However, in exchange for this exclusive arrangement, Aetna does make payments to NYSUT. According to the Opportunity Plus prospectus, "NYSUT is reimbursed for direct out-of-pocket expenses incurred in the promotion of the Opportunity Plus program up to a maximum of $75,000 per year. In addition, the Company will pay NYSUT between $30,000-$42,000 per month from 1994 through 1998. NYSUT has indicated to the Company that it intends to use these amounts to enhance benefits to the membership." This arrangement sheds some light on endorsement agreements that are far from uncommon among union affiliates. An annual payment of $435,000 to $579,000 to an affiliate the size of NYSUT is not chump change. It also suggests that the way to determine union income from these arrangements is to avoid the vague and convoluted union documentation, and go instead to the data of the private firm offering the benefit, who must explain the arrangement to its stockholders.

+ In what should become a model for think tanks in other states, a group of public policy experts in Wisconsin put together a study of the contract between the Milwaukee School District and the Milwaukee Teachers’ Education Association. Milwaukee has been the scene of labor unrest recently. Howard Fuller, director of the Institute for the Transformation of Learning at Marquette University, George A. Mitchell, a public policy consultant, and Michael E. Hartmann, director of research at the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute, co-authored the study which was featured in the October 1 issue of Education Week. The authors concluded that contract provisions are known by only a handful of people and rarely improve academic achievement. The authors recommend collective bargaining take place in public to increase accountability.

The report is available from Mr. Fuller’s organization (414) 288-5775.

The study also notes that after the union’s executive director met with one of the report’s authors the union staff declined to respond to questions and refused to provide copies of important documents and publications. That type of attitude promises to keep EIA in business for a long time....

+ A letter to the editor of the Detroit News warmed my heart. It was from Tom Lukshaitis, president of the Sandusky Education Association. He wrote, in part: "As a local president of a Michigan Education Association (MEA) bargaining unit, I can honestly say the only time I’m aware of what the brass in our organization gets in salary is when it is reported in the newspapers.

"In the past, I’ve asked for the specific salaries of many different leaders in our association. All I ever received was a very intricate salary schedule with many different levels to go along with salary steps. The decision as to what each of our executives make is not made by or reported to the general membership.... I believe in what our union stands for. The office and field workers of the MEA try their best to help the constituents. Unfortunately, MEA leaders have allowed the organization to become more important than the purpose for which it stands. It appears that our execs have spent considerable time promoting their importance, instead of spending time on what is important."

+ The Washington Education Association must be feeling the heat of multiple lawsuits and campaign finance investigations. Their web page features a series of attacks on the Evergreen Freedom Foundation (EFF), the organization whose stellar work uncovered the irregularities in the first place. WEA’s computer thesaurus is evidently operating at optimal speed, as the union claims that because EFF’s facts have been "inflammatory, histrionic, far-fetched and grossly exaggerated, we chose not to respond directly..." (Where have I heard that "exaggerated" and "chose not to respond" phrase before? Hmmm...)