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1) NEA and Abortion: What Neither
Side Wants to Hear. The big NEA story last week
was the union’s sponsorship of the March for Women’s Lives. NEA usually
low-keys its involvement in the broader, non-education-related liberal
movement, but lending its name to the abortion rights rally was
exceptionally direct. Abortion, like lesbian/gay issues, puts NEA in a bind,
and its reaction last week to the complaints of pro-life NEA members clearly
illustrated its dilemma.
NEA and religious conservatives actually
share a common goal: they both want to paint the union’s positions on social
issues in stark terms, with us on the side of goodness and light and them on
the side of evil and darkness. Unfortunately for both, NEA’s position on
abortion (and homosexuality) has a lot more to do with conflicting internal
and external imperatives than anything else.
What pro-lifers don’t want to hear
(especially from me, I might add) is that NEA’s position on abortion has
absolutely no discernible effect on the issue at any level – federal, state
or local – or in any venue – executive, legislative or judicial. NEA’s
policy does not lead to abortion advocacy in the classroom, nor in the
textbooks, nor in the Democratic Party. It budgets no money for the issue.
And if the union were to pass a resolution of neutrality on abortion, most
members would never know the difference.
The only reason NEA has any policy at
all on abortion is because a large majority of the union’s activists are
liberals and leftists. Just as conservative organizations have single-issue
people, the NEA has many different single-issue people. One faction cares
passionately about lesbian and gay issues. Another cares about Mumia Abu
Jamal. Another faction is made up of anti-war activists.
The difference between the left and the
right is that conservatives are content to let single-issue people be
single-issue people. The National Rifle Association never asks the Christian
Coalition to publicly support Second Amendment rights. But liberal factions
are always trying to sign up other liberal factions to support their single
issue. So, not only does NEA sponsor the March for Women’s Lives, but so do
groups like the Gay Men’s Health Crisis, the Communist Party USA, the Earth
Rights Institute, the Nevada Shakespeare Company, and the Sierra Club.
But NEA has a broad membership, with a
large minority of members who don’t want their union joining every liberal
parade. If NEA had a resolution with an open declaration of support for
abortion rights, it would lose members and income, particularly in states
where teachers are not compelled to join or financially support the union.
Instead, it has a resolution that states: “The National Education
Association supports family planning, including the right to reproductive
freedom.”
The abortion rights advocates get tacit
support for their position, and the union gets cover in those places where
membership loss is a real possibility.
What NEA doesn’t want to hear
(especially from me) is that last week’s events show how untenable this
policy is. The claim that NEA has no position on abortion isn’t fooling
anyone. The March for Women’s Lives declared its support for reproductive
freedom, in accordance with NEA’s policy, but it also declared its mission
“to uphold the fundamental right of women to control their lives through
safe and legal abortion” and “to ensure the availability of contraceptive
services, family planning, and abortion services to all women regardless of
geographic location or income.” That, my friends, is a position on abortion.
Even more insulting to the intelligence
of its members is the set of talking points NEA headquarters sent to state
affiliates about the march controversy. By citing four old legal cases in
which the union has been involved, only two of which has the remotest
relation to abortion, NEA wants members to believe it is merely trying to
protect them from being forced to have abortions against their will. Nice
try.
One vulnerable state affiliate had its
own method for dealing with the issue. The Utah Education Association (UEA)
flatly denied any involvement with the march. “UEA is in no way
participating in this rally,” said UEA President Pat Rusk.
2) NEA and Cable in the Classroom
Deliver Another Trojan Horse. NEA and Cable in the
Classroom have teamed up to bring us the latest manufactured crisis in
education labor – teacher retention – now that people have stopped believing
in a general teacher shortage.
Cable in the Classroom produces a
quarterly journal called Threshold, and the Spring 2004 issue
contains several articles on “Staying Power: What We Must Do to End the
Teacher Retention Trend.” Yes, the same people who tried to sell us on the
educational benefits of the USA Network’s version of Helen of Troy
(see the April 28, 2003 EIA Communiqué) are now trying to roll
another Trojan Horse through our gates.
Teacher retention only looks like a
problem if you lump together “movers” and “leavers.” Movers are teachers who
go from one school to another at the end of a year. Leavers are those who
leave the profession entirely. The latter group is of more concern, but even
they are not testimony to a burgeoning crisis in school employment.
The alarmist view of teacher retention
is based on the research of the University of Pennsylvania’s Richard
Ingersoll, who asserts that teacher turnover (movers plus leavers) is 15.7
percent, while the average for other fields is 11.9 percent. NEA adds to
this that the “top reasons for leaving” the profession are “lack of
professional support,” “poor school leadership,” and “low pay.” That’s the
horse, but there are Greeks inside.
Those “top reasons” only apply to those
who cited “dissatisfaction” as their reason for leaving. Those teachers
constitute no more than one-quarter of the leavers. Ingersoll’s own data
show “family or personal” reasons – most often pregnancy and child rearing –
as the top reason for leaving the profession, with retirement in second
place. A report by the National Center for Education Statistics that covers
the same period supports this finding, though it reverses the order of the
two.
Ingersoll’s findings also debunk the
claim by the teachers’ unions that teacher turnover in urban schools far
exceeds the average turnover. Ingersoll shows only minor differences between
rural, suburban and urban turnover rates – both for movers and leavers.
Teacher turnover for private schools is much higher, providing fertile
recruitment grounds for public schools.
Another NCES report in March 2001 took
the unprecedented step of identifying full-time employees who held
bachelor’s degrees in April 1994, then tracking them until April 1997 to see
who were working in the same profession three years later. The results were
startling and definitive.
Eighty-two percent of K-12 teachers were
still teaching K-12 three years later, the second highest retention rate of
all professions. Only those in health occupations, at 83 percent, stayed in
the same profession at a higher rate. The list is comprehensive: law
enforcement and the military – 73 percent; engineers, scientists, lab and
research assistants – 71 percent; business support and financial services –
66 percent; editors, writers and artists – 61 percent; legal professionals
and support – 57 percent; other instructors and human service occupations –
55 percent; computer and technology – 53 percent; sales and service – 45
percent; business owners and other managers – 41 percent; blue collar – 39
percent; and clerks – 25 percent.
Public school teachers have a high
retention rate not because they have the most wonderful job in the world,
but because they are rarely fired. In the private sector, college graduates
change careers early and often, but not always by their own choice.
3) AFT Enters the Mix in Utah School
Employees Vote. On March 29, EIA reported on the
upcoming vote of the independent Utah School Employees Association (USEA) on
affiliation with NEA. After flirtations with other national organizations,
USEA negotiated a direct affiliation with NEA so that USEA would not have to
be a part of the Utah Education Association, which is NEA’s state affiliate
for teachers.
The plan was put on the fast track and
will be debated and voted on by USEA delegates at their meeting this
Saturday. But organized opposition has appeared, in the guise of AFT Utah.
AFT distributed pamphlets to USEA
members suggesting NEA affiliation might not be in their best interests. The
campaign prompted USEA President Nan Kirkpatrick to send a letter to her
officers stating, “The actions and the allegations of the AFT are designed
to mislead and delay USEA from doing what is in the best interest of
classified employees in Utah.”
The resolution upon which USEA delegates
will vote contains few details about the “unique arrangement” negotiated
with NEA, but USEA officers assure delegates that the organization “will
retain our ability to determine our own programs, services, policies and
such things as state legislative priorities.”
Well, maybe. But if USEA enters NEA’s
UniServ program, through which most of NEA’s services are delivered, it will
take on a host of responsibilities, including NEA oversight of its finances,
and a commitment to “actively support state and national program priorities
in political action, legislative support, professional development, and
affirmative action.” An organization that represents cafeteria workers
should know there is no such thing as a free lunch, even in the public
schools.
4) Granite Union Stonewalls Member
Inquiries. The Salt Lake Tribune reported a
move underway to get rid of the elected officers of the Granite Education
Association (GEA) in Utah. Why? No one is saying, and few union
representatives have even heard about it, much less learned the reason for
it.
The paper reported that GEA’s
eight-member executive board is seeking a way to oust President Dean Sheffer
and Vice Presidents Debbie White and Rita Heagren. But building
representatives have been unable to get straight answers from GEA or the
Utah Education Association. “It gave me the creeps,” is how site rep April
Jones described her failure to gather information from a GEA staffer.
Another rep told the Tribune he hadn’t even heard about the
controversy. “None of that’s been disclosed to me yet,” said Bob Kawa.
Both the GEA board and the officers have
retained legal counsel, but the union claims the dispute is only about going
“in a different direction.”
EIA has no special knowledge of the
current situation, but the Granite local has clashed with the state
organization in the past. In February 2000, GEA held a one-day strike for
more education funding, which was not supported by the state association or
any other local. At the time, Debbie White was the GEA president and
directed members to walk out. “I will be very angry if we have done this –
gone against the wishes of UEA – and only have a few people participating,”
she wrote in an e-mail to members.
On December 5 of the same year, UEA
staged a one-day walkout for more education funding, but the 3,200 members
of GEA “walked in,” and worked while their colleagues across the state
walked out.
5) Bush Provides Pension Relief to
NEA. Though it surely wasn’t his main intention,
President Bush signed into law a measure that will help stabilize the
finances of many NEA state affiliates.
The Pension Funding Equity Act alters
the calculation by which corporations and other organizations compute their
pension liabilities for defined benefit plans. Federal law requires
employers to maintain a minimum percentage of their pension liabilities
(usually 90 percent) available in their funds. The new formula will
significantly reduce the amount of money these employers must keep on hand.
EIA has reported several times on the
financial troubles of NEA state affiliates in places like Illinois, Michigan
and Pennsylvania, who have faced serious budget deficits because of staff
pension fund liabilities. The new law will free up some of that cash for
union affiliates, thereby reducing their deficits. The provisions of the law
last for only two years, so NEA will still seek a permanent remedy.
Interestingly, U.S. Senator Ted Kennedy
attacked the bill as a bailout for Big Business. “When President Bush signs
this bill, he should dress up as Marie Antoinette and say to the 10 million
small-business employees left out of this legislation, ‘Let them eat cake,’”
he said.
6) Camden Charter School Goes Union.
Working without a grant from NEA, the New Jersey
Education Association (NJEA) still celebrated a success last week by
organizing about 60 teachers at the LEAP Academy University Charter School
in Camden. The final vote was 33-20 in favor of NJEA representation. The
union will immediately begin work bargaining a new contract.
The school currently has a system of
merit retention bonuses and monetary recruitment incentives for math,
science and Spanish teachers. These are not expected to survive the first
negotiations.
“If you get a union, you get a union
mentality,” said social studies teacher Pete Law, who voted against NJEA.
7) Brief Items.
The Metro Nashville Education Association dropped its demand
that the school district pay 50 percent of the fees for teachers who join a
health club (see “Amid Layoffs, Nashville Union Demands Treadmill Pay” in
the March 15, 2004 EIA Communiqué).
* Next month’s Florida Education
Association (FEA) Delegate Assembly will address two issues stemming from
the union’s merger in 2000: frequency of assemblies and term limits.
Delegates will vote on whether to maintain the current practice of annual
conventions or switch to biennial conventions more commonly practiced by AFT
affiliates. In addition, delegates will vote on establishing three
three-year term limits for FEA officers and members of its executive
cabinet. If the measure is defeated, those offices will have no term limits
at all.
Rumors have been passed in FEA circles
that the delegation from the United Teachers of Dade (UTD) would not be
seated at the Delegate Assembly due to its continued status under an AFT
administrator. But FEA has officially confirmed that UTD delegates will be
seated.
* The Associated Press reported that
last Tuesday the Mississippi American Federation of Teachers held a “rally”
to protest education funding cuts that attracted “about a dozen
participants.” There’s nothing in the style manual that defines the minimum
number necessary for a “rally,” but “cocktail party” seems the more
appropriate description of this group.
8) Quote of
the Week.
“Professional issues may need lobbyist attention, but they are not the bread
and butter issues teachers most often complain about today. Attorneys, for
instance, belong to professional associations. But you don’t see the state
bar negotiating for them. The same should hold true for teachers.” – from
the Education Teamster web site in Clark County, Nevada. (http://www.ccsdteamster.com) |
