A much milder resolution that would have allowed NEA to aid local and state affiliates in negotiating performance pay provisions into teacher contracts was resoundingly defeated at the 2000 union convention. The ability of AFT to issue such a resolution is more indicative of a difference in governance structure and representation with NEA than it is of philosophy on pay issues. Nevertheless, the AFT resolution includes language that would never fly at an NEA convention, including a list of the limitations of the traditional salary schedule (e.g. "does not reward additional skills and knowledge that benefit children," "does not respond to market forces," "has not produced salaries for teachers that are competitive in the current job market," et al.). The full text of the resolution is available at:

http://www.aft.org/edissues/teacherquality/profcomp4tchrs.htm

+ Alfie Kohn’s Spaceship Lands in Minnesota. Alfie Kohn, author of "The Case Against Standardized Testing" and other such fare, visited Earth from his usual residence on the Planet Mongo when he addressed attendees of Education Minnesota’s Collective Bargaining Conference two weeks ago. He told teachers that rewards and sanctions do not work in the classroom, and they do not work in the workplace. According to Kohn, teachers are motivated by student achievement, not money. "Merit pay advocates say, `You could be doing a better job, but you decided not to, so I will bribe it out of you,’" he said.

Evidently on the Planet Mongo all compensation is governed by a universal salary schedule, in which payments to Mr. Kohn and others are made according to what the government authorities on Mongo consider to be "fair" and "equitable." In fact, the Mongo book publishers and videotape distributors pay the same amount whether the books and tapes sell or not. They merely acknowledge the intrinsic motivation displayed and pay up accordingly. Unfortunately, Mr. Kohn is forced to lecture here on Earth because Education Mongo doesn’t pay enough.

+ Independent Union to Open Charter School. The Akron Education Association, the largest unaffiliated teachers’ union in the nation, is planning to open a charter high school. "Ironically, our ultimate goal would be to put ourselves out of business by putting charter schools out of business," AEA Vice President Neil Quirk told the Akron Beacon Journal. Now there’s a recipe for success.

+ NEA-Alaska Staffers Go Back to Work. Both the NEA-Alaska Board of Directors and the members of NSO-Alaska ratified a new contract, putting an end to the staff’s three-week strike. Details of the agreement were scarce, lending credence to reports that the staff didn’t do too well. A minimum pay increase was included (averaging about 1 percent annually over the four-year life of the contract), along with an early retirement incentive, and a commitment to reduce health benefit costs, which ultimately means either a cut in benefits or an increase in staff contributions. The staff is said to have lost other benefits as well, though EIA could not confirm this. Both sides also agreed to establish a joint committee to "heal the rifts" caused by the strike.

+ On the Rally Bandwagon. Last Thursday, about 500 Wyoming teachers and their supporters rallied on the steps of the state Capitol in Cheyenne. The same day, 5,000 Hawaii ralliers showed up at the state Capitol in Honolulu. The Pennsylvania rally for March 4 in Harrisburg will include hand bells for all participants, an idea swiped from a Massachusetts rally last year. An EIA Profile in Courage award will be granted to the first teachers’ union that holds a statehouse rally for higher pay on April 15.

+ Questions Unasked. If you read a newspaper at all last week, you know that former Vice President Al Gore gave his first lecture at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism. And since America is a place with a constitutionally protected freedom of the press, with independently owned and operated news services and newspapers, with reporters who come from diverse backgrounds, it was only natural that we got... about a hundred stories with exactly the same angle, namely, is Al Gore’s class "off the record?" (Answer: Who cares?)

How about these questions instead: Why is Al Gore teaching a graduate class in journalism? What certification and qualifications does he have? Was he fingerprinted and background checked before being offered the job? Who negotiated the terms of his employment? Does he make the same amount of money as all first-year lecturers at Columbia? If none of these questions interest you, how about this one: If Al Gore can teach journalism in a prestigious graduate school, why can’t he teach civics in a New York City public high school?

+ When Contracting Out is Politically Correct. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, Berkeley High School (yes, that Berkeley) "has scrapped its government-issue cafeteria food for gourmet, organic fare from five local restaurants that deliver to campus every day." Students are now treated to hormone-free chicken, pesticide-free apples, and organic herb pizza. The story does not mention why for-profit businesses are allowed to operate in a public high school, whether the employees of The Good Food Cafe or the Long Life Vegi House are unionized or state-certified, or why taxpayers are subsidizing the culinary choices of only about 100 of the school’s 3,400 students (the rest still prefer fast food). Isn’t that organic cherry-picking?

+ We’re History. Juliet E.K. Walker, a "history" professor at the University of Illinois, is offering a course called "History 298: Oprah Winfrey, The Tycoon." The course description tells us that Winfrey reflects "the extent to which the celebrity as a phenomenon in American life and culture has a voice as influential as other ideological, societal and political institutions in impacting the global economy and transnational and cultural practices." Students in the class will examine Winfrey’s television show, web site and her "O" magazine. Too bad Frederick Douglass never had his own talk show, web site or diet book. If he had, students today might even know who he was.

+ Notes. 1) The next EIA Communiqué will be sent next Monday, February 19, even though it is the Washington’s Birthday holiday. The communiqué after that will not appear until Monday, March 5.

2) I don’t usually recommend TV shows, especially ones I haven’t seen myself yet, but I encourage those of you with an interest in the subject matter to tune in tonight to the History Channel’s "Secret Societies," which examines the effect of conspiracy paranoia on world affairs and features my old boss, Dr. Daniel Pipes, an expert on the Middle East and author of two books on the phenomenon, Conspiracy and The Hidden Hand.

3) A number of readers responded to last week’s item on Utah’s paycheck protection bill. First, contrary to my surmise, Utah would not be the first state with both paycheck protection and a right-to-work law. Idaho and Wyoming already hold that distinction. Second, the Utah bill is not traditional paycheck protection legislation, which usually requires unions to gain each member’s annual permission to deduct political contributions. The Utah bill would instead ban payroll deductions for the purpose of PAC contributions.

+ EIEIO Starts Its Own Paycheck Protection Plan. Fearful of being targeted by paycheck protection legislation, EIEIO decided to get ahead of the curve. "I was walking down the street, examining my paycheck," explained EIEIO member Mike Antonucci, "when a guy in a big black sedan pulled up next to me and said, `That’s a nice paycheck. It’d be a shame if anything happened to it.’ Then he sped off."

Perplexed, Antonucci went home and put his check on the nightstand. "When I woke up the next morning, my paycheck had a big hole in it," he said. "Apparently someone had thrown a brick through it." He immediately signed up for EIEIO’s paycheck protection plan. "Since putting the plan in place, acts of paycheck vandalism have fallen off dramatically," boasted EIEIO President Mike Antonucci.