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1) Students Don’t
Know Where We Are or Where We’ve Been.
Everyone has an opinion about when it all
started to go wrong, but a strong contender is when history and geography
were replaced by “social studies.” National Geographic performed a public
service last week by informing us, once again, how far we have fallen.
For those of you who
missed the stories, the organization surveyed people between the ages of
18 and 24 to learn how much they knew about geography. Fewer than one in
five could find Iraq, Iran or Afghanistan on a map. Only 3 in 10 could
find New Jersey or the Pacific Ocean. “If our young people can’t find
places on a map and lack awareness of current events, how can they
understand the world’s cultural, economic and natural resource issues that
confront us?” asked National Geographic Society President John Fahey, in
what immediately qualifies as the understatement of the year.
Meanwhile, the
history news isn’t much better. The new history curriculum in
Massachusetts is being criticized for being “dry and jammed with facts”
and “too focused on American government and citizenship.” The Bergen
Record led a recent story with “Does every New Jersey student really
need to know the three eras of the Roman Empire?”
Yes, they do.
Especially the last era.
2) The Pitfalls
of Reporting About Teachers’ Unions.
EIA regretfully admits to a perverse
satisfaction concerning the following examples of what happens when
reporters dive into the depths of teacher union internal operations
without an aqualung – namely, some way to report true scandal or
wrongdoing without the benefit of true disclosure. These two stories did
not appear in the EIA Communiqué and you will soon realize why.
The first was written
by Bernadette Malone in the November 11 National Review. In a story
about the Florida gubernatorial campaign, Malone wrote that the Florida
Education Association mortgaged a building and used the $1.7 million
gained to support the candidacy of Bill McBride. FEA President Maureen
Dinnen apparently confirmed it, and National Review published the
story. Afterwards, FEA denied the details about the mortgage, with FEA
Chief of Staff Aaron Wallace calling Malone’s depiction of the union
“wildly inaccurate.”
In a reply published
in the November 25 National Review, the two sides appear to have
reached a compromise about the story. Malone admits that FEA’s version may
be true, but that “it’s difficult to tell from public records” and that
the story itself is “all the more difficult to understand” given Dinnen’s
confirmation. FEA also backtracked a little. Malone quotes union spokesman
Mark Pudlow as saying that “Maureen was probably a little confused that
day,” and that “She really just knows the broad outline of things.”
Well, if Dinnen
doesn’t know how union finances work, there isn’t much hope of trying to
explain it to readers in a 2,000-word magazine article. The point is that
FEA committed itself completely to the McBride campaign for six months. It
spent members’ money, used members’ resources, and deployed members’ staff
on behalf of the Democratic candidate. For that it got a slim victory in
the primary over Janet Reno and a humiliating loss to Gov. Jeb Bush in the
general election. The effect on FEA’s membership market share will be more
debilitating than any foreclosure would have been.
The second story was
written by Valerie Strauss and Justin Blum of the Washington Post.
It involved the resignation of Washington Teachers’ Union President
Barbara Bullock, Treasurer James Baxter, Bullock’s assistant and Bullock’s
driver (!) after an AFT accountant discovered “financial improprieties,”
including a dues overcharge of $144 per member this summer.
Strauss and Blum are
both excellent reporters, but it was amusing to read their November 23
story headlined “Teachers Union Slow to Repay Members,” which reads more
like a list of things they couldn’t find out rather than a newspaper
story.
The union told the
Post that members would quickly be reimbursed, but not much else:
* “But several
teachers, speaking on the condition they not be named, said this week that
union officials have not responded to their phone calls seeking
reimbursement. And they complained that the union has applied the
overcharge to future dues payments rather than repaying it outright.”
* “In an Oct. 28
letter, interim union President Esther S. Hankerson urged union members
not to talk to the news media about the financial problems and said they
should instead direct reporters to her or the federation. Hankerson has
not returned more than a dozen calls to her office by reporters, and
someone who answered Hankerson’s cell phone this week told a reporter that
she had the wrong number.”
* “Bullock, who had
been president since 1993, reached by phone, declined to comment. She also
declined to provide the name of her attorney.”
* “Officials gave
varying estimates yesterday on the union’s membership…”
* “Under federation
rules, the union is supposed to conduct an internal audit every two years.
The last time it did so was in 1995, [AFT spokesman Alex] Wohl said.”
* “He also said the
Washington Teachers’ Union fell behind in its dues payments to the AFT
earlier this year and that a payment plan had to be established to obtain
back dues. Wohl said the Washington union eventually caught up in its
payments, but he could not explain why it fell behind.”
The Post
reporters’ frustration with the union stonewall is evident from their
writing, but will that frustration change to zeal to get to the bottom of
it? We’ll see. 3) Anti-War Resolution Headed to a
Union Meeting Near You. On
October 14, EIA reported on the adoption of a “Resolution Against War on
Iraq” by the California Federation of Teachers. The resolution read:
WHEREAS, the United
States and Britain have been bombing Iraq on a virtually continuous basis
since the end of the Gulf War,
WHEREAS, the Bush
administration has presented no credible evidence that Iraq has intentions
of harming the citizens of this country or that Iraq presents a threat to
the United States, and
WHEREAS, the Bush
administration is seeking any pretext to overthrow the government of a
sovereign nation, in violation of international law, and
WHEREAS, a war with
Iraq would require the redirection of vital resources and funds to a
destructive, senseless, and illegal goal while further strengthening an
administration that has restricted the civil liberties of its citizens, and
WHEREAS, this
administration is using the so-called War on Terrorism to distract the
American people from the vital issues they confront,
THEREFORE, be it
resolved that the California Federation of Teachers goes on record as
strenuously opposing the Bush administration=s
march toward war with Iraq,
AND be it further
resolved that the California Federation of Teachers urge its members and
affiliates to get involved with organizations working toward stopping the
Bush administration=s
march toward war with Iraq.
The resolution is now
making its way around the more progressive teacher union locals in the
nation and will likely appear as a new business item at the next National
Education Association Representative Assembly next July in New Orleans.
In addition to the
California Federation of Teachers, the resolution was also adopted by the
NEA-affiliated Oakland Education Association and was the subject of
considerable debate by the representatives of the Madison Teachers, Inc. (MTI)
in Wisconsin. The MTI representatives adopted a measure to place the motion
before the rank-and-file members between December 2 and 4.
4) The Return of
the Black Market in School Choice.
EIA has reported on the black market in
school choice phenomenon five previous times, beginning in August 2001, and
the issue does not seem to be going away. Parents across the country are
bending the rules – and in some cases, breaking them openly – to get their
children into better public schools. School districts are reacting – and in
some cases, overreacting – to put an end to these efforts. The latest cases
are noteworthy because of the people involved.
Rick Niemira of
Ridgeville, South Carolina, rented a mobile home in nearby Givhans and
claimed it as his primary residence, in order to place his three children in
the superior Dorchester County school system. Niemira’s idea wasn’t all that unusual. The
district estimates that one of every 10 students it enrolls does not meet
residency requirements. What makes Niemira’s story unique, and what
ultimately got him caught, is that he is the mayor of Ridgeville. “We did
not try to sneak our kids in. We didn’t try to hoodwink the system. We did
what we thought we had to do. I thought we had met their requirements,”
Niemira told the Charleston Post & Courier. The newspaper also
reported that the most common response of parents who are caught is: “This
is America! You can’t tell me where to send my child to school.”
Our second black
marketeer is Katha Pollitt, columnist for the left-wing political commentary
magazine The Nation. Pollitt last became an object of interest when
she wrote about her own negative reaction when her daughter wanted to fly
the American flag after 9/11. Ms. Pollitt’s daughter again was the subject
of her dismay, described in this morning’s New York Times under the
headline, “Public School Confidential.”
“Manhattan’s public
schools may be understaffed and underfunded,” Pollitt writes, “but at least
they’re egalitarian in their admissions policies. Aren’t they?
Unfortunately, not really.”
Pollitt describes the
extraordinary efforts parents undertake to place little Johnny or Jane in
the best schools: they get friends to put in a good word, write “sycophantic
letters,” promise to do volunteer work for the parents association, or even
“fake an address in a district.”
Why would a good
progressive go through all this bother? “Given the state of the public
schools, we parents don’t have much choice but to pocket our qualms, if we
have them, and knock ourselves out,” she writes.
5) AFT Takes Step
to Organize Child Care Workers.
The American Federation of Teachers has folded the Center for the Child Care
Workforce into the union, reestablishing the organization as the hub of its
new project, the Child Care Workforce Alliance (CCWA). The organization had
been a research and advocacy group for child care workers. The new CCWA will
offer AFT associate membership to pre-K and child care employees.
“Organizing and mobilizing a diverse group of advocates to speak with one
voice is the logical next step toward improving child care and early
childhood education,” said AFT President Sandra Feldman.
Employees who choose to
join will receive AFT child care publications, a subscription to the union’s
monthly organ, American Teacher, and access to the union’s member
discount services.
6) NEA Rankings
& Estimates Report Serves Its Purpose.
The National Education Association decided
to release updated teacher salary and school funding statistics twice a
year, rather than annually. Whatever the numbers, the aim of Rankings &
Estimates is to keep the issue of teacher salaries on the public radar
and persuade Americans that these salaries are too low.
If that seems harsh,
ask yourself: What is the average police officer’s salary? Where does your
state rank on the firefighter wage scale? If you don’t know, it’s because no
one has taken on the task of compiling these figures and presenting them to
your state’s newspapers in finished form.
So, while the typical
headline reads the predictable “Teacher salaries stagnant” or “State teacher
pay falls from 18th to 20th,” the most critical
long-term information goes unnoticed. For example: enrollment up 1.0
percent, number of teachers up 1.7 percent. As years pass, the difference
between the two figures will grow. The U.S. Department of Education, in its
publication Projections of Education Statistics to 2011, predicts
what will happen if current trends continue.
In 2011, K-8 public
school enrollment nationwide will be one percent lower than it is today.
However, the same report tells us that at current hiring levels we will have
10 percent more teachers in 2011 than we do today. In raw numbers, it’s even
more ridiculous. By 2011, the U.S. government says we will have 309,000
fewer children in public elementary schools, but we will have 184,000
more public elementary school teachers.
EIA plans to conduct a
betting pool: Name the month and year we see the first story on a “teacher
glut.”
7) Montana Doesn’t
Learn Ohio Strike Lesson. The
level of rancor in Billings, Montana, where teachers remain on strike, has
not approached that of the recently settled strike in Maple Heights, Ohio
(see the October 7 EIA Communiqué). Still, some of the more
troublesome aspects of that strike are also appearing in Billings.
The Maple Heights
Teachers Association posted a “scab list” on its web site of substitute
teachers who crossed picket lines to keep the schools open. The Billings
Education Association strike web page refers to them as “people crossing
picket lines.” The site not only lists the names of 65 substitute teachers,
but posts pictures of them as well. Nothing good will come of it.
8) School News
Monitor by E-Mail? You Decide.
Response to School News Monitor, EIA’s collection of the top ten
education stories of the week, has been enthusiastic and positive. One
question kept popping up, however: Can I get it via e-mail?
My initial intent was
to offer School News Monitor only on the web site, but if there is
sufficient interest, I will create and maintain a separate e-mail list for
it. If you would like School News Monitor delivered once a week to
your inbox, please reply to this communiqué as soon as possible. If a
reasonable number of people respond, the first issue will go out on
Thursday. In any event, the web version will be posted at
http://www.eiaonline.com/monitor.htm.
HAPPY THANKSGIVING!
9) Quote of the
Week.
AMy
preferred solution would be to create something completely new where there
is no baggage. If we could persuade the biggest unions to dissolve, the next
challenge would be to get the headteachers to come on board. The goal is to
consider if there were no teacher trade unions in Scotland and we were
starting afresh, what is it we would create?@
-- George Sturrock, president of the Scottish Secondary Teachers
Association, on his efforts to merge eight separate education employees’
unions into one “super-union,” in the October 27 Sunday Herald. |
