Intercepts

I'll be winging my way to Orlando today, which means I've already missed NEA's open hearing on resolutions, whatever protests were arranged outside, and a press conference on one of the less-compelling issues of the day in public education. For these reasons, I believe my life span has increased by one year.

With the declarations of victory and defeat out of the way, NEA delegates can now return to the real business of the convention: PAC fundraising! (check the contribution dates)

Posted by Mike Antonucci at 07:54 | Permalink | Comments

When I first heard United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA) President A. J. Duffy speak, at last year's NEA Representative Assembly, I wrote, "The Los Angeles papers are going to have a blast with this guy."

Yesterday, Duffy provided a tremendous public service by spelling out, in one wonderful sentence, the entire union philosophy regarding public schools and school reform.

In testimony before the California Senate Education Committee, Duffy defended the deal between UTLA and Mayor Villaraigosa by saying:

"This bill has been criticized for fragmenting authority over the system so that no one person is accountable, but that is precisely the genius of this legislation."

Duffy is absolutely right. It takes sheer genius to craft a proposal so cleverly that an operation involving tens of thousands of employees, hundreds of thousands of students, and billions of dollars holds no one accountable.

Bravo, sir.

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

The Connecticut Education Association and AFT Connecticut both backed challenger Ned Lamont in the Democratic primary for U.S. Senator, but the state AFL-CIO is sticking with the incumbent, Joseph Lieberman.

Not that it was easy or clean.

Bill Shortell, a delegate for the Machinists union and vice president of the Central Connecticut Labor Council, told the gathered AFL-CIO throng that endorsing Lieberman "will splatter our banner with the blood of innocent people," according to a report in the Hartford Courant.

The Courant also reported that "the loudest uproar of the day came when Howard Coling of the Communications Workers of America ended his endorsement of Lieberman by announcing loudly, 'Mr. Lamont, who owns a telecommunications company, is non-union.'"

Funny, I don't remember seeing this on Daily Kos.

Posted by Mike Antonucci at 07:41 | Permalink | Comments

"It’s my opinion this resolution will fail overwhelmingly." - Paul Hubbert, executive secretary-treasurer of the Alabama Education Association for 38 years, on the proposed gay marriage/adoption amendment to NEA's resolutions.

Posted by Mike Antonucci at 10:07 | Permalink | Comments

Click here to read:

1) EIA Coverage of NEA Representative Assembly Begins July 1
2) Alteration to NEA Gay Marriage Resolution in Works
3) NEA Alaska Executive Director Resigns
4) Los Angeles Takeover: Union Reaches for Champagne, Mobs Reach for Pitchforks
5) What a Difference a State Makes
6) Ohio Education Association Puts Funding Initiative on Front Burner
7) Almost $220,000 to Fire a Tenured Teacher in Illinois
8) Tornillo: The Gift That Keeps on Giving*
9) Quote of the Week

*banned by AOL e-mail!

Posted by Mike Antonucci at 15:01 | Permalink | Comments

Thanks to the Boston Globe, EIA has discovered the Museum of Bad Art. There is an audio slideshow that accompanies the Globe story that is well worth your time, but go to the museum’s web site to see more of the collection, including this disturbing piece called "Jerez the Clown."

Most of the art displayed is actually worse than this, but Jerez is most likely to give you nightmares.

Posted by Mike Antonucci at 10:43 | Permalink | Comments

The proposed amendment to NEA Resolution B-8, which would place the union in support of gay marriage and adoption, is undergoing an amendment of its own, suggested by the union's Resolutions Committee.

The amendment to Resolution B-8, Diversity, sponsored by NEA's Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender (GLBT) Caucus elicited a swift campaign of denunciation from the conservative American Family Association, and evidently NEA's e-mail servers have been groaning under the weight of electronic protests.

Under the new arrangement, the GLBT amendment would be dropped, and new language would be inserted into Resolution B10-Racism, Sexism, Sexual Orientation, and Gender Identification Discrimination.

The new amendment would read:

"The Association also believes that these factors should not affect the legal rights and obligations of the partners in a legally-recognized domestic partnership, civil union, or marriage in regard to matters involving the other partner, such as medical decisions, taxes, inheritance, adoption, and immigration."

The new language will be debated and voted upon by the Resolutions Committee at its June 29 hearing and, whatever its decision, the issue will undoubtedly rise again at the June 30 open hearing on resolutions, which can be attended by any interested delegate. So far, EIA has heard nothing of what the GLBT Caucus thinks of this alteration.

In a communication to state affiliate leaders, NEA President Reg Weaver wrote: "While I understand that the e-mails and phone calls you are receiving are generating concern, we must not allow the tactics and manipulations of these divisive groups to derail our process. NEA has no position on same-sex marriages, and leadership is not seeking to establish such a position."

Posted by Mike Antonucci at 12:27 | Permalink | Comments

When you talk to people about one thing for a year, then spring something entirely different on them in the space of two days, you're bound to spark some heated debate.

First, the understated "Some wary of plan" in the Los Angeles Daily News. The Republicans and some business groups don't like it.

Then the more-to-the-point "Romer: Antonio sold out." LAUSD Superintendent Roy Romer states the obvious, "This is a very serious mistake and one the mayor and unions bought off on because they're trying to serve each other's interests."

This story also contains a quote from Thomas Saenz, counsel to the mayor. "People are missing the forest for the trees: Who's in charge is the mayor," Saenz said. "There's one person in charge of the system, and that's the mayor." (more on this in a minute)

Also, "Where does the power lie? It doesn't lie with the board. It lies with the union," said Sherry Bebitch Jeffe, a political analyst and senior scholar at the School of Policy, Planning and Development at the University of Southern California.

Duke Helfand and Joel Rubin of the Los Angeles Times asked rank-and-file teachers what they thought of the plan: "Villaraigosa's elaborate plan to take control of the Los Angeles Unified School District grabbed the attention of rank-and-file teachers Thursday, the day after it was announced. While some applauded it, many disagreed with him — and their own union leadership."

Joe Mathews provided details of the negotiations, including the heartwarming anecdote that Villaraigosa and union negotiators shared war stories about the 1989 LA schools strike during breaks in the bargaining.

UTLA's brief statement on its web site should give pause to the mayor, his representatives, and his counsel, Thomas Saenz: "UTLA has come to an agreement with the Mayor that takes mayoral control off the table and instead seeks legislation that moves us closer to real school reform."

Yep, you have to love an agreement that puts the mayor in sole charge but at the same time takes mayoral control off the table.

But the Great Spitball-in-the-Eye Award goes to California Teachers Association President Barbara Kerr, who after coming out of a closed-door negotiation with no parental or public input, to introduce a plan that will not be voted on by the citizens of Los Angeles, said:

"The best school improvement decisions are made when parents, teachers and local communities are involved."

Well, one out of three is about average for LA schools.

Posted by Mike Antonucci at 07:57 | Permalink | Comments

Teachers having sex with students has been a staple of tabloid TV for so long it has become passé. The latest craze is sex in school with other teachers.

For the most recent incident we go to East Hartford, Connecticut, where 55-year-old Angela Schmidt, a middle school teacher, allegedly had sex with colleague Steven Sandler (age unknown) - once in the staff bathroom and another time in a closet.

The incidents came to light when Schmidt went to police claiming Sandler had raped her. After an investigation, police determined that the sex was consensual and that Schmidt claimed otherwise because Sandler wanted to end their affair and she wanted to "ruin his career."

Schmidt was arrested and charged with one count each of falsely reporting an incident and making a false statement. She was released on bond.

The Connecticut story follows two weeks after two teachers in Florida were forced to resign after being spotted having sex in a classroom, and three weeks after a Pennsylvania teacher received a $58,000 severance package despite admitting to having sex in his classroom with another teacher.

If you go back far enough, you can find the trend-setter.

Posted by Mike Antonucci at 12:35 | Permalink | Comments

In Greek mythology, the Hydra had the body of a serpent and many heads, "of which one could never be harmed by any weapon, and if any of the other heads were severed another would grow in its place." The myth also states that "the stench from the Hydra's breath was enough to kill man or beast" and that "when it emerged from the swamp it would attack herds of cattle and local villagers, devouring them with its numerous heads. It totally terrorized the vicinity for many years."

The big news out West this morning is the Grand Compromise reached between Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, the teachers' union, the school board, and state legislators over control of the Los Angeles Unified School District. The mayor wanted a set-up like the one in New York City; the rest wanted to be left alone.

After days of closed-door negotiations, the parties involved delivered a settlement that leaves the following people in charge of LAUSD:

1) the mayor
2) the school board
3) the superintendent
4) a council of mayors
5) the teachers' union

The Los Angeles Times story explains who gets to do what -- sort of. What's clear is that if everyone is in charge, then no one is in charge, and that's just how LAUSD has become the state's poster child for unresponsive government bureaucracy (remember "mini-districts?").

But the proposed deal is even worse than the status quo, because under the guise of "mayoral control," it gives UTLA and CTA "authority to shape classroom instruction" - a power the union has long sought but has been unable to achieve on its own, even with an overwhelmingly Democratic legislature.

But let's leave the details of this disaster-in-the-making aside for a moment, and list the people who did not have, and will not have, any say in its design, implementation or evaluation:

1) parents
2) LAUSD employees who don't belong to UTLA
3) Republicans or independents
4) voters

You learn all you need to know about education policy in California when you understand that both a Republican governor and a Democratic big-city mayor are compelled to negotiate behind closed doors with the bosses of a private enterprise - the teachers' union - but are in no way obligated to solicit the views of the public, who will pay the price for such grand schemes.

The Los Angeles Times editorial page got it exactly right this morning: "Consider a school whose students are failing at math. Who could responsible parents see to address the problem? The teachers picked the curriculum, but they can't be voted out of office. The school didn't decide its budget; the superintendent did that. But both the board and the mayor have a say in it. The board can't hire and fire the superintendent on its own; the mayor can say the board selects the superintendent. And because the board loses power in this deal, it has little interest in seeing it succeed."

The deal does provide one critical element that all parties to the agreement want: ass-covering. When this goes wrong (and believe me, it will), no one can be singled out for blame. So, in the ultimate irony, a plan with the stated purpose of bringing greater accountability to the city's schools achieves the exact opposite.

Posted by Mike Antonucci at 07:42 | Permalink | Comments

A big net is catching some pretty big fish in Ohio, with more to come, I'm told. I'd be stunned if Ohio is the only place where this is going on.

Posted by Mike Antonucci at 08:39 | Permalink | Comments

EIA has learned that NEA Alaska Executive Director Tom Harvey tendered his resignation last Thursday.

Harvey was the focus of an Equal Employment Opportunity Commission lawsuit, prompted by complaints of three female former NEA Alaska employees. The staffers had accused Harvey of bullying and verbally abusing them in 2000. NEA Alaska promoted Harvey to executive director after the EEOC lawsuit was filed. NEA and NEA Alaska settled the case last month, agreeing to pay the former staffers a total of $750,000 without admitting to any wrongdoing.

The Harvey case was a legal landmark of sorts, because in examining the details the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that harassing conduct against female employees can violate Title VII of the Civil Rights Act even if it has nothing to do with sex.

In his resignation letter, Harvey cited medical and family reasons for his decision, making his resignation effective at the end of the union's fiscal year -- midnight, August 31. Harvey's contract was to run until June 2007.

NEA Alaska did not respond to a request for comment.

Posted by Mike Antonucci at 14:49 | Permalink | Comments

The Blue Man Group voted last month to be represented by the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) Local 720 (not the pipefitters union), but the election is being challenged by Blue Man management, which has hired the high-powered Washington law firm of Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld -- described by the Las Vegas Review-Journal as "the New York Yankees of its profession."

This is only the latest in a series of union disputes for Blue Man Group, which set off a boycott in Canada last year for utilizing non-union performers.

Blue Man Group's political leanings are also a matter of some debate, evidenced by their appearance in a global warming video and the subsequent deep thinking it inspired on The Huffington Post.

If the Blue Men strike, at least there won't be any singing or chanting on the picket line.

Posted by Mike Antonucci at 12:48 | Permalink | Comments

Yesterday's communique' prompted a response from a former high-ranking NEA state affiliate officer, whom I will not name here:

"I am tired of this communique and the conservative community describing me and the NEA as 'liberal left'! The liberal thinker is someone who has an open mind and respects all members of society. FDR once described a conservative as someone who has a perfectly good set of legs but cannot move forward. You don't know me or most of the NEA education family so your rhetoric is faulty!"

My reply:

"I'm quite at a loss as to how to respond. You say a liberal has an open mind and respects all members of society, yet you chastise me for describing NEA as liberal-left. So is NEA not liberal or not open-minded? I can't figure out which, but I'm trying to keep an open mind."

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

EIA incorrectly attributed details of the endorsement of Ned Lamont for the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate to the Connecticut Education Association, when the details actually applied to AFT Connecticut. The story Teachers' Unions Endorse Lieberman Challenger has been corrected. EIA apologizes for the error.

Posted by Mike Antonucci at 21:00 | Permalink | Comments

Click here to read:

1) Here We Go Again: Gay Marriage/Adoption Resolution Introduced
2) California Teachers Association Reaches Contract Agreement with Staff
3) Detroit Charter Teachers Join Union
4) $25 to Join NEA Fan Club
5) EIA's Ninth Anniversary
6) Last Week's Intercepts
7) Quote of the Week

Posted by Mike Antonucci at 14:26 | Permalink | Comments

There's no doubt we have a surplus of this valuable commodity in the education establishment, but Wyoming has more of it than anyone: natural gas.

Enough of it and you can get laptops, $30,000 "smart boards," a $17.2 million aquatic center, a three-story climbing wall, two racquetball courts and a competition-sized pool.

If that's what public education requires these days, maybe we should just open a school here.

Posted by Mike Antonucci at 08:39 | Permalink | Comments

The union-funded Economic Policy Institute has a simple solution to win higher wages for Wal-Mart employees. All the corporate giant has to do is cut its profit margin from 3.6% to 2.9%!

This could catch on. Now if unions would only cut their dues 50% it would mean hundreds of extra dollars in the paychecks of wage-earners -- dollars that would otherwise go to funding the Economic Policy Institute's pointless studies.

Meanwhile, we wait patiently for the national union campaign to boycott non-union Target Stores (4.7% profit margin). "A survey by the UFCW found that starting wages are similar in Targets and Wal-Marts -- possibly higher overall at Wal-Marts – and that Target benefits packages are often harder to qualify for and less comprehensive," reported CorpWatch last April.

So why not target Target? Maybe it's because Target gave only $181,000 to Republicans while Wal-Mart gave $1,355,000 (source: BuyBlue.org).

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

There has been a lot of back and forth about the election of Rob Panning-Miller as the president of the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers and what it all means for differing views of unionism. Panning-Miller defeated long-time incumbent Louise Sundin, generally regarded as one of the leaders of new unionism.

The Minneapolis Star Tribune interviewed Panning-Miller and his words threw more light on (or maybe muddled) the discussion. The printed interview is fine, but listen to the audio segments linked on the same page. Panning-Miller makes it clear he is an old unionist, but also a "new new unionist," or what some have called "social justice unionists." Check out this page from the Rethinking Schools web site for all the distinctions -- Panning-Miller obviously has.

At any rate, it's going to be an interesting year for Minneapolis school administrators, at least until Panning-Miller becomes part of the establishment.

Posted by Mike Antonucci at 08:14 | Permalink | Comments

Both the Connecticut Education Association and AFT Connecticut endorsed Ned Lamont, who is challenging incumbent U.S. Senator Joseph Lieberman in the Democratic primary. This is a big deal for Lamont in terms of credibility, but not quite as big a deal as these folks and these folks would like to believe.

Neither union has endorsed Lieberman in his three previous Senate campaigns, and AFT Connecticut's political action committee recommended no endorsement this time as well. But the committee members were overruled by the union's board, which voted 10-6, with three abstentions, to endorse Lamont.

If the union's most active activists are this divided on the idea, the rank-and-file will be even more so.

Posted by Mike Antonucci at 08:13 | Permalink | Comments

I'm still fooling with it, but I hope you like the new style. I'm no HTML genius, but let me know if the text font is too small, or if the alignment looks wrong on your browser, etc., and I'll do my best to fix it.

I might especially need some help with the "links, previous posts, and archives" section at bottom. Can't seem to straighten it all out.

Posted by Mike Antonucci at 17:18 | Permalink | Comments

Yes, that's absolutely what New York State United Teachers President Richard Iannuzzi said while announcing the settlement between NYSUT and the New York attorney general's office over the union's endorsement of substandard 403(b) retirement plans.

The union agreed to a series of reforms, including a request-for-proposal process, full disclosure of fees received, and free investment advice for members who participate. The union agreed to reimburse the attorney general's office $100,000 for the cost of the investigation.

According to Kathy M. Kristof of the Los Angeles Times, whose April 25 story broke this open, other unions are following suit in an effort to restore confidence in their own investment offerings.

The union will finally start to do the right thing by members, so I won't quibble about the use of the passive voice for the mistakes, and the active voice for the corrective measures. This is a positive outcome both for union members and for labor journalism.

Posted by Mike Antonucci at 07:43 | Permalink | Comments

On May 22, EIA reported (skeptically) that after two years of research, polling and focus grouping, NEA had come up with a new slogan:

Great Public Schools Are a Basic Right

A second NEA source now tells us the slogan is actually

Great Public Schools Are a Basic Right for Every Child

It's a bad sign when your own people can't remember your slogan. Do you think NEA got its money's worth with this? I'll grant you -- it's pretty flexible:

Great. Public Schools Are a Basic, Right for Every Child

or

Basic Public Schools for Every Child Are Great, Right?

or

Every Child Is A Public School's. Basic, Right? Great.

or

Great Child Basics Are Right for Every Public School

I did get better results, however, using The Advertising Slogan Generator. Here are a few of the results when I typed in "public schools":

Moms Like You Choose Public Schools
What's In Your Public Schools?
I Like the Public Schools in You
Don't Leave Home Without Public Schools
Public Schools-Lickin' Good
Only Public Schools Can Prevent Forest Fires
We Bring Public Schools to Life
Welcome to Public Schools Country
Splash Public Schools All Over
Break Me Off A Piece of That Public Schools
Public Schools Is Our Middle Name
Good to the Last Public Schools
Whatever You're Into, Get Into Public Schools
Leggo My Public Schools!

Posted by Mike Antonucci at 07:37 | Permalink | Comments

Click here to read:

1) The Crisis in Collective Bargaining
2) AFT Wants Dues Increase for Organizing
3) More NEA Member Surveys to Come
4) $89.6 Million in New Jersey Education Association's Budget
5) A Day Late and $11.7 Billion Too Much
6) "Project Aloha" to Test Public School Customer Service
7) Chain of Kickbacks
8) Will We Ever Hear This From the Public Sector?
9) Last Week's Intercepts
10) Quotes of the Week

Posted by Mike Antonucci at 12:39 | Permalink | Comments

Former Fairbanks Education Association President Beth Aune has a few things to say about NEA Alaska, the EEOC case against Tom Harvey, and agency fee.

Posted by Mike Antonucci at 07:50 | Permalink | Comments

Teachers, ESPs and other school officials often complain that they are increasingly asked to take on the responsibilities of parents, rather than just concentrating on education. And while the rest of us can sympathize with this legitimate concern, it would be easier if stories like this didn't exist to indicate that in some instances schools are usurping parental responsibilities -- with the best of intentions, of course.

Posted by Mike Antonucci at 07:50 | Permalink | Comments

Florida middle school teachers Frances J. Sepulveda and Bryant J. Wilburn thought they would invest in the McKeesport Teacher Retirement Plan, but they couldn't cash in. Despite covering the windows with paper, the two were spotted having sex in the classroom by students, who (can you believe it?) ratted out the teachers!

The two teachers resigned, both admitting to the encounters after initial denials. Wilburn originally told the district investigator that he was doing a crossword puzzle while Sepulveda worked.

Evidently they were both down and across.

Posted by Mike Antonucci at 12:30 | Permalink | Comments

The State of Florida is holding a two-day recruiting fair in Tampa called "The Great Florida Teach-In." Three thousand teacher candidates from all over the country were lured to the event by the slogan "Teach Near the Beach."

I'm stunned that Florida could adopt such a ad line and not also put to work the perfect person to deliver it. Erica Chevillar, call your agent!

Posted by Mike Antonucci at 07:51 | Permalink | Comments

It was a Hollywood ending for Prop 82, the Preschool for All initiative. After all was said and done, the measure managed an astounding 39 percent of the vote. Supporters acknowledged the efforts of Presidents Bartlet and Santos, but gave real credit to the last-minute endorsement of President Merkin Muffley.

At the victory party after the results were known, reporters asked Prop 82 creator Leaky Couloris about the 61 percent that voted against his initiative. "But it doesn't matter," he said, challenging opponents to "help us come up with another way."

Fortunately, there are literally dozens of fictional Presidents waiting in the wings to assist in the effort, though President Thomas J. Whitmore is occupied with the illegal alien problem.

Posted by Mike Antonucci at 08:23 | Permalink | Comments

May 22 EIA Communiqué:

"NEA to Send $2 Million to Oregon to Fight Ballot Initiatives. Hundreds of ballot initiatives are in the process of attempting to qualify for Oregon's November ballot. But the Oregon Education Association (OEA) won't wait to see which ones make it. The union applied for, and received, a grant from NEA's ballot initiative fund for $2 million. OEA will use the money to oppose expected initiatives on a taxpayers' bill of rights (TABOR), the 65 percent solution, and income tax reduction.

"OEA is pushing its own initiative called the Corporate Accountability Act, which would require Oregon companies to disclose how much corporate income tax they paid. EIA hears there is behind-the-scenes politicking going on between the union and some of the state's larger corporations, but details are too sketchy."

June 6 The Oregonian:

"Teachers union shifts gears on ballot proposals

"The Oregon Education Association announced Monday that it's shifting its priorities for the November election.

"It said it is withdrawing support for a proposed ballot initiative that would have forced corporations to disclose tax-related financial information. Instead, it will concentrate on opposing two other initiatives that would cut state revenues and limit the growth in state spending.

"The decision by the state's largest teachers union was immediately praised by the Oregon Business Association, which said it would join the union in opposing the two initiatives affecting state revenues and spending that are being pushed by conservative activists."

Posted by Mike Antonucci at 07:25 | Permalink | Comments

Click here to read:

1) EIA Exclusive: NEA "Members' Mood" Survey of ESPs
2) CTA Grants Membership to ESPs
3) NEA Democracy: Keep Voting Until You Get It Right
4) AFL-CIO Membership for NEA's Hawaii Faculty Delayed
5) NEA Blog in the Works?
6) Last Week's Intercepts
7) Quote of the Week

Posted by Mike Antonucci at 14:47 | Permalink | Comments

In yet another coup for the Prop 82 Preschool for All campaign, Fictional President Matt Santos endorsed the ballot initiative that will be decided by California voters tomorrow.

Santos called the vote “a historic election," where Californians "have the opportunity to vote to invest in our children and strengthen our schools – by supporting Prop 82. With Prop 82, every child – no matter what his background – whether his parents are rich or poor – whether he lives in Watts or Watsonville, Redding or Riverside, San Diego or San Francisco – will have the same equal opportunity to get a quality preschool education.”

Here's a photo of Santos at the press conference, with union officials in the background.

Posted by Mike Antonucci at 07:50 | Permalink | Comments

California's Yes on 82 campaign scored a political coup today. The campaign, supporting a ballot initiative to provide taxpayer-funded pre-school to every four-year-old in the state, issued a press release with the headline:

President Announces Support for California's Preschool Initiative

What's more, the President will provide a voice-over for Prop 82's campaign commercial. Yes on 82 representatives pronounced themselves "very pleased" to get President Bartlet to sign on.

In other fictional White House news:

Secretary of State Lewis Berryhill left the Bartlet Administration to become Secretary of Defense James Heller in the John Keeler Administration.

President Keeler was incapacitated after a missile hit Air Force One, leaving the United States in the hands of his Vice President, Charles Logan.

President Logan declared martial law in Los Angeles, and was later implicated in the assassination of President David Palmer.

Assassination couldn't stop President Palmer, as he continued his lucrative career as a spokesman for Allstate Insurance.

Posted by Mike Antonucci at 08:31 | Permalink | Comments

Making fun of the Halifax Regional School Board's sexual orientation survey was like shooting fish in a barrel, but I should have known that no matter what exaggeration I might make for comic effect, it would be outdone by real life. This time, it only took one day.

The Toronto District School Board is conducting its own sexual orientation survey of its 30,000 employees. But Toronto gives you even more options:

"In the six-question survey being distributed Monday, teachers, administrators and support staff will be asked to identify themselves as bisexual, gay, heterosexual, lesbian, transgender, transsexual or two-spirited (an aboriginal term)."

I'm sorry, even this is much too limiting. Why no category for metrosexual? Butch or femme? LUG? Bi-curious? Or the cutting-edge technosexual? And why haven't school employee sex surveys caught on in the United States? We're letting Canada out-diversity us!

Posted by Mike Antonucci at 07:54 | Permalink | Comments

Just to balance the drama with comedy, and a little international flavor, we have the Halifax Regional School Board in Nova Scotia, which included a little survey with teacher paychecks this week. The survey asks teachers "to identify themselves as homosexual, bisexual or heterosexual, and then list their name and employee number."

The Nova Scotia Teachers Union is advising its members not to answer that question.

According to the Toronto Star, Superintendent Carole Olsen said the information "will be kept confidential and used to develop ways to recruit demographic groups that are not well represented in the schools."

We'll leave all the debate about the serious privacy issues to others. I'm just wondering how - specifically - this topic even gets brought up at a district staff meeting.

Human Resources Person: "I've been going over the survey results, and we're OK on the gay men and lesbians, but we simply don't have enough bisexuals."

Superintendent: "Go out and get me more bisexuals."

Human Resources Person: "Where?"

Superintendent: "I don't know!"

Human Resources Person: "We had a guy who said he was a bisexual, but I think he just wanted the job."

Superintendent: "I've got another department working on a Bisexual Qualification Test."

Human Resources Person: "You know, if we can get one of the gay men to, um, get together with one of the lesbians, it'll be a two-fer!"

Superintendent: "Two two-fers!"

Human Resources Person: "How about if we count Larry?"

Superintendent: "I thought Larry was straight."

Human Resources Person: "He says he is, but I thought I caught him checking out my butt."

Superintendent: "All right. Ask him out. If he says yes, we'll count him. If he hesitates before saying no, we'll count him as half."

Human Resources Person: "I'm on it."

Superintendent: "If it comes down to it, my husband gets less appealing everyday."

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

There is a Page 1 story in the San Francisco Chronicle on the school district's finances. The fifth installment in a six-part series by reporter Heather Knight, the story begins with some inconvenient facts.

"San Francisco public schools are rolling in money compared with other districts around the state and even the nation. They spend more per student than the vast majority of other large districts in California and even most of the big districts around the country," Knight reports.

She goes on to explain the basics of public school expenditures -- basics that are mostly unknown to the general public and even some media outlets:

"For every dollar it spends on day-to-day operating expenses, 47 cents go to teacher and administrator salaries, 21 cents go to employee benefits and 11 cents go to pay nonteaching employees. Twenty cents pay for a variety of other expenses, such as utilities and professional training.

"Just one penny goes to books and supplies."

Knight no doubt placed that last sentence in its own paragraph for shock value, but it's only a shock because it's a standard tactic of the education establishment to point to decrepit schools (built with bond money) and obsolete textbooks (one percent of the budget) when it wants more operating money (that goes to salaries and benefits).

Knight shines a light on those expenditures as well, showing that skyrocketing costs for retiree health benefits, coupled with declining revenues due to declining enrollment, are divergent trends that will tear the district's finances apart.

But here's the kicker. The school board is complaining that state education money comes with too many strings attached. The next two paragraphs ought to be read and understood by every Californian, and maybe every American taxpayer:

"Jill Wynns, the senior member of the Board of Education and chair of its budget committee, said most of the money will come with restricted uses -- such as buying new playground equipment or musical instruments. She said that's wonderful, but doesn't help pay for newly approved teacher raises or increasingly high health care costs.

"'It's like buying curtains for a house you're burning down,' she said."

There you have it in the proverbial nutshell. Wynns thinks we're wasting the money on playground equipment and musical instruments FOR THE CHILDREN* when we could be giving it to employees and retirees. It's also telling that she would use that particular simile. Who is burning down the district house?

The Talking Heads might be able to solve this problem: "Here's your ticket, pack your bag: time for jumpin' overboard. The transportation is here."

* Turnabout is fair play.

Posted by Mike Antonucci at 09:05 | Permalink | Comments

The Los Angeles school board recently hired a public relations expert in an effort to stave off the mayoral control efforts of Antonio Villaraigosa. The first fruits of the board's new campaign was a meeting on "parental involvement," which featured angry parents flown in (at taxpayer expense) from other cities who complained about... mayoral control! The plan backfired, at least as far as the press was concerned.

The Los Angeles Daily News wrote, "This stunt would be a waste of time and the public's energy no matter who paid for it. But for the LAUSD honchos to think it's OK to let the public pick up the tab for what essentially amounts to a political campaign against reform is dead wrong." The Daily News editors offered some PR help, as well:

"If the district wants some public-image advice, here's some for free: Get serious about fixing your problems, improving education, lowering the dropout rate. Slash the massive bureaucracy and hold staff accountable. Empower parents. Stop kowtowing to the demands of public-employee unions and neglecting the needs of communities."

The Los Angeles Times was equally critical. Some of the out-of-town parents had their own agenda, bashing standardized curriculum and charter schools. And a Los Angeles parent complained that the board could use some lessons of its own on parental involvement. The Times reported, "Her remarks seemed to embarrass the board members — or maybe they finally realized what an embarrassment the afternoon's charade had been."

Posted by Mike Antonucci at 08:57 | Permalink | Comments