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1) New Hampshire Union Officials
Resign; AFT Sends Auditors. State budgets may have
fallen on hard times, but 2003 has been a bullish year for auditors of
teachers’ unions.
Three top elected officers of the New
Hampshire Federation of Teachers (NHFT) resigned, and the AFT sent in
auditors at the request of the state union’s board of directors. President
Jim Rust quit after six years in office, telling the Nashua Telegraph
he was “not at liberty to discuss” the reasons for his ouster. Secretary
Sandra Dehner and Treasurer Jacqueline Faulhaber also stepped down. Maureen
McNeil, the current president of the Nashua Teachers Union, will become the
new president of NHFT. John Stewart, the new vice president, told the
Telegraph “there have been some improprieties,” but refused to go into
further detail.
2) Coup D’Etat in Collier County.
With all the attention being paid to the teachers’ union in Miami-Dade
County, a more intriguing event occurred over the weekend in Collier County:
a grassroots rebellion.
The Collier Support Personnel Union
represents some 900 education support employees and has had boisterous
internal politics for some time. Last year, a group of local stewards
claimed $36,000 was missing from the union’s coffers, and accused the local
leadership of denying them access to relevant records. In March 2003, an
independent auditor said she suspected fraud, but needed additional funding
to conduct a full investigation. The stewards were particularly unhappy with
the lack of response from the union’s state and national affiliates. “We say
the Collier Support Personnel Union is just a cash cow for the NEA and FEA,”
said steward Pete Cullen.
Last week the stewards were stripped of
their authority to represent members during grievances. These simmering
feuds reached a boiling point during a union meeting last Saturday, when the
dissident stewards attempted to set aside the formal agenda and debate their
issues. Ron Dundee, the local union president, refused to allow it, despite
the wishes of a large majority of the stewards present. According to
reporter Cathy Zollo of the Naples Daily News, who attended the
meeting, the argument got louder until Sonja Fitch, a Florida Education
Association (FEA) staffer, called police and asked to have the dissidents,
and the press, removed from the building.
The plan backfired when deputies
arrived. They calmed everyone down, and decided that since the local union
paid rent on the building, Fitch did not have the authority to remove
anyone. Instead, Fitch elected to leave when the meeting agenda was handed
over to Chief Shop Steward Richard Arena and his majority.
The stewards voted to change the locks
on the union offices. They then elected an interim vice president, giving
President Dundee five days to decide whether he wants to complete his term.
They named Fitch persona non grata and asked FEA to send an officer
or attorney to their next meeting on September 27, when the fireworks may
get even hotter. Arena claims to have a petition signed by a majority of
local members who want to secede from FEA.
3) No Mistake: Arkansas Union
Supports Larger Class Sizes. The Arkansas
Democrat-Gazette published a remarkable apology in a September 8
editorial. A previous editorial had commented on the governor’s plan to
raise Arkansas’ student-teacher ratio to the national average, in an effort
to reduce costs. The Democrat-Gazette supported the idea, but noted
that the Arkansas Education Association would stand in the way. After
hearing from the union, the newspaper published a second editorial, which
said in part:
“We apologize. Actually, [President] Sid
Johnson of the Arkansas Education Association says he supports the
governor’s plan to increase class size, and notes that, by requiring fewer
teachers, each could command a higher salary. And everybody would gain as
better teachers were attracted to Arkansas, for better teaching means better
education. See Northwest Arkansas, where fewer teachers and larger classes
have produced some fine results.”
4) Recall Campaign Causes Defeat of
CFT Legislation. The California recall election
campaign accomplished something Republican lawmakers have been unable to do
for years: defeat legislation sponsored by the California Federation of
Teachers (CFT) and other school employee unions. A bill would have allowed
unions to post political endorsements on faculty bulletin boards, and
distribute them in school mailboxes and through district e-mail systems. It
passed the state Assembly and appeared headed for the governor’s desk when
the vote in the state Senate deadlocked at 20-20.
California legislative procedure gives a
tie-breaking vote in the Senate to the lieutenant governor, but Cruz
Bustamante was out of town campaigning in favor of his own candidacy in the
governor’s recall. Without Bustamante there to push the bill over the top,
it died in the Senate.
5) 2-to-1 Defeat Doesn’t Stop
Hubbert’s Tax Hike Express. Alabama voters had an
opportunity last week to increase their taxes by $1.2 billion, having been
told by Republican Gov. Bob Riley that the money would be invested in the
state’s public schools. He had the full-throated support of Alabama
Education Association (AEA) officers and over 74 percent of its members,
according to an AEA poll. The referendum was defeated by a margin of 68
percent to 32 percent.
“It’s pretty resounding,” said
University of Alabama professor David Lanoue, in a classic understatement.
But Paul Hubbert, the long-time
executive secretary of AEA, knows why the monumental tax hike lost: a poor
media campaign. “The pro-side never got their message together,” Hubbert
told the Birmingham News. “With all due respect, it looked like we
were just probing here and here.”
Alabama citizens should get ready to be
probed by Hubbert again. He suggested state politicians try to raise taxes
next year. “I know people in education are going to have to try again,” he
said.
6) Miami Union Staffer Spreads the
Blame Around. Last Saturday, the Miami Herald
published a letter to the editor by United Teachers of Dade staffer Merri
Mann. Mann wanted to defend the actions, or rather, inaction, of UTD
employees regarding the financial misdeeds of former UTD President Pat
Tornillo. While her defense falls short, she correctly points out that most
of Miami’s society showed deference to Tornillo during his long tenure.
“The fact is, this entire community
continually honored Tornillo,” Mann wrote, citing his co-chairmanship of the
United Way and awards from the March of Dimes and NAACP. “Long before the
FBI raided the union’s offices, dozens of reporters wrote about Tornillo,
‘the dean of Florida’s labor leaders.’ When this community paid tribute to
Tornillo at an event in February 1998 attended by more than 1,000 people,
Channel 10’s Michael Putney, who recently attacked me and other UTD staff
members on the air, was the master of ceremonies.”
If Mann had stopped there, she might
have made her case. But she didn’t. “It is time to stop casting blame at
those of us who, although we work at UTD, had neither access to Tornillo’s
checkbook nor his credit cards,” she wrote. “We trusted our boss. Our
critics can either return to the days of the Salem witch hunts or share with
us in learning from the union’s past mistakes and shortcomings.”
Over the years, there were plenty of
people raising questions about Tornillo’s personal spending habits, his
sweetheart deals, his ill-conceived headquarters building, and his
authoritarian control of the union. It is very convenient to claim that UTD
staffers could “see no evil” simply because they weren’t handling Tornillo’s
credit card statements. And the new AFT administrator has made it clear that
it wasn’t Tornillo alone who was responsible for UTD’s financial woes.
Most UTD members probably do want to
move on, to learn from “the union’s past mistakes and shortcomings” – but
only after they are sure those mistakes are, indeed, past.
7) Recommended Reading.
Long-time education activist Deborah Meier has written an extensive
editorial for the American School Board Journal (http://www.asbj.com)
called “The Road to Trust.” Her essay, and the published comments about it
by others in the education establishment, are well worth reading. Few
readers will agree with all her descriptions and prescriptions, but her
examination of the disconnect between the public and the public school
system is thoughtful, insightful, and long overdue. Those who support school
and district consolidation should be prepared for some uncomfortable
reading.
8) Explanation for Iraqi Guerrilla
Resistance? America’s politicians, pundits and
media commentators are saturating the airwaves with reasons for the steady
stream of violent resistance being experienced by U.S. troops in Iraq. But
no one has suggested the most obvious explanation for people screaming in
the streets and blowing things up: teacher in-service seminars.
Los Angeles Times reporter Edmund
Sanders attended a workshop for a group of Iraqi teachers and guidance
counselors in Baghdad sponsored by UNICEF. The attendees were given
balloons. Here is Sanders’ description of what happened next:
“‘Now I want you to take your balloon,’
an upbeat seminar instructor coaxed them soothingly, ‘and blow everything
that makes you sad and everything that makes you mad into the balloon. Blow
it all inside.’ Unaccustomed to such touch-feely seminars, several teachers
shifted nervously in their seats. A few giggled, and others looked confused.
But after some shrugs and smirks, they complied. Soon, several balloons were
so overinflated they threatened to pop. The exercise aimed to demonstrate a
technique educators could use to help children cope with the trauma of
Saddam Hussein and the U.S.-led invasion.”
9) Quote of the Week #1.
“Yet, now that some real accountability is in place everyone is hollering
about it. The NEA’s policy on testing and accountability is illustrative on
this point: apparently ‘accountability’ is OK only so long as it’s so
Swiss-cheesed with loopholes, caveats, and exceptions as to render it
virtually worthless from any sort of serious policymaking perspective.”–
from the September 9 issue of the 21st Century Schools Project Bulletin,
a publication of the Progressive Policy Institute.
Quote of the
Week #2.
“If the teachers unions ran the NFL, all players would be paid according to
their years in the league. If the team needed a quarterback and a great
rookie prospect were available, the team would have to pay him less than a
third-string defensive lineman.”– Orlando Sentinel columnist Mike
Thomas. (September 14 Orlando Sentinel) |
