But the Chronicle appears benignly ignorant of the extent education policy is already decided by labor negotiations. The Pacific Research Institute’s timely release of its study on collective bargaining in the state shows the effect teacher contracts have on curriculum, accountability and flexibility. Contract for Failure: The Impact of Collective Bargaining on the Quality of California’s Schools is available from PRI (www.pacificresearch.org).

CTA maintains it only wants a voice in administration issues, but AB 2160 is an attempt to mandate statewide through the law the type of leverage it already has in a great number of school districts due to campaign contributions. CTA is by far the largest single contributor to school board races in the state. In the current election cycle, it dropped almost $570,000 in the coffers of some 200 school board candidates -- the most prominent of these being Valerie Fields, who lost her seat on the Los Angeles school board despite contributions of over $116,500 from CTA alone. This figure does not include indirect contributions or additional contributions made by CTA’s large local affiliates in San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego. For example, CTA donated about $115,000 to political action committees belonging to 12 of its local affiliates. Most of this money presumably went to school board candidates in those areas.

Other tens of thousands of CTA dollars were banked by county Democratic (and some Republican) parties, in addition to the $25,000 CTA gave the state GOP and the $594,000 it gave the state Democratic party. Additional thousands went directly to candidates for statewide and legislative offices. The idea that somehow the teachers’ union is lacking a "voice" in any aspect of state or local policymaking is some sort of sick joke.

2) Districts Hunt Down Out-of-District Students Like Common Criminals. Last August 27, EIA reported on "the black market in school choice." The item detailed problems in Connecticut and New York with parents who were falsifying their place of residence in order to get their kids into suburban schools. "These parents also want better learning environments for their children, but they can’t afford or won’t pay tuition," wrote reporter Mydria Clark of the Hartford Courant. Well, the story has popped up yet again, this time highlighting the extraordinary measures administrators will take to keep kids out of their supposedly open-to-everyone public schools.

In Linwood, New Jersey, the school board hired a $200-per-hour private investigator to "gather evidence against students who are suspected to be living outside the district, including following them to see where they spend the night, if necessary," reported the Associated Press. Other northern New Jersey districts post private eyes at school bus stops to trail students on their way home. The Linwood district claims to have nailed 15 "illegal students" this year alone. Unfortunately for the district, 10 other students filed complaints after being wrongly accused of living outside the district.

In East Providence, Rhode Island, the district attendance officer took tips from teachers and school bus drivers to investigate some 27 suspected "illegal students." Robert P. Rodericks admits he sometimes waits for a parent to pick up his kid, and then he follows them home.

Yep, no money for teachers, books, or maintenance, but enough in the budget to hire two-bit gumshoes to follow your kid home on the bus, just in case he lives on the wrong side of the tracks. Bull Connor would be proud.

3) TSTA President Loses His Seat in Texas House. The last couple of years have not been great for Texas State Teachers Association President Ignacio Salinas Jr. His efforts to forestall membership losses through reduced dues led to a huge budget gap, which in turn led to staff reductions, regional office closures, financial oversight from NEA, and subsequently, renewed membership losses. An attempt to merge with the Texas Federation of Teachers is poking along, but without the support of TFT’s largest locals. About the only thing that Salinas had going his way was his election to the Texas House of Representatives. While there, Salinas represented TSTA at least as much as his own constituents.

Unfortunately for Salinas, his solid base was redistricted away from him, and he was forced to run in a much-altered district against two challengers: rancher Ryan Guillen and attorney Adolfo Campero Jr. When the results came in last Tuesday night, Salinas had finished third with 30 percent of the vote. Guillen and Campero will now enter a runoff for the seat.

With his union a mess and his legislative seat lost, there’s only one place left for Salinas. You guessed it... he’s running for a seat on the NEA Executive Committee.

4) Hawaii Union to Institute Phony Endorsement Reform. The Hawaii State Teachers Association held its annual convention last weekend, and announced amidst much fanfare that this year it would endorse political candidates based on their support for public education, rather than party affiliation.

This may come as welcome news to moderate state Republicans, but it’s awfully confusing to veteran union observers like EIA. Haven’t NEA, HSTA and other affiliates maintained all along that they weren’t partisan organizations? Haven’t we been told time and again that support for public education was the first, second and third reason for candidate endorsements? So what needs reforming? What good is a reform without any acknowledgment that anything was wrong in the first place?

While HSTA was celebrating its new methods for open debate on political issues, it was at the same time, well, closing debate on political issues. Union delegate Thomas E. Stuart introduced a new business item that would have called on the union to "refrain from endorsing any candidate for political office or contributing member dues to his/her campaign." Before he received a chance to speak, Stuart was interrupted by a motion to "object to consideration." More than two-thirds of the delegates then voted not to debate the proposed policy.

5) Some Mountain States Will See Large Dues Increases. It isn’t always easy to make simple comparisons between the dues levels of various NEA state affiliates, yet one thing is becoming clear: some affiliates in the Midwest and Mountain states will propose large hikes for the 2002-2003 school year.

NEA itself is calling for a $4 increase for next year, to $130, and its affiliates in Kansas, Colorado, Utah, Texas and Arizona will all propose increases of $4 or less in their state dues. But some affiliates are shooting for the moon. The South Dakota Education Association passed a $31 increase this year, and will ask for $9 more next year. New Mexico ($18), Nebraska ($12) and North Dakota ($19) will all ask for double-digit increases. But the largest boost next year will go to the Wyoming Education Association. Having just completed a $7 increase this year, the WEA will push its dues to $325 next year -- a $39 increase.

Missouri NEA is offering $89 first-year dues to new members who belonged to a student teacher organization. But their second year state union dues will climb to $275.

The union claims it had no intention of causing any teacher financial loss, noting that "neither the local association nor the NSEA asked for any of the overpayment of salaries to be paid back..."

7) AFL-CIO Rules Against AFT’s Organizing of University Employees in Maryland. The AFL-CIO ruled that the American Federation of Teachers cannot enter into representation elections for some 4,000 service and office workers in Maryland’s public university system. The union umbrella group found those employees would be best represented by the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) and banned any AFT attempts to organize them.