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1) Arizona Union
Finds New Executive Director in Church.
It is unusual for NEA and its affiliates to
hire people from outside the organization to fill management vacancies. It
is so unusual that EIA was accused of insanity in September 2000 after
reporting NEA was considering retired Rear Admiral John F. Sigler for the
position of executive director (ultimately John Wilson was hired from inside
the organization). So when it actually happens, it is a sign of something…
but I am not exactly sure of what.
The Arizona Education
Association (AEA) recently hired Tim McCluskey as its new executive
director. McCluskey has never held an NEA job, but he does have indirect
union credentials. He headed the Valley Interfaith Project in Phoenix,
Arizona, after holding a similar position in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Interfaith councils such as these, which exist throughout the South, have
been described as a “Christian Coalition of the Left.” Leaders organize
churches, community groups, unions, and civil rights activists to advocate
for things like living wage programs, welfare, and other social services.
The interfaith movement began with the noted radical organizer Saul Alinsky
and usually employ his confrontational tactics.
AEA is one of the many
NEA affiliates, particularly in the South, with stagnating membership
numbers. The hiring of McCluskey indicates the union needed a jolt. But a
jolt for what? To light a fire under complacent staff? To move the union to
the left in a relatively conservative state? To reconnect a predominantly
white organization with a predominantly Hispanic community? To use the
churches to head off a voucher proposal or drain support from the state’s
multitude of charter schools? To push for a statewide collective bargaining
law?
Or maybe he just works
cheap.
2) For Whom the
Doorbell Tolls. You have probably
heard of the tempest among educators about a provision in the No Child Left
Behind Act that requires high schools to provide student names, addresses
and phone numbers to military recruiters upon request, unless their parents
opt out. The preferred image is of burly uniformed Marines, showing up
unannounced at your door, waiting to shanghai little Johnny for a short
jaunt to Iraq. But the military isn’t the only organization recruiting
door-to-door.
In Olympia, Washington,
organizers from the Washington Federation of State Employees have been
showing up at the homes of non-union workers in an attempt to get them to
join the 20,000-member union. “Here’s these two guys, they want to know if
we’re interested in the union,” State Patrol employee Cheryl Rivers told the
Associated Press. “We want to know, how did they get our personal
information and why are they knocking on our door?”
The union downplays
these concerns. “No one forces their way into a household,” said spokesman
Tim Welch. That’s reassuring. The State Department of Personnel isn’t much
help, either. “We can’t interfere with union organizing; we run the risk of
committing an unfair labor practice,” said spokeswoman Sharon Whitehead.
Even more brazen was
Beth Adelesen, vice president of the Kenosha Education Association. When the
Kenosha News published a letter to the editor critical of public
education and the Wisconsin union, Adelsen tracked the letter writer down
and paid him a visit. The man invited Adelsen into his home and they
evidently had a reasonable discussion of the issues for 30 minutes. “He and
I ultimately ended up agreeing to disagree,” reported Adelsen.
The Wisconsin Education
Association Council (WEAC) thought so highly of this tactic it posted the
story on its web site. EIA guesses that WEAC didn’t really think this one
through. Suppose that instead of writing his letter to the editor in the
first place, that gentleman had shown up unannounced at Adelsen’s home to
voice his displeasure with union policies.
On the other hand,
maybe if I showed up at Wayne Johnson’s door, he’d feed me dinner.
3) Madison Teachers
Approve Anti-War Resolution. EIA
has been tracking the progress of the resolution against war on Iraq as it
makes its way around selected teacher union locals across the nation. The
resolution, approved most notably by the California Federation of Teachers,
Oakland Education Association, and the United University Professions of the
State University of New York, refers to the “so-called war on terrorism” and
contains politically charged accusations against the Bush administration and
U.S. policy.
Last week the Madison
Teachers Inc. (MTI), widely considered to be one of the most left-leaning
NEA locals in the nation, approved the resolution. MTI Executive Director
John Matthews said there have been few issues in his 35-year tenure “which
have so polarized MTI members.”
4) Unions Win
Battles Against Individual Pay Hikes.
Back on June 11, 2001, EIA first told the
tale of Matthew Hintz, an industrial arts technology teacher hired by the
Crete school district in Nebraska for $2,350 more than the district’s usual
starting salary. Hintz was the only qualified applicant, and that’s how much
he wanted. The district placed him at step one on the salary schedule, and
added a $2,350 “bonus” to cover the difference between base salary and what
he had been promised.
The Crete Education
Association filed a complaint with the state Commission of Industrial
Relations, claiming this arrangement was a “deviation” that violated the
collective bargaining agreement. The commission agreed. The district took
the case to court and the Nebraska Supreme Court decided 7-0 last week that
districts cannot bypass the union to pay teachers more. According to the
Omaha World-Herald, the union’s attorney “hailed the ruling as a victory
for collective bargaining.”
Meanwhile, in Arizona,
the Scottsdale Education Association filed a grievance against the district
for its plan to spend as much as $500,000 on teachers who serve on
committees or as club advisers. The union wants the money divided among all
the district’s teachers.
5) Long-Time Miami
Union Boss Announces “Retirement.”
Pat Tornillo, who has been president of the United Teachers of Dade (UTD)
since 1962, announced he would be relinquishing day-to-day control of the
union and would step down when his term expires in May 2004. Tornillo handed
the reins to UTD Vice President Shirley Johnson.
Tornillo said he will
devote his time to pushing a “teacher trust” initiative, which would raise
the county’s sales tax by one cent, and direct the $300 million annual take
to salaries and benefits for Miami-Dade’s public education employees. “The
name of the game is money,” Tornillo told the Miami Herald, which
reported Tornillo’s vision of $40,000 starting salaries and six-figure
incomes for senior teachers. But it took only one day for Tornillo’s
two-year plan to hit a snag. The state Department of Revenue says such an
initiative would violate Florida law. Most ironically, the provision of the
law that causes problems for Tornillo is the one that requires the state to
provide a uniform public education for all students. The proposed teacher
trust would create a funding imbalance between Miami-Dade and the state’s
other counties.
The Miami Herald
is apparently so relieved at the departure of Tornillo that it ran a puff
piece on Johnson today. Johnson mentioned what her priorities would be,
including “the need to address droopy union membership numbers.” No one
asked if those droopy numbers could possibly be related to the
organizational practice of 40-year tenures as president, followed by an
active retirement in which the retiree continues to draw almost a
quarter-million dollars in salary for 18 months, after he handpicks his
successor. We all know what happened to the Bourbons and the Hapsburgs. Or,
these days, maybe we don’t.
6) Want Parental
Involvement? You Got It.
“Parental Involvement Improves Student Achievement” reads a banner headline
on the NEA web site. But I don’t think this is the kind of parental
involvement the union has in mind.
More than one-third of
the parents of students of the Johnson Magnet School for Space Exploration
and Technology in San Diego kept their kids at home in protest of school
policies. Test scores fell last year and the parents blame it on the
school’s decision to abandon their preferred reading program: Direct
Instruction.
Direct Instruction in
reading is controversial among educators because it relies on scripted
lessons, teacher-led instruction, drilling and phonics. It is less
controversial among parents who find their children are unable to construct
their own road to literacy.
The walkout ended with
students heading to the Greater Life Baptist Church, where classes were
held, staffed by retired teachers and other volunteers. After a meeting with
school administrators, the parents agreed to return their children to
school.
In Sacramento, former
basketball star Kevin Johnson introduced a plan to revitalize his alma
mater, Sacramento High School. Johnson wants to convert the struggling
school into a charter school, and received support for his plan from
hundreds of parents and community activists. Among his ideas is the
intriguing, and eminently sensible, notion to divide the duties of school
principal into two jobs. The school president would be the administrator,
dealing with budgets and facilities, while the school principal would handle
all education-related matters. The district school board is expected to vote
on the proposal next month.
7) Vermont NEA
Official to Seek Executive Committee Seat.
Wayne Nadeau, a member of the NEA board of directors from Vermont, will seek
to fill one of the two vacancies on the nine-member NEA Executive Committee.
The election will be held next July at the NEA Representative Assembly in
New Orleans. The committee consists of the NEA president, vice president and
secretary-treasurer, plus six members elected at large by the convention
delegates. Nadeau faces a tough battle for a seat among several candidates,
as one of the two vacancies will almost certainly fall to Carolyn Crowder,
president of the Oklahoma Education Association.
8) Quote of the
Week #1. “Small classes are not
just adding personnel and doing business as usual.” – C.M. Achilles,
professor at Seton Hall University and a principal investigator in Project
STAR, the Tennessee experiment that provided the underpinning for class size
reduction initiatives throughout the United States. (December 11
Education Week)
Quote of
the Week #2.
“Teacher union leaders in Raymond seem to think teachers are the only people
whose jobs require them to put in extra hours outside of their regular
schedule. Apparently they are unaware that every profession brings with it
after-hours duties. Doctors, attorneys and business people all are expected
to put in overtime in some form or another to help their businesses thrive
and grow, and they don’t always get compensated for that extra work…. Maybe
the parents will learn how hard teachers work outside of class and will turn
around and vote the teachers a large raise. Or maybe the parents will
realize how enjoyable it is to help kids with their homework, to stage a
youth play or to chaperone a high school dance. And maybe they’ll relieve
the teachers of these duties that the union considers burdensome and
unworthy of its members’ time.” – the editors of The Union Leader
(Manchester, New Hampshire) commenting on a work-to-rule protest by the
Raymond Education Association (http://www.theunionleader.com/articles_show.html?article=16516)
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