucci at 07:23 | Permalink | Comments

* Speaking of 21st century skills, here's a story that suggests that what children need are, well, 18th century skills.

* The San Diego Union-Tribune joins the fat pack!

* L.A.'s major fireworks may simply parallel a conflagration in S.F.

Posted by Mike Antonucci at 11:47 | Permalink | Comments

* The Partnership for 21st Century Skills, a coalition of union and business interests, named NEA Executive Director John Wilson as its new chairman. Wilson has been heavily involved in the organization since its formation in 2002, and will now oversee the Partnership, with members such as Adobe, Apple, Cisco, Dell, Ford, Intel, McGraw-Hill, Microsoft, Time Warner and Verizon.

The organization proposes to add 21st century skills to the K-12 classroom, which a recent report describes as: global awareness; civic engagement; financial, economic, and business literacy; problem solving, critical thinking and self-directional skills; and information and communication technology skills.

Wilson will retain his position at NEA while chairing the Partnership.

* Get ready for major fireworks in L.A.

Posted by Mike Antonucci at 07:49 | Permalink | Comments

If there were a Pulitzer Prize for labor reporting, it would go to Stacy J. Willis of the Las Vegas Weekly for "Picketers for Hire." Willis went to the new Wal-Mart in Henderson and spoke to the six picketers placed there by Local 711 of the United Food and Commercial Workers union.

Except that the six hard-working folks aren't UFCW employees.

Nor are they members of UFCW.

Nor are they members of any union.

They are employees of the Allied Forces/Labor Express temp service. They are paid $6 an hour with no benefits for standing outside in 104 degree temperatures. One picketer suffered heat exhaustion and never returned. Another developed blisters, so the dutiful picket line foreman took her inside the air-conditioned Wal-Mart, where the pharmacist recommended a certain balm. The rest of the picketers bought some.

The union drops them off in the morning and returns for them five hours later. Except on the weekends, when they have to make their own way.

"We're paying these people. They were out of work before (joining their picket lines)," said UFCW organizer Bill Hornbrook, like a character from The Grapes of Wrath.

Yes, the UFCW is outsourcing its picketing to non-union workers, at a sub-standard pay rate with no benefits, in unsafe conditions, with no transportation or means to leave the premises, in order to protest the poor jobs inside Wal-Mart, where workers make twice as much.

Hat tip: Opinion Journal.

Posted by Mike Antonucci at 07:26 | Permalink | Comments

Click here to read:

1) NY Times Scolds NEA for NCLB Obsession
2) Washington NEA Affiliate Has Staff Labor Troubles Again
3) You Can Change the Wrapping, But It's Still the UFT Party Line
4) Basic Union Budgeting in Delaware
5) More Fat Pack Journalism
6) What Is the Mission?
7) Quote of the Week

Posted by Mike Antonucci at 14:34 | Permalink | Comments

Working Life reports that UNITE HERE will announce it is leaving the AFL-CIO on Wednesday. The union claims 450,000 active members and will participate in the founding convention of the Change to Win coalition on September 27 in St. Louis.

Posted by Mike Antonucci at 07:49 | Permalink | Comments

I'm often amazed at how many times independent newspapers, with independent editors and independent journalists, can all end up reporting about the same thing on the same day.

Apparently news outlets all across the nation got one big memo from the Trilateral Commission, or the Illuminati, or the Great Masonic Lodge to run stories about obese students today.

In Pennsylvania, they’re going to measure how fat your kids are, because they don't want them to be as fat as the kids in California, who might be less fat if only they ate breakfast, but not that junk food because it has too much sugar, which maybe they need because they're so sleepy when they show up for school.

Want kids to lose weight? Take away their electronics -- TV, Internet, phones, etc. Then send them outside for a couple of hours. They'll figure it out.

Posted by Mike Antonucci at 12:23 | Permalink | Comments

Jack Rasmus blames the 50-year decline in union membership on a corporate free trade offensive which began to "occur more rapidly" under Reagan and "has been accelerating even more rapidly under George W. Bush." Since union membership also declined under Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Bush the Elder, and Clinton, it's hard to see his point.

But if you can get past Rasmus' skewed position (ditto Working Life -- link on the right), his piece in the September Z Magazine on the AFL-CIO split is worth reading because he correctly notes that (gasp!) the federation's own operations are hurting its cause.

"For more fundamental change to occur new levels of union membership will have to be brought into the process. New organization forms will have to be developed to mobilize ‘from below,’" he writes.

Except that the people in charge don't want fundamental change.

Posted by Mike Antonucci at 07:52 | Permalink | Comments

The question of NEA's response to the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina is getting some attention, particularly from Eduwonk and Mickey Kaus. The union immediately set up a hurricane relief fund and created a web page detailing its efforts to help teachers and students affected by the tragedy.

On that web page is a Sept. 1 letter sent by NEA President Reg Weaver to U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings in which he states, "I encourage you to implement the provisions in NCLB that deal with the impact of natural disasters on testing and AYP. We would also ask that states such as Texas and others who are not physically affected by Hurricane Katrina, yet are receiving these children, be granted the same levels of flexibility and not be adversely affected or otherwise penalized for accepting these children and students into their school systems."

Some have looked askance at this, wondering why NEA's second thought was to seek a waiver to NCLB provisions. But the letter is just a letter and hardly clear about intent, at that.

Now there's an NEA letter with much clearer intent. Sent to Members of Congress and the President yesterday, it covers much of the same ground as the letter to Spellings, but adds on a bulleted list of actions for Congress and the executive branch to take, including a call to fully fund the school counselors program, provide tax credits for school construction bonds, suspend NCLB sanctions, and waive highly qualified teacher deadlines.

Posted by Mike Antonucci at 08:02 | Permalink | Comments

* The Alliance for a Better California, the group of public employees' unions opposed to Proposition 75, the paycheck protection initiative, released its first television ad. Predictably, it talks about the "hidden agenda" behind Prop 75 and how it "slaps" and "targets" teachers and public workers.

Missing from the ad? What the initiative actually says.

Also missing? Any use of the word "union."

See the ad here.

Read the initiative here.

* Barbara King is suing the East St. Louis Federation of Teachers for $50,000 because of injuries she suffered in a fall in front of the union hall. King claims the union failed to repair a step, resulting in an unsafe condition.

Aren’t frivolous lawsuits annoying?

Posted by Mike Antonucci at 07:26 | Permalink | Comments

* New York Congressman Charles Rangel put his considerable clout behind a plan to offer higher pay to teachers who agree to work in New York City's worst-performing schools. Asked by the New York Times if such a move might be considered interfering in contract talks, Rangel replied, "This is our business. Nobody has a right to go and have closed-door negotiations."

* Here’s a story that won't make it into the unions' "Wake Up Wal-Mart" campaign talking points. Best quote: "[If] the American government would have responded like Wal-Mart has responded, we wouldn't be in this crisis."

Posted by Mike Antonucci at 11:19 | Permalink | Comments

* San Francisco schools superintendent Arlene Ackerman resigned yesterday "marking an end to a tenure noted for rising student achievement and renewed fiscal health in the public school system, but marred by charges that she was autocratic and excluded parents and teachers from important decisions," as the San Francisco Chronicle put it.

That's almost right. Ackerman was forced out by union-owned-and-operated members of the school board, just as Alan Bersin was in San Diego. The lesson learned for superintendents in California is that "rising student achievement and renewed fiscal health" aren't what's important. Kowtowing to the local union affiliate is.

* Former Lawrence Education Association President Wayne Kruse pleaded guilty to felony counts of theft and forgery for stealing $95,000 in dues money meant for Kansas NEA. The normal sentencing calls for probation, and Kruse was ordered to pay restitution.

So everyone is happy. The union is rid of Kruse and will get its money back. The court disposes of the case with a guilty plea. Kruse probably gets probation.

Who really loses? The taxpayers of Lawrence, who were forced to pay Kruse his full teaching salary after firing him in March, through June. Why? Because the contract said so.

Posted by Mike Antonucci at 07:19 | Permalink | Comments

Click here to read:

1) CTA Nearly Outspends Arnold in a Single Day
2) Organizing? Politics? How About PR Instead?
3) Missing Union Funds a Maine Trend?
4) Hidden Costs Missed in Per-Pupil Spending
5) Taking Stock of Wal-Mart Campaign
6) New Book Takes On Big City Education Politics
7) Quotes of the Week

Posted by Mike Antonucci at 16:05 | Permalink | Comments

In case you haven't seen the AP story yet, here's the relevant portion about what AFL-CIO President John Sweeney said regarding the Hurricane Katrina relief efforts:

1) "Speaking to more than 1,000 cheering teachers, firefighters and nurses at a Los Angeles intersection, Sweeney argued that cuts in government services and taxes had sapped the administration's ability to react to the crisis. 'We really need look no further than the ravaged cities of the Gulf Coast ... to see what can happen when government is underfunded, unprepared and unresponsive,' Sweeney said."

2) "In an interview after the event, Sweeney noted that many victims along the Gulf Coast were poor and working class.'This administration has been very callous,' he said. 'And the slow reaction to the (hurricane) ... is an indication of their shortsightedness and lack of focus on workers and their families.'"

There's a lot I could say about this, but instead I give you this photo. The JunkYardBlog has been posting pictures of underwater buses in various key locations throughout New Orleans. If the city was underfunded, how could it afford public school U-boats?

Posted by Mike Antonucci at 07:34 | Permalink | Comments

If you're reading this, thanks for your dedication and loyalty. But you've been working all week, watching the TV news has been agonizing, and you deserve a break. Go outside and have a little fun and exercise. Recharge those batteries. There's nothing going on in education that can't wait 24 hours. Meet you back here tomorrow.

Posted by Mike Antonucci at 07:28 | Permalink | Comments

* Move over, Rachael Ray! Checker Finn, president of the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation, sent an infiltration team to the NEA headquarters building in DC to sample the fine cuisine at the union's café. (And to preemptively answer the question that will certainly hit my inbox next: Yes, your dues dollars are subsidizing a bistro for people making six-figure salaries.)

Finn correctly notes that the café is a subcontracted operation of Seasons Culinary Services, Inc., but he missed the fact that the owners and managers of the company came from Sodexho, a company which has never been on NEA's Christmas card list.

The Finn article also mentions me in the first paragraph, cementing a favorable citation here.

* Nancy Keates of the Wall Street Journal examines the question of too much parental involvement. WSJ is a pay site, but the piece was reprinted in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

Posted by Mike Antonucci at 12:23 | Permalink | Comments

* One would think that when 11,000 people apply for 400 jobs at an area Wal-Mart, local unions might want to consider a low profile or a subtle campaign. But not in Oakland.

The unions cobbled together a whopping 100 people for a street protest. Raymond Graham, recording secretary of Carpenters Local 713, told the tea party that if Wal-Mart wanted to stay in the community "it must go union."

Good luck with that, Ray.

Peter A. Brown of the Orlando Sentinel did a Labor Day-inspired examination of NEA, Wal-Mart and the organized labor movement in general. It's a good, common-sense evaluation.

* If you think I'm a bomb-thrower, read Jill Stewart. She goes nuclear.

* Clark County Education Association President Mary Ella Holloway told the Las Vegas Sun she was surprised that more members didn't turn out for the contract ratification vote.

A 2.5% turnout isn't a cause for surprise. It's a cause for panic.

Posted by Mike Antonucci at 07:36 | Permalink | Comments

* I hope this is a misprint, but the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported that members of the Clark County Education Association approved a two-year contract extension by a margin of 99 percent to 1 percent.

It's not the margin that's disconcerting; it's the turnout. The paper reports that 150 CCEA members voted. CCEA has 12,000 members.

I know the world is run by the people who show up, but that's ridiculous.

* This story by Ruth Marcus of the Washington Post is not really education-related, but it exposes a trend that exists in education and in many other walks of life. Its first sentence is provocative: "Did PowerPoint make the space shuttle crash?"

* A new "Contract Hits" is up.

Posted by Mike Antonucci at 11:45 | Permalink | Comments

* A DC jury convicted former Washington Teachers Union (WTU) employees Gwendolyn Hemphill and James Baxter on all counts related to the embezzlement of millions of dollars from the union during the reign of Barbara Bullock. Part-time WTU accountant James Goosby was cleared of wrongdoing. Details here.

* The Michigan Education Association has its own subsidiary (MESSA) that provides health care insurance to school employees. In fact, the union is pretty diligent about negotiating MESSA coverage into its teacher contracts. Facing budget problems, the small Howell Public Schools sought a less expensive provider. Did they fight and win a battle with the union Goliath?

No. They didn’t.

* Wild idea out of Massachusetts. There’s a proposal to put all of the state's low-performing schools in one district, and then offer higher pay to teachers, and more flexibility to administrators. It's an interesting concept, but you have to wonder what would happen when the usual suspects get their hands on it.

The Boston Globe floated it pasted Massachusetts Federation of Teachers official Ed Doherty. He said because it combines MFT schools with those represented by the Massachusetts Teachers Association, it would create confusion as to who would negotiate the new contract.

There's a man with his priorities straight.

Posted by Mike Antonucci at 07:23 | Permalink | Comments