Intercepts

Utah's lieutenant governor hasn't posted the latest disclosures online yet, but the state media outlets are already reporting the totals spent on Referendum 1, which would create the nation's first statewide school voucher program.

The National Education Association contribution is $3 million, just as EIA reported exclusively back on August 20. There are additional in-kind contributions, tens of thousands from NEA state affiliates, and help from NEA's front group, Communities for Quality Education. There is still a week before the election.

The only shocker so far is that Overstock.com CEO Patrick Byrne and his family have nearly matched NEA's money on the pro-voucher side. They have contributed $2.7 million, according to published reports.

EIA will have full details in next Monday's communiqué.

Posted by Mike Antonucci at 07:59 | Permalink | Comments

The NEA, with a budget this year of $326 million, pleads poverty:

"We are not afraid of being called names by individuals and organizations that have infinitely more money than we will ever have." - NEA Secretary-Treasurer Lily Eskelsen.

Today is the campaign finance filing deadline for Utah's November 6 voucher election. Watch this space for details.

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

Click here to read:

1) Is Reg Weaver Stalling for Obama?
2) "Dumber Than Dirt" and the Phenomenon of "The Guy"
3) Ohio Union "Framed" Teacher Misconduct Series?
4) Invisible Hand Meets Heavy Hand of Food Police
5) Yet Another Blast from the Past
6) Last Week's Intercepts
7) Quotes of the Week

Posted by Mike Antonucci at 16:04 | Permalink | Comments

Having learned that school district consolidation may not actually save money after all, some Maine citizens started a petition drive to repeal the law. The Maine School Boards Association has already endorsed the campaign.

The petition needs 55,087 signatures to be considered by the legislature. If lawmakers do not repeal the law, the question will go before Maine voters in November 2008.

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

The Nation eviscerates Al Shanker and Richard Kahlenberg's Tough Liberal from the left flank.

UPDATE: For the AFTies who wonder if I slept through the Cold War, I have two words... between missions.

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

The school district in Lebanon, Oregon, can boast of its own anonymous blogger. Writing in Lebanon for Truth and Reconciliation, this person is of a type you can find lambasting school districts, businesses, the New York Times, Michael Moore, President Bush, or any one of a million other targets across our great nation. Why is he/she anonymous? Could be a lot of reasons, or none. Who cares?

Kim Fandiño, president of the Lebanon Education Association, that's who.

The LTR blog has been particularly critical of Ms. Fandiño and other employees of the district, to the point where, she claims, there is a valid civil case for libel.

"The district attorney told me the appropriate action would to be to ask the school board to subpoena Google for the records to show who the blogger is," Fandiño said.

Good luck with that. You may find it is more trouble than it is worth.

I don't know who the LTR blogger is. I don't know if he libeled anyone. I don't believe in anonymous blogging, but I think the first anonymous blogger might have been some guy named "Publius." I would suggest, however, that Ms. Fandiño's outrage be taken with a very large grain of salt.

My own run-in with her occurred after publishing a blog item on February 7, 2006, about her public records complaint (I incorrectly identified the state as Pennsylvania). In the story, I spelled her name phonetically.

Sixteen months later, Ms. Fandiño posted a reply in the comments section of that blog entry accusing me of a "racial slur" and a public smear. This led to my explanation, her apology, and a strange back-and-forth between her and an anonymous commenter who I believe is actually the LTR blogger.

The disagreement between Ms. Fandiño and me was assuaged with more dialogue and more information, not with a threat of lawsuits and retribution. Perhaps the same approach could work in Lebanon.

Posted by Mike Antonucci at 08:51 | Permalink | Comments

I have my theory as to why NEA's national endorsement for the Democratic presidential nomination is taking so long, but I thought the purpose of it was to avoid separate regional endorsements by state affiliates.

Anyway, the North Carolina Association of Educators endorsed John Edwards on Monday. Fat lot of good it will do him.

Posted by Mike Antonucci at 08:12 | Permalink | Comments

It's going to be tough for NEA to organize this Minnesota charter school.

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

Click here to read:

1) Utah Anti-Voucher Phone Calls May Be from Out-of-State
2) Utah's $3 Million Question
3) CTA Dealing with Some Internal Unrest
4) Three Quick Questions
5) Another Blast from the Past
6) NCLB May Leave You Limp
7) Last Week's Intercepts
8) Quotes of the Week

Posted by Mike Antonucci at 14:00 | Permalink | Comments

Before being swamped by the Associated Press series on teacher sex abuse (click the related stories links for other episodes in the series), Scott Reeder of Small Newspaper Group had his own devastating series on teacher misconduct.

Although parents will find the numbers alarming, I think they are relatively small considering the incredible number of people working in public education. I suspect there are far fewer criminals working in our public schools than in most other professions. The real outrage lies in the cursory investigations, cover-ups, and failures to punish and decertify admitted offenders that often accompany these cases.

The fear of false accusations would be less of a problem if educators had confidence that the system would conduct a fair and thorough investigation and uncover the truth. Too often, both administration and union are more concerned with their own reputations and liability than with the facts of the case.

It would be unfortunate if these series left the impression that sexual predators are running rampant through our nation's schools. That is clearly not the case. But parents need assurance that the few existing predators are not being shuffled off to another district in the name of legal and public relations expediency.

Posted by Mike Antonucci at 07:39 | Permalink | Comments

Not.

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

There's an awful lot of excitment about the performance pay agreement reached in New York City between Mayor Michael Bloomberg and the United Federation of Teachers. Democrats for Education Reform calls it "a huge breakthrough." Eduwonk says it is "good plan all things considered." The New York Sun believes it is "a breakthrough likely to shift a fierce national debate over how teachers should be paid."

I can't blame people for celebrating what is clearly a political victory for advocates of performance pay, but lost in the champagne and confetti is whether this plan actually gives them what they want - higher pay for high-performing teachers.

Bonus money will be awarded to high-performing schools, where "compensation committees" - made up of two UFT members, the principal and a principal's appointee - will decide who gets the money. "They could choose to distribute it evenly among union members or single out exceptional teachers. They cannot distribute the money by seniority," according to the New York Times.

The compensation committees were obviously the wedge used to get the union buy-in. Two UFT members can block any attempt by principals to award bonus money based on cronyism or favoritism. It is less apparent whether principals will block attempts to award bonus money based on union cronyism or favoritism.

Next is the question of how much support there is for this among the rank-and-file. UFT statements are already taking on a defensive tone. "This shuts the door on the individual merit pay plans that I abhor," said UFT President Randi Weingarten, a sentiment that was echoed by UFT mouthpiece Leo Casey, who wrote yesterday that "we have transformed a negative into a positive, and 'shut the door' on individual merit pay programs."

Others, like the commenters over at NYC Educator, think UFT shut the door after the annoying neighbor was already inside.

This perfectly illustrates the dilemma for unions on this issue, which I discussed last month in the context of the NCLB debates: "A union officer would much rather tell the members, 'We oppose this bill because it contains merit pay' than tell them 'We support this bill because it contains many good things for us, despite the merit pay.'"

Finally, the idea that the New York performance pay plan means we'll see them spread like wildfire across the country is naïve at best. A dose of reality came this morning from Iowa, where the state offered grants to its 364 school districts to test a performance pay system.

Three applied.

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

This is an excellent article about the statewide consolidation of school districts in Maine. Advocates always talk about economies of scale and how consolidation will reduce district expenditures. As this story points out, most of a district's expenditures are personnel costs, and since labor agreements won't allow downsizing after districts merge, the consolidation saves no money at all.

In fact (surprise!) large districts may actually spend more money than several small ones.

So the question to ask in Maine is why wasn't this excellent article written before the consolidation law was passed.

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

There's an effort to redistrict seven schools from Kansas City into the Independence school district in Missouri. As you might expect, there are parents, teachers, administrators and politicians on both sides of the issue. There are debates over funding and racial balance. This morning, there are numerous stories about a group organized by the Kansas City Federation of Teachers to halt the redistricting.

"The truth has to come out about this disingenuous scheme that, at its core, has nothing to do with education," said KCFT President Judy Morgan. "It won't be hard for voters to figure out who's for kids and who's just kidding."

If the redistricting plan has nothing to do with education, neither does the union's opposition to it. KCFT is an AFT affiliate. Independence teachers are represented by an NEA affiliate. No union in its right mind will simply hand over members to its rival.

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

Click here to read:

1) NCLB Conspiracy Theory: Where Left and Right Meet
2) NEA to Take On "Violent and Indecent" TV Programming
3) New Jersey Education Association Staffers Go Private Sector
4) Ohio Education Association Retirees Win Legal Skirmish
5) CTA Affiliate May Bolt Over Higher Ed Vote
6) Union Bashers Loose in Las Vegas
7) Last Week's Intercepts
8) Quotes of the Week

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

The Columbus Dispatch began a four-part series on teacher misconduct with a page one story yesterday. The culmination of a 10-month investigation, the series begins provocatively:

"How can a child rapist still have a teaching license?

Why is a teacher who married his student still in the classroom?

How can a man who has been on trial four times for molesting children
be allowed to teach?

The answer is simple and stunning: Ohio's system to punish rogue
teachers is flawed at all levels -- school, district and state.

It puts the rights of teachers before those of students. It hides
information from parents and potential employers. It allows secret deals with
troubled teachers."

Dispatch editor Benjamin J. Marrison knows the series will anger many, and he lists them: parents, school administrators, lawmakers and the teachers identified in the stories. But he left out the teachers' union, which I guarantee is mounting a campaign to accuse the Dispatch of yellow journalism as I write this.

Keep your eye on Columbus for the next few days, because it's going to get messy.

Posted by Mike Antonucci at 09:29 | Permalink | Comments

The Illinois House overturned a veto by Gov. Rod Blagojevich of a bill requiring a moment of silence at the start of each school day.

This is where lawmakers show a lack of imagination. There is a simple way to boost educator support for this concept: make it an hour of silence.

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

Here's a story that should have teacher advocates cheering:

"One in three teachers in New York will leave the classroom before their fifth year. It is a statistic the president of New York State United Teachers would like to see decline."

Why is this good news? Because turnover has been reduced from half, as has been claimed by NYSUT and its affiliates in 2004 (first paragraph), 2005 (ninth paragraph), 2006 (page 9, paragraph #7), and just last month (second paragraph).

So congratulations to everyone who worked so hard to increase the teacher retention rate in New York. The rest of the country awaits word of the strategies you used to solve this chronic problem.

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

I got a fever, and the only prescription... is more rubber room!

Samuel G. Freedman of the New York Times actually finds a way to compare New York City's teacher reassignment centers - the infamous rubber rooms - to the gulag!

Ah yes, I remember Solzhenitsyn complaining about the full salaries and benefits and the lack of work to do in Ekibastuz. And then there is the ultimate horror.

(WARNING! GRAPHIC CONTENT TO FOLLOW. READER DISCRETION ADVISED.)

Freedman informs us: "Instead of arriving on staggered shifts, as in the past, all 75-plus teachers stay from 8 a.m. until 3 p.m., meaning that the process of signing in or out can take half an hour."

I've notified Amnesty International and the Delta Force. Be brave!

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

Click here to read:

1) Public Education Workforce Hits 10.3 Million
2) Night of the Living Ed
3) Around the States
4) Walk a Mile in Your Shoes
5) Blast from the Past
6) More NCLB 2.0 Names
7) Last Week's Intercepts
8) Quotes of the Week

Posted by Mike Antonucci at 15:14 | Permalink | Comments

That's the question to ask after the Service Employees International Union - like the AFL-CIO before it - decided not to endorse the man who has spent most of the last three years promising unions whatever they want: John Edwards.

Meanwhile, the man the state AFL-CIO president calls "one of the most pro-labor governors in the nation" - Oregon Gov. Ted Kulongoski - was subjected to a boycott of his speech by 70 AFSCME delegates, who were "protesting Kulongoski's agreement to give large pay increases to thousands of state managers, while negotiating much smaller raises for rank-and-file employees."

Posted by Mike Antonucci at 07:17 | Permalink | Comments

If the No Child Left Behind Act is a suitable reason to go on a partial hunger strike, then surely this must qualify as well.

Posted by Mike Antonucci at 09:54 | Permalink | Comments

* The Knights Templar may be exonerated of heresy almost 700 years after they were wiped out by King Philip IV of France and dissolved by Pope Clement V. The Vatican will release a book based on a lost account of the Templars trial that reveals the order's heretical initiation ceremony "mimicked the humiliation that knights could suffer if they fell into the hands of the Saracens."

* The prize for the most unfortunate name for a teachers' union leader has to go to the chairman of the Ceylon Teachers' Union in Sri Lanka: Joseph Stalin Fernando.

* New York City is building low-cost housing for teachers - but many teachers will earn too much to live there.

Posted by Mike Antonucci at 07:32 | Permalink | Comments

The American Federation of Teachers announced yesterday that it had endorsed Sen. Hillary Clinton for the Democratic presidential nomination, which in my mind is about as newsworthy as a headline reading "Airplane Lands Safely." Here's a news flash: She'll get NEA's endorsement, too.

Regardless of the relative merits of the candidates, Hillary was a shoo-in for AFT's endorsement because of the structure and geographic make-up of the union. Almost half of AFT's members come from one state: New York. Most of the rest of the membership resides in large urban locals. AFT does not practice term limits, meaning local presidents tend to hang around for a very, very long time.

It's simple. New York dominates the national union, so Hillary got the nod. But AFT affiliates are largely independent fiefdoms - unlike those of NEA - and not overreliant on AFT for funds or direction. Hence, the Chicago Teachers Union today endorsed Sen. Barack Obama, and AFT Connecticut reiterated its endorsement of Sen. Christopher Dodd. I'm sure AFT's 240 members in North Carolina are all over John Edwards.

The idea that Obama's tepid support for merit pay had anything to do with this is silly. Hillary praised charter schools. And whoever wins the nomination will receive full AFT backing.

The teachers' unions are important because they can put feet on the ground during a political campaign. But the Democratic nomination will not be decided on education or labor issues so it's equally important to have a little perspective.

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

Posted by Mike Antonucci at 13:23 | Permalink | Comments

Where does an attorney general go when he needs legal advice? To the experts, of course.

Posted by Mike Antonucci at 07:20 | Permalink | Comments

Click here to read:

1) What's Happening at Education Minnesota?
2) Solidarity Easier When Members and Money Not Involved
3) Reader Names for NCLB 2.0
4) No Cheesecake Substitute Teachers for NEA This Year
5) Scheduling Note
6) Last Week's Intercepts
7) Quote of the Week

Posted by Mike Antonucci at 14:37 | Permalink | Comments

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