|
1) Cebulski Named
to NEA Executive Committee. The
NEA Executive Committee appointed Mark Cebulski of Wisconsin to the seat
vacated by Wayne Nadeau of Vermont, who resigned under pressure after the
suspension of his teaching license became public knowledge.
Cebulski was the next
highest vote-getter for the open Executive Committee seat at the union’s
2003 Representative Assembly, receiving 3,211 delegate votes – or 36.6
percent of the total. He will hold the seat until July 2004, when a special
election will be held to fill the remaining two years of Nadeau’s term. As
an incumbent, however, Cebulski will be a prohibitive favorite to retain the
seat.
Like Nadeau, Cebulski
is a high school social studies teacher who held a seat on the NEA Board of
Directors before running for higher office. He has been president of the
Cedarburg Education Association and has a reputation as an “old unionist,”
due to his emphasis on political action and collective bargaining and his
opposition to new unionism programs such as peer review. Cebulski was also a
delegate to the 2000 Democratic National Convention.
2) NEA
Communications Being Revamped. As
part of its Great Public Schools for Every Child (GPS) action plan, NEA is
reorganizing its communications department and structure, launching it at
the opening of the new school year as its Public Relations Department.
Opinions differ as to whether this is a mere shuffling of chairs, a
centralizing of PR efforts under the direction of the executive director, or
a focused communications plan to restore the union’s “bread-and-butter’
mission.
Whatever it is, NEA
plans more coordination between its print and Internet outlets, hoping to
energize its activists through publications like NEA Today (which
will changed to a magazine format) and to gain some added value from OWL.org
(NEA’s Internet portal, which is, to be generous, lousy).
NEA has held numerous
internal meetings on the reorganization, and has called in outside
professionals, such as Widmeyer Communications, one of the nation’s top PR
firms, to examine its plan.
Running NEA’s public
relations is one of the toughest jobs in America. How many different shades
of lipstick can you put on the same old pig?
3) Become Teacher
of the Year, Win $134. The
prestige of being named National Teacher of the Year may be reward in
itself, but now candidates have new motivation to seek the honor. The NEA
Executive Committee decided to provide free membership to the National
Teacher of the Year and the National Education Support Professional of the
Year – but only for the year they serve. For the 2003-04 school year, that’s
basically a dues “voucher” for $134 for the teacher, and $73.50 for the ESP.
The national union will encourage state affiliates to waive their dues for
their candidates.
EIA will offer double
($268 to the National Teacher of the Year, $147 to the ESP of the Year) to
honorees who turn down the free NEA membership – the cash to go to the
school of their choice. EIA’s award may not seem like a lot, but if NEA were
to offer them a similar slice of gross income, it would run well into seven
figures.
4) National Group
Declares Teacher Shortage Over.
The American Association for Employment in Education (AAEE) completed its
annual survey of national teacher hiring patterns and announced the demand
for teachers is at its lowest level in five years.
The group, located at
Ohio State University, is made up of school personnel administrators and
university career placement professionals. Each year it analyzes the teacher
job market and disseminates its findings. Its newest study reveals the
elimination of shortages in reading, business, English and French teachers,
and “mild surpluses” in social studies, health, and elementary school
teachers, according to a report by the Associated Press. Teach for America
applications have tripled in the last two years.
Teacher shortages in
math, science, bilingual and special education continue to plague school
districts across the country. “Last year we measured 10 or 12 fields as
having a considerable shortage,” said AAEE Executive Director B. J. Bryant.
“This year there are three.”
5) School Choice
Black Market Revisited. The
Baltimore Sun continues to lead the way in studying an underexamined
phenomenon in America’s public schools: the black market in school choice. A
story in this morning’s paper by reporter Liz Bowie (click
here for article) illustrates how widespread it is. In short, the black
market refers to those parents who lie about their residence or use other
surreptitious means to enroll their kids in schools outside their required
school or district boundaries. The practice is rampant in the Baltimore City
school district.
Bowie tells the tale of
Mary Alexander, an activist parent from East Baltimore. Alexander said none
of her three children has ever attended the assigned school. “Alexander has
several times skirted the rules by opening a bank account using the address
of a friend living in the neighborhood where she wants her children to
attend school, reports Bowie. “She used a bank statement as proof she lived
in that zone. By the time both of her girls were attending Barclay
Elementary School, she said, half the staff knew she didn’t live in the
zone. But they never told her children they had to leave, she believes,
because by that time she had made herself a valuable parent volunteer.”
EIA’s own research
found nine other states where authorities in some areas admit to a
significant problem with parents enrolling “out-of-bounds” children. Some
have resorted to establishing a sort of border patrol that follows children
home to ensure they actually live within district or school boundaries.
6)
Quote of the Week.
“As I sat through hour after hour of mind-numbing debate on such items as
should we have a Mr. Rogers Day, I was struck by how little of the action of
the convention will affect the daily lives of the hard-working people whose
dues money allows this yearly potlatch to occur.”– Plainview Congress of
Teachers President Morty Rosenfeld, on his experiences at the 2003 NEA
Representative Assembly in New Orleans. Rosenfeld disagreed with the NEA’s
decision not to organize private sector early childhood education employees.
(July 9 Teacher Talk --
http://members.aol.com/pobct/talk67.html) |
