* "Holding on to all salary increases and obtain more so LAUSD teachers can compete with any district in Los Angeles County in salary and benefits."

* "Repealing Social Security offset and windfall provisions."

* "Restoring due process for non-permanent teachers."

* "Building a partnership with parents to fuel UTLA’s political machine and insure victory for its causes and issues."

* "Constantly fighting LAUSD for the right of teachers to establish standards for its (sic) profession."

More money and more political power. If only Higuchi had given it a fancy name like "the new old unionism" he might have gotten himself a gig at the National Press Club.

+ Where Have All the Portals Gone? Sometimes you go looking for one story and find another. Last week, the New York Post reported that the United Federation of Teachers was urging its 80,000 members to boycott Staples office supply stores because the chain hires non-union, out-of-state contractors. This news sent me to the EIA archives, where I found this nugget from the April 19, 1999 communiqué: "AFT has a business arrangement with Batnet1, a full-service Internet provider. Through the company’s `Affinity Marketplace,’ AFT members can shop on-line and receive a rebate for anything purchased in the members-only commerce area. Batnet1 has partnerships with a number of vendors. For each sale to a member, AFT receives a commission.

"Last week, OfficeMax, Inc. announced that it will be the exclusive office products retailer to Batnet1’s partners, including AFT. With 852 stores in 49 states, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, it’s hardly surprising that OfficeMax should be a front-runner for AFT’s business. Nor is it surprising that AFT should enter into an agreement to supplement dues income. What may be surprising is that AFT would accept a commission on sales to a store with 39,000 employees -- not a single one of whom is subject to a collective bargaining agreement."

Interesting juxtaposition, but it required an update to learn if AFT’s partnership with Batnet1 was still in effect, now two-and-a-half years later. Clearly the place to check was AFT’s web portal. Launched with much fanfare last November, MyAFT.org was designed to allow members to "stay in touch with their union, connect with the labor community and take advantage of benefits negotiated specially for union members." The portal was to provide news, entertainment, stock tracking, lesson plans, and access to discounts on all sorts of merchandise.

Except there is no more MyAFT.org. That URL takes you to AFT’s home page, as does the link from inside WorkingFamilies.com, the AFL-CIO web portal. As for Batnet1, when last head from it was seeking a merger due to hard financial times. "We’re basically back to the valuation we had as a startup," Batnet1 CEO and founder Christopher B. Swenson told Business Week last April.

The apparent demise of the AFT web portal is significant, as NEA has been developing its own web portal for a year. OWL.org will be officially launched in October. So EIA repeats this statement from an item in the November 6, 2000 communiqué titled "NEA and AFT Portals: Already Obsolete?": "The question is whether both unions are expending a lot of time and resources on an outdated concept. Some large web portals have run into severe financial difficulties. It remains to be seen if this is a broader trend. If it is, will the unions be able to buck that trend?"

+ The Black Market in School Choice. Reporter Mydria Alexis Clark of the Hartford Courant discovered that some Connecticut school districts are having problems with out-of-town students attending schools without paying their tuition. "Most people don’t associate public education with tuition," Clark wrote, "but school districts have offered the option for years. Many of those who take advantage of the choice fear their children are not getting a good education in urban school districts. Those who pay, however, are greatly outnumbered by parents who illegally send their children to other districts. These parents also want better learning environments for their children, but they can’t afford or won’t pay tuition."

This story sent me back to the EIA archives, where I found this May 3, 1999 report of a New York Times story about public schools and out-of-town students. "Generally, tuition-paying students are admitted only in classes where there are vacancies," reporter Joseph Berger wrote. "Most districts screen out students with academic or behavioral problems." Schools turning some students away, charging others tuition, and then cherry-picking? They would never allow something like that in, say, Milwaukee or Cleveland.

+ Ontario Union President Goes Over the Edge. It only took a short trip back to the EIA archives to find last week’s story about the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario and its resolution to lobby school boards to fund gay and lesbian materials for use in the classroom. EIA wondered how the resolution would interact with the province’s recent $3,500 annual tuition tax credit, which parents can use to send their children to any school of their choice. Evidently the thought also occurred to Earl Manners, president of the Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation. In a speech to union members, Manners said the tax credit may be supporting "racism, homophobia and sexism" by allowing parents the financial means to send their children to private schools.

"I believe that if you scratch the surface of some of these private schools, you will find homophobic beliefs," said Manners, whose remarks were reported by the National Post. "Those schools do not reflect the diversity of this province and, in some of them, their views regarding male-female roles do not live up to the standards that this country and this province has (sic) set."

Private school supporters called Manners’ comments insulting. "In the name of tolerance, he has denigrated a large percentage of the population," said Gary Duthler, executive director of the Federation of Independent Schools in Canada. "This is a man who is going to teach the children of Ontario tolerance. He ought to be ashamed of himself."

+ NEA-AFT Helping to Pay for Texas Merger Process. EIA reported back on April 2, 2001, that the NEA-affiliated Texas State Teachers Association and the AFT-affiliated Texas Federation of Teachers were to hold preliminary merger talks. On June 18, EIA reported the two unions agreed on a schedule of 20 days of talks between now and June 2002. The August talks were completed last weekend in Austin, aided by Thoughtbridge, a private consulting firm that provides facilitators for conflict resolution (isn’t contracting-out wonderful?). Evidently Thoughtbridge’s services don’t come cheaply, because NEA and AFT chipped in to help pay the fee, which should greatly please you folks in New Jersey, Michigan, Illinois, Iowa, Virginia, and all the other states where merger is an unpopular subject.

+ Florida Union Puts Up Bush-Bashing Billboards. On May 29, EIA alerted you that the Florida Education Association planned to spend $25,000 to put up billboards to further the union’s agenda. Last week the first ones went up, reading: "Wanted: Teachers and support personnel for Florida public schools. Below average salary, overcrowded classrooms, benefits reduced annually. Apply to Governor Jeb Bush." Yep, that should help with the teacher shortage.

+ Nebraska Papers Learn About Union Rally. Last week, the Lincoln Journal Star and the Omaha World-Herald published stories about the upcoming rally by the Nebraska State Education Association for higher pay. But you, dear reader, already knew this from the August 13 communiqué. EIA now adds the news that NEA Vice President Reg Weaver will address the rally, where NSEA delegates will vote on whether to organize a petition drive to raise the state sales tax.

+ EIA Web-Site Update. Good news for those of you who have been having trouble with EIA’s new web-site. The site may not be uniform from browser to browser, but diligent work last week led to completely normal-looking results with all versions of both Microsoft and Netscape browsers. Take another visit to http://members.aol.com/educationintel/ and try it out. If you still have difficulties (Linux and Mac users reported problems last week), please let me know. Include your operating system and browser type when you write.

+ Note. The state fair is in town, and whenever livestock enter the city, I head up north to the Ashland, Oregon, Shakespeare Festival. The next communiqué will appear on Tuesday, September 4.