Intercepts

The Scripps Howard News Service and Ohio University released a poll of 1,010 adults on the No Child Left Behind Act. Twenty-three percent said they want the law renewed in its current form, 14 percent want it abolished and 49 percent want it amended. Fourteen percent were undecided.

I don't have any objections to the results of the poll, which I think accurately reflects public opinion of the law. Where this poll (and others I have seen) falls short is here:

"About three-quarters of people who said they are 'very familiar' with the law also say they want it altered or abolished, compared to less than half of people who say they are 'not familiar' with the measure."

Why would you even solicit the opinions of people who freely admit they are "not familiar" with something? We currently disaggregate polls by sex, race, ethnicity, age, income and many other factors. Are we reduced to checking the poll numbers of the dihydrogen monoxide banners?

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

The Missouri Supreme Court ruled that the state's public employees, including public school teachers, have the right to bargain collectively, overturning a 60-year-old ruling.

We are not going to see an immediate revolution in Missouri public sector labor relations, however, as the justices' decision "does not compel governments to reach agreements with workers. But when agreements are signed, governments must abide by them."

So what's the big deal? Well, in the private sector, management and labor have separate and distinct aims when it comes to negotiation. That's often true in the public sector as well, but public sector employees have the unique ability to help elect, or defeat, the people sitting across from them at the bargaining table.

So the battles to come in Missouri will occur first at the local ballot box, as Missouri NEA tries to pack school boards with like-minded candidates who will reach agreements with them, which will then become inviolate.

The court decision also fires the opening salvo in an organizing war between Missouri NEA and the non-union Missouri State Teachers Association, which has more members. I suspect the first provision negotiated by any organization under these new collective bargaining rights will be exclusivity.

So keep an eye on Missouri, because it isn't going to be pretty.

Posted by Mike Antonucci at 08:46 | Permalink | Comments

Click here to read:

1) NEA to Revisit Performance Pay
2) Staff Stalls Change to NEA Pension Plan
3) More Than Meets the Eye in Colorado Springs Scandal
4) Canadian Staff Union Strike Shuts Down Airline Reservations
5) Hawaii Faculty Union to Divert Dues to PAC
6) NEA Names Pelosi 2007 Friend of Education
7) Last Week's Intercepts
8) Quote of the Week

Posted by Mike Antonucci at 13:17 | Permalink | Comments

Michigan Education Association President Iris Salters has a novel argument in favor of caps on the number of charter schools in the state. She says limiting the number of charter schools is "the main driver that has proven to spark charter school innovation."

Ms. Salters also informs us, "In traditional public schools, accountability encourages change and promotes higher levels of achievement."

Maybe we should try it!

Posted by Mike Antonucci at 08:37 | Permalink | Comments

While their union president makes a TV appearance to denounce the idea, and union officers from New York and Illinois hold a colloquy about whether what they will have can properly be called tenure, teachers in the Los Angeles Unified School District are taking matters into their own hands and exploring the possibility of converting their schools to Green Dot charter schools.

The Los Angeles Times reports that teachers at two - and maybe as many as six - schools have contacted Green Dot to learn if charter conversion is for them. Some of them are union site representatives.

Green Dot's teachers are unionized, but are not affiliated with the UTLA or AFT or NEA (Correction: Green Dot's union is affiliated with NEA) structure. This complicates union opposition to the charters, as the anti-union barb won't stick so well.

How this all shakes out will be interesting to watch, but I doubt if it will have an effect on the prevailing union attitude about charters, which is, as one New York City teacher put it, "If a school is non-union, we should seek to organize it. If a school is charter, we should seek to reconvert it."

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

Posted by Mike Antonucci at 08:47 | Permalink | Comments

For the last five years, Hawaii Reporter has repeatedly shown what a few dedicated and talented people can do with hard work, a very few bucks, and a nose for news. The independent Internet publication covers every aspect of island life and politics, and its watchdog role is an absolute necessity in what is virtually a one-party state.

Now editor Malia Zimmerman is under subpoena for her confidential sources, e-mails, phone records, notes and photographs, for a story she reported about the failure of Ka Loko Dam on Kauai, which resulted in the deaths of seven people. The subpoena comes from lawyers for landowner James Pflueger, who owns much of the land around the dam, and whose responsibilty for the accident is under investigation.

More is at issue than the details of the case, as Pflueger's lawyers are challenging Zimmerman's status as a journalist and her entitlement to protect her sources, merely because no trees are killed to create her publication.

"It seems to me that if a blogger is a journalist, everyone can produce a blog and never be subject to a subpoena," Pflueger's attorney said. His position received support from University of Hawaii constitutional law professor Jon Van Dyke.

"How does she differentiate herself from the zillions of other people who use the Internet, posting things on MySpace or whatever?" he asked. "If we're going to give special protection to the press, we should have some idea of who's in it and who's not."

Internet reporting doesn't fit neatly into the categories of the past. Case law, regulations and standards will take some time to catch up with the new reality. But anyone who visits HawaiiReporter.com will be hard-pressed to confuse it with a teenager's diary on MySpace. If anything, Hawaii Reporter may be overloaded with news stories. Its breadth is breathtaking.

Spend some time (I often do) on the education page.

To its credit, the Honolulu Star-Bulletin is firmly in Zimmerman's corner, writing, "Courts should be relied upon to use common sense in determining whether a person spreading news and opinions, whether door to door or across the Internet, needs certain rights in order to preserve the integrity of the First Amendment. Zimmerman clearly falls into that category."

If Zimmerman were merely the proverbial "guy sitting in his living room in his pajamas writing," it wouldn't matter what she wrote. It's because she had sources - just like a newsprint reporter - that she's being singled out.

I'm sure Malia and the Hawaii Reporter would appreciate any expression of support, but as the journalists they are, I think they would like it even better if you would just read their stuff.

Posted by Mike Antonucci at 10:54 | Permalink | Comments

Just start measuring fingers.

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

Grammar. Capitalization. Punctuation. Proofreading.

See why they’re important.

Posted by Mike Antonucci at 10:57 | Permalink | Comments

Michigan Education Association President Iris K. Salters met with the editorial board of the Lansing State Journal last week. If the editorial is any indication, maybe she should try another method of reaching out to the press.

Posted by Mike Antonucci at 08:46 | Permalink | Comments

Click here to read:

1) NEA Execs Tell All in EIA Video Intercept!
2) Mom Beats Rap in School Choice Black Market Case
3) No Mystery in NAEP History Scores
4) Union Discord in Colorado Springs
5) Stick 'Em Up
6) From the Oldest Profession to the Second Oldest?
7) Disappearing Edu-Blogs?
8) Stewart Re-Elected President of Chicago Teachers Union
9) Scheduling Note
10) Last Week's Intercepts
11) Quote of the Week

Posted by Mike Antonucci at 13:33 | Permalink | Comments

The June 2007 EIA Video Intercept gives NEA officers a chance to discuss their true feelings about each other.

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

Posted by Mike Antonucci at 20:05 | Permalink | Comments

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

Posted by Mike Antonucci at 09:10 | Permalink | Comments

The video's owner won't allow embedding, so you'll have to use this link to view a short clip of the National Education Association telling "a grim story of the decline of U.S. educational standards over the past few years."

After that, you can check out this clip of NEA helping a couple learn about how bad the Arlington schools are.

Posted by Mike Antonucci at 09:01 | Permalink | Comments

Click here to read:

1) United Teachers of Dade Still Owes $7.2 Million
2) Illinois Union-Backed Bill Shutout 107-0
3) Who Pays for the Cake?
4) School Retirement Time Bomb
5) Career Field of the Future
6) Attention: CTA Readers
7) Last Week's Intercepts
8) Quote of the Week

Note: Blogging will be light and not particularly news-oriented as I will be preparing a special project this week. But check in daily anyway!

Posted by Mike Antonucci at 09:01 | Permalink | Comments

EIA's post on Intercepts last week about Nancy Flanagan, the Michigan Education Association and performance pay received a response from Ms. Flanagan herself.

Check it out here.

Posted by Mike Antonucci at 14:43 | Permalink | Comments

Posted by Mike Antonucci at 08:19 | Permalink | Comments

From this morning's Los Angeles Times:

"More than half of the school's 73 tenured teachers signed petitions this week expressing interest in converting Locke into Green Dot charters. Once verified, the petitions — copies of which were obtained by The Times and checked against a roster of the Locke faculty — would legally allow Green Dot to petition the board for control of the school. Many un-tenured teachers also signed the petitions."

And this:

"A.J. Duffy, president of the union, angrily denounced Green Dot's collection of signatures, saying teachers should have been given a chance to first hear other reform ideas from the union and other groups. He said the union is trying to pull together a counter plan to present to Locke teachers in coming weeks. 'When a staff gets all the information to make a decision … we would support whatever they want, even if we disagree with it,' he said."

At this very moment, there are teams of union PR professionals hard at work coming up with a set of rationalizations explaining why this isn't a two-faced rejection of their claims for card check legislation.

Hat tip: Eduwonk.com

Posted by Mike Antonucci at 07:56 | Permalink | Comments

I hope the Oklahoma Education Association (OEA) received the public relations boost it desired from filing one of those "adequacy and equity" lawsuits, because the decision was an unmitigated legal and financial defeat.

The Oklahoma Supreme Court upheld a lower court decision to dismiss the suit, dismantling the union's arguments. The court's ruling spends much time examining the whole question of whether OEA had standing to file the suit in the first place, even though this is a low threshold to meet. The justices noted:

"With few exceptions, 'constitutional rights are personal and may not be asserted vicariously.' The plaintiffs assert injury to the rights of Oklahoma's students. The OEA has not established that any of its members are Oklahoma students. Although some of the members of the OEA may be parents of Oklahoma students, this is insufficient to establish the OEA's standing to assert injury to the students' rights. The OEA has failed to meet its burden to show that any of its members have a right of their own to assert injury to the rights of Oklahoma's students. As the OEA's members cannot vicariously assert injury to the constitutional rights of Oklahoma's students, neither can the OEA."

Additionally, the court ruled "the plaintiffs have failed to allege any facts that would support a finding that the plaintiff school districts or OEA's members have an interest which is within a constitutionally protected zone...."

Finally, the court ruled on the substance of the case, coming to the inevitable conclusion that the state constitution puts the creation of laws and appropriations in the hands of the legislature, not the judiciary. "However, the important role of education in our society does not allow us to override the constitutional restrictions placed on our judicial authority," the justices declared. "The plaintiffs have failed to present an issue to this Court which is proper for our adjudication."

OEA President Roy Bishop claims the "Oklahoma Supreme Court has clearly and unequivocally stated that it does not have the authority to force the Oklahoma Legislature to comply with the Oklahoma Constitution." Bishop didn't mention the ruling on OEA's standing.

So, for a frivolous skip through the state's court system, OEA's members coughed up a three-year, $5 per member annual assessment. Join the club! (Eventually you can apply for platinum level.)

Posted by Mike Antonucci at 09:04 | Permalink | Comments

In yesterday's EIA Communiqué I wrote an item headlined "Chicago Election Reminds Us What Unions Are For," in which I expressed my belief that the primary mission of teachers' unions is to protect teachers and improve their pay and working conditions. The corollary is that they are interested in student achievement, teacher quality and broader education issues only to the extent they don't conflict with the primary mission.

Some readers took exception, which is hardly unique when I write anything. However, this time the estimable Jay Mathews of the Washington Post provided a timely illustration of what I meant.

In this morning’s column, Mathews examines Performance-Pay for Teachers: Designing a System that Students Deserve, a report produced by the Center for Teacher Quality (CTQ). The difference between this report and similar ones about performance pay is that the CTQ report was written by 18 award-winning teachers.

Let's put the topic aside for a moment and examine the background of one of the authors, Nancy Flanagan of Michigan. She is a recently retired 31-year teaching veteran, 1993 Michigan Teacher of the Year, and worked for two years with the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards and as a consultant with the Michigan Education Association.

Flanagan's blog makes it abundantly clear that she is no closet conservative (not that there's anything wrong with that). But it's also clear that she hasn't been reading her union talking points. Her take on NCLB, for example, runs this way:

"I'm not really sure how I feel about No Child Left Behind, and the one-dimensional campaigns for and against this sprawling legislative mess give me a kind of low-grade headache....

"Getting into two camps, pro and con, doesn't help anyone, especially those ill-served kids. (As for those who just want to see NCLB 'fully funded,' this is the academic equivalent of the Woody Allen joke about dinner in the Catskills: the food is terrible, but the portions are so small.)

"Thus, I can’t get on the Educator Roundtable bandwagon and sign an anti-NCLB petition. Their 'Sixteen Reasons for Dismantling NCLB' are too just too politically one-dimensional for me, although a quick look at their list of partners tells me I'm definitely one of their people."

She also makes a crucial point that I've tried beating into the heads of policymakers and activists for years, to no avail:

"We are not a profession of risk-takers or innovators. We sometimes prefer the mediocre known to the potential of the unknown, and we keep settling for a little extra for everyone rather that shuffling the deck and trying to use our resources to reach our goals." (emphasis in original)

In short, while Flanagan is on the side of the angels (if you're a teacher union supporter), she is not someone who waits for the e-mail blast from headquarters to decide what she thinks.

So it probably surprised her, but not me, that she would hear from the Michigan Education Association about her activities. As she tells Mathews:

"My state union, the Michigan Education Association, called to tell me that I will not be allowed to present at workshops and conferences in the future (something I've been doing for a decade). I am officially persona non grata with the MEA. At the moment, I am feeling pretty brave and bold."

Apparently, MEA members will not have to be subjected to Flanagan's seditious screeds against the sanctity of the single salary schedule.

Ah, how the universe aligns! Yesterday's communiqué also contained an item about Alfie Kohn winning a lawsuit against the Massachusetts Department of Education for violating his First Amendment rights. State officials rescinded an invitation to Kohn to speak at a conference after they learned he would criticize state assessments. The judge awarded $155,000 to Kohn.

Flanagan can even borrow Kohn's press statement about the decision, replacing the bracketed terms appropriately:

"It’s too bad that the [Department of Education] was so committed to its agenda of [high-stakes testing] that it would violate the Constitution to silence those who disagree."

Posted by Mike Antonucci at 11:27 | Permalink | Comments

Former Maine Education Association employee Catherine Crosier was sentenced to six months in federal prison for embezzling more than $45,000 from the union over an 18-month period.

U.S. District Judge John Woodcock was appalled by the crime, telling Crosier during sentencing:

"It was as if you walked into a classroom, marched up to a teacher and grabbed
the teacher’s pocket or pocketbook and took money out of it. Then, you went to
the next classroom and the next classroom and did the same thing."

How does he think the union got the money in the first place?

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

Click here to read:

1) Puerto Rico Representation Election Likely to Go Forward
2) Favorable Ruling for Teamsters in Las Vegas
3) What Liverpool's Laptops Tell Us About School Reform
4) Chicago Election Reminds Us What Unions Are For
5) Good Luck with That
6) Alfie Kohn to Be Paid for Not Speaking
7) Iowa Agency Fee Bill Dies
8) New State Affiliate Executive Directors Named
9) Last Week's Intercepts
10) Quote of the Week

Posted by Mike Antonucci at 14:50 | Permalink | Comments

California legislators are working on a bill that would remove all references to "idiots," "imbeciles" and "lunatics" in state law.

I'll forgo the dozen or so obvious punchlines and simply leave you with this:

Posted by Mike Antonucci at 09:31 | Permalink | Comments

One of my minor fixations is about the origins of holidays, and I was pleasantly surprised this morning to find someone else wondering why so many holidays have lost all meaning, and have devolved into excuses for adults to get hammered.

This piece in the Albuquerque Tribune notes the beginnings of Cinco de Mayo, and laments that it, St. Patrick's Day, Oktoberfest and Fourth of July have all become "drinking holidays."

I would add New Year's Eve and Halloween to that list (and the unofficial Super Bowl Sunday). With Easter and Christmas getting the "spring holiday" and "winter holiday" treatment, it won't be long before we'll need more Memorial Days, because we won't remember anything.

Posted by Mike Antonucci at 10:49 | Permalink | Comments

I haven't been following this story very closely, but the Hawaii State Teachers Association agreed to a contract that includes substantial pay hikes, but also a provision allowing random testing for drugs and alcohol. The contract then went to the state's 13,500 teachers for ratification.

Fewer than 8,500 teachers voted, but they approved the contract with 61% of the vote. (The Honolulu Star-Bulletin seems waaaay too excited about this.)

If I had a vote, I would have rejected the contract. We already have too many laws, rules and restrictions binding good people because of the misdeeds of a few bad people, who don't obey the rules anyway. But let's face facts. The union negotiating team agreed to the provision. The union's board of directors agreed. And now the rank-and-file have agreed, by a wide margin.

So why the caterwauling from HSTA?

"Teachers who voted 'yes' either felt they needed the money or could ill-afford to turn it down and wouldn't be tested positive for drugs so 'So what'," said Hawaii State Teacher Association executive director Joan Husted. "They felt they were being held hostage. Almost no one was happy."

Huh? When you vote down a tentative agreement, it just sends the union back to the negotiating table. The teachers in Anchorage did it several times before they got the deal they wanted.

If the deal made teachers feel "they were being held hostage," what the heck do they need the union for?

Posted by Mike Antonucci at 12:46 | Permalink | Comments

For something that has been in existence for decades, the New York City rubber rooms have really hit the big time. Newspaper articles, a documentary film and, of course, a blog.

Not exactly the Letter from Birmingham Jail, Life in the Rubber Room is more of a prisoner's lament.

Posted by Mike Antonucci at 08:05 | Permalink | Comments

Thanks to the unknown reader who submitted my Falklands War stories to History Carnival 52. Lots of good stuff this week.

Posted by Mike Antonucci at 14:33 | Permalink | Comments

The staff strike at the British Columbia Teachers Federation continues to entertain.

Yesterday BCTF withdrew its petition to the Labour Relations Board to ban picketing in front of its annual convention, scheduled for Friday. The union also postponed the convention indefinitely, spinning it as a conciliatory move designed to jumpstart contract negotiations with its 41 striking employees.

In fact, the real reason was revealed in an e-mail to local presidents from BCTF President Jinny Sims. She wrote that it "became increasingly clear that picket lines at the (convention) were likely regardless of what happened at the LRB [Labour Relations Board]."

But the fun didn't stop there. This morning, the staff union made its own conciliatory gesture by agreeing to suspend picketing and return to work, but informing BCTF that it would institute "work-to-rule" procedures until a settlement was reached.

BCTF responded by - you guessed it - locking out the staff.

The teachers' union issued a press statement saying its employees "seem intent on causing more disruption." You should also notice that the union has taken to sticking a boilerplate paragraph on each of its press releases that details the average staffer's salary, the cost of a particular retirement benefit, and comparing these numbers to the average pay of a classroom teacher.

The staff union called the lockout "a slap in the face."

Posted by Mike Antonucci at 09:04 | Permalink | Comments

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