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1) New Hampshire Investigation
Involves Federal Grant. A source familiar with the
investigation tells EIA that the incident that prompted the resignation of
the three top elected officers of the New Hampshire Federation of Teachers (NHFT)
did not involve misappropriation of dues money, but instead was caused by
questions raised about spending related to a labor-management grant made to
NHFT by the U.S. Department of Labor.
Early this month, NHFT President Jim
Rust, Secretary Sandra Dehner and Treasurer Jacqueline Faulhaber resigned
from office and the union’s board of directors called in auditors from AFT.
Although the auditors have been examining all aspects of NHFT finances, the
original allegations apparently stemmed from “improprieties” regarding a
federal grant, part of a U.S. Department of Labor program to fund
cooperative projects between school district administrations and labor
organizations.
NHFT was the recent recipient of such a
grant, in partnership with School Administrative Unit #34 in Hillsboro. The
district and union were given $47,000 “to provide training in evaluation and
supervision for effective teaching.” But as EIA goes to press, it is unclear
whether this is the only federal labor grant NHFT received during Rust’s
six-year tenure, or whether this specific grant is the one that involved
questionable spending.
AFT auditors are expected to complete
their investigation this week. If previous incidents are any indication, AFT
will likely release their findings in short order.
2) Union Rivalry Plays Role in
Detroit Charter Protest. Last Thursday the
AFT-affiliated Detroit Federation of Teachers (DFT) staged a one-day walkout
and rallied on the Capitol lawn in Lansing to protest a plan to open more
charter schools within the Detroit school district. Participation in the
protest was large enough to persuade district officials to close schools for
a day, but the turnout could not have been encouraging for DFT.
To begin with, the union claims more
than 12,000 members, but only 3,000 appeared for the protest. Additionally,
the NEA-affiliated Michigan Education Association (MEA) encouraged its
members to report to work and avoid the rally. “We’re on a different page
from the Detroit Federation of Teachers,” MEA spokeswoman Margaret Trimer-Hartley
told the Lansing State Journal. MEA President Lu Battaglieri has said
his union is trying to be more practical on the issue of charters, admitting
that “they are here to stay.”
But before charter operators rush off to
embrace Battaglieri for his enlightened views, he also told the MIRS
Capitol Capsule: “If I had my druthers, if we had our way, there would
be no charters.”
3) Collier County Cold War.
The battle between the Florida Education Association (FEA) and support
personnel in Collier County continues to heat up. As reported in the
September 15 EIA Communiqué, a split developed between Collier
Support Personnel Union (CSPU) President Ron Dendy, FEA representative Sonja
Fitch, and a handful of supporters on one side, with Chief Steward Richard
Arena and a majority of site representatives on the other. The last union
meeting culminated in Fitch calling sheriff’s deputies, but seeing the
meeting agenda turned over to Arena and his supporters.
Now Fitch has notified district
officials that only she and Dendy are authorized to speak for CSPU,
according to a report in the Naples Daily News. Relations with the
stewards have hit rock bottom, with Arena claiming that Fitch actually
scripted the meetings for Dendy, right down to the pauses.
FEA says it is trying to mend fences,
but its attitude to the media is hardly a model of openness and clarity. “We
do not think it would be helpful to discuss the facts or the issues in the
press,” said FEA spokesman Mark Pudlow. “As our efforts progress, we will
inform you of developments that we think are appropriate for reporting.”
For developments FEA thinks are
inappropriate for reporting, stay tuned to these pages.
4) Nadeau Fired, but Not for
Classroom Sex. The saga of former NEA Executive
Committee member Wayne Nadeau came to a bizarre conclusion last Thursday
when his local school board fired him… but not for the incidents that gave
his case national attention.
Nadeau’s license was suspended for 20
days by the Vermont Board of Education after he admitted to having sex with
a female teacher’s aide in his classroom. The suspension did not become
public until after Nadeau’s election to the union’s executive committee,
after which he resigned under pressure. His local school board placed him on
paid administrative leave.
For the last few weeks, the board has
been negotiating a buyout of Nadeau’s contract. But those negotiations came
to an abrupt end when the board voted unanimously to fire Nadeau “on the
grounds that he violated the school substance abuse policy and displayed
conduct unbecoming to a teacher” on a 1996 school trip to Russia, according
to a report in the Burlington Free Press.
The board members cited privacy
considerations for why they couldn’t be more specific, but said the
allegations came to light after the original case became public. Having been
fired, Nadeau now has the option to appeal either administratively or in
court. Neither Nadeau nor is attorney would comment on his intentions.
5) Don’t Merge Without Asking First.
As we have learned in the United States, mergers of teachers’ unions are
much more contentious than we might believe them to be at first glance.
Delegates to the annual convention of the New Zealand Educational Institute
(NZEI), the union representing 42,000 elementary school teachers, approved a
proposal to seek a merger with the Post Primary Teachers Association (PPTA),
the union representing 15,000 secondary school teachers. The major problem
with the proposal seems to be that no one thought to find out what PPTA
thought of the idea.
“Incredibly arrogant and presumptuous,”
PPTA President Phil Smith told the New Zealand Herald. Smith said the
workplace needs of elementary and secondary students are completely
different. “I couldn’t work in early childhood education, and they couldn’t
do my job,” he said.
6) New Mexico Pander.
Here is a short excerpt from an interview of New Mexico Gov. Bill
Richardson, conducted by Eduardo Holguin, president of NEA New Mexico:
HOLGUIN: Make one wish, Governor. Pick
one thing you could do to improve the lives of New Mexicans. What would it
be?
GOV. RICHARDSON: By next year, we
believe the average teacher pay will move from 46th to 34th
in the country. Well, we’d like it to go higher. In my mind, we should aim
for the national average.
7) Bucking the Conventional Wisdom
on Homework. Next Wednesday morning, Tom Loveless
of the Brookings Institution will release his latest report, titled
“Homework: An Easy Load?” The report is said to debunk the notion shared by
many all along the political spectrum that U.S. students get too much
homework. Loveless reveals that most students receive less than one hour of
homework per day, and that this amount “has not changed substantially in at
least twenty years.” Expect a lot of cognitive dissonance over this report.
8) Snoop!
For those who have yet to see it, Education Week published its
profile of me and EIA in its September 24 issue. You may still view it at
http://www.edweek.org though registration is required. I would again
like to thank the extraordinary number of you who took the time and trouble
to respond to Education Week’s request for comment on the communiqué.
9) Recommended Reading.
Though it had nothing to do with education, an editorial in the San Jose
Mercury News last week caught my eye. First, because it forthrightly
condemned the slop that passes for television news and entertainment.
Second, because it was written by Mike Antonucci.
The other Mike Antonucci is the popular
culture reporter for the Mercury News, and though he also comes from
Brooklyn, we are not related. But upon reading his column, titled “Our
ever-vaster wasteland,” I began to wonder if a certain writing style may be
an ancient Antonucci family trait. “Now, as another fall season has arrived
amid a torrent of compliant hype from magazines and newspapers, TV is at low
ebb socially and seems nearly indefensible,” he writes.
Antonucci lays bare the whole disgusting
mess, from the ill-named “family hour” to the lack of differences between
scripts and commercial ad copy. “Is there still quality on the tube?” he
asks. “Are there some great shows? Yes. But what’s good, inventive and
exhilarating is drenched in a dismal overall experience of manipulation and
tawdriness.”
Antonucci’s editorial is still available
on the web at:
http://www.twincities.com/mld/mercurynews/news/editorial/6825315.htm
10) Quote
of the Week.
“You have to be ready to listen to whispers.”– New York Times
reporter John F. Burns. (September 17 Wall Street Journal) |
