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1) More for Fewer: Fun Facts from
NEA’s Rankings and Estimates. NEA released
its latest edition of Rankings and Estimates (available in Acrobat
format at
http://www.nea.org/edstats/images/04rankings.pdf). Different readers
will have different areas to examine in the 129-page report, but here are
two noteworthy statistics and estimates EIA has computed from NEA’s numbers:
* School enrollment rose again this
year, but only by an estimated 0.8 percent, beginning the predicted
flattening-out of student population growth (elementary school enrollment
growth was only 0.6 percent). Nevertheless, current expenditures for K-12
public education rose by an estimated 4.4 percent. America’s K-12 public
schools taught an additional 393,511 students this year, but K-12 current
spending grew an additional $16,675,175,000 – or $42,375.37 for each new
student.
* In 2003-04, American public elementary
schools taught 1,649,027 more pupils than they did in 1993-94. But there
were 247,620 more elementary school classroom teachers in 2003-04 than there
were in 1993-94. Simply put, for every 20 additional students enrolled in
America’s K-8 schools in the last 10 years, we hired three additional
elementary school classroom teachers.
2) AFT’s Feldman Will Not Seek
Reelection; McElroy Heir-Apparent. American
Federation of Teachers President Sandra Feldman, undergoing treatment for
breast cancer, announced last week she will not seek reelection at the
union’s convention in July. Feldman, the former president of the United
Federation of Teachers in New York City, took AFT’s reins in 1997 after the
death of union icon Al Shanker.
Although it is still early, it appears
the lone candidate to replace her will be AFT Secretary-Treasurer Edward J.
McElroy. The long-time president of the Rhode Island Federation of Teachers,
McElroy was elected to his current post in 1992. McElroy was mentioned as a
possible successor to Shanker in 1997 but, as Education Week reported
at the time, McElroy’s reputation was as “a nuts-and-bolts manager, rather
than an education thinker.”
The accession of McElroy, coupled with
the tenure of Reg Weaver at NEA, suggests an extended period of internal
focus for America’s two national teachers’ unions. Both organizations can be
expected to concentrate almost exclusively on organizing and politics in the
near term.
Feldman’s last order of business -- and
McElroy’s first – will be to pass two dues increases for the union’s
two-year budget. The proposal calls for a $4.80 hike for 2004-05, and
another $5.40 hike for 2005-06, which would bring AFT’s national dues to
$158.40, an amount significantly higher than NEA’s dues. The increase
includes a 48 cent per member contribution to the AFL-CIO’s political war
chest.
3) Relationship Between Wisconsin
Union and Madison Local Running on Inertia. The
relationship between the Wisconsin Education Association Council (WEAC) and
its local affiliate, Madison Teachers Inc. (MTI), is beginning to resemble a
bad marriage that continues for the sake of the kids. Neither side wants to
separate, but their marriage has all of the form and none of the substance.
As reported here exclusively on June 9,
2003, MTI filed a lawsuit against WEAC for violation of the terms of its
affiliation agreement the two organizations negotiated in 1978. Although
there are a number of points of dispute, two key issues dominate: 1) the
agreement’s provision that WEAC (subsidized by NEA) would regularly pay
MTI’s legal expenses; and 2) that any dispute between the parties would be
refereed by arbitrator Ronald W. Haughton.
In 2000, a jurisdictional dispute
between the unions prompted WEAC to unilaterally terminate the agreement,
citing an escape clause. MTI, however, contested the WEAC action, claiming
the dispute had to be arbitrated first. The two sides continued as before,
but in 2002 MTI filed a complaint against WEAC for not paying its share of
legal expenses. Professor Haughton, as one might expect, is now at too
advanced an age to conduct an arbitration, but the affiliation agreement has
no provision for a different arbitrator. The quarrel dragged on until April
2003, when MTI filed suit to compel WEAC into arbitration with a
court-appointed referee.
On March 11, Dane County Circuit Court
Judge Moria Krueger dismissed the suit, deeming Professor Haughton to be
“central to the arbitration agreement.” Therefore, she decided, the court
could not compel arbitration. Judge Krueger did not rule on the agreement
itself, leaving it in a legal limbo. WEAC’s claim that it had terminated the
agreement, Krueger wrote, is a question that “has been reserved for
arbitration.” In essence, she ruled that the agreement could not be
terminated unilaterally without arbitration, but that no arbitrator other
than Professor Haughton could decide.
WEAC, naturally, notified its officials
that Judge Krueger’s decision meant the MTI agreement “is no longer
enforceable as a legal matter.” MTI responded, not only by appealing the
decision, but by stating that Judge Krueger’s ruling only means the two
sides must negotiate an alternative means of dispute resolution.
In the meantime, MTI is reducing its
state dues payments to WEAC by the amount it believes it is owed in legal
expense reimbursements. For this action, WEAC won’t allow MTI’s
representatives on the state board of directors to vote. MTI doesn’t care
because the board’s weighted voting system doesn’t give the local much of a
voice in state affairs anyway.
What happens next? One way or another,
the unions will have to thrash out a successor agreement. Otherwise, they
may go their separate ways.
4) Miami Union Proposes Changes to
Bylaws. More than a year after an FBI raid that
led to the arrest and imprisonment of former president Pat Tornillo, the
administrators of the United Teachers of Dade (UTD) are proposing a series
of amendments to the union’s constitution and bylaws designed to increase
oversight of finances and operations.
The proposals reduce the power of the
president and the executive board and give the organization’s council of
building stewards new rights to repeal executive actions and review
expenditures.
A recent story in the Miami Herald
reported that UTD membership is almost back to where it was just after the
raid, and the reductions in dues (10 percent) and staff (almost 50 percent)
have held. That’s the good news. The bad news is that UTD membership numbers
were low before the raid, and the union still owes millions to AFT and
various banks, while still paying the mortgage on its $22 million
headquarters building.
If the members approve the changes,
elections will probably be scheduled for October, and the AFT
administratorship ended. The national union will retain financial oversight
rights until all back dues are paid. Another complication is the presence of
one likely presidential candidate: Shirley Johnson, UTD vice president and
the person handpicked by Tornillo to succeed him.
5) NEA? Never Heard of It.
Communities for Quality Education (CQE), the new advocacy
organization created, run and funded by the National Education Association
and its affiliates, now has new digs on DC’s trendy Dupont Circle and its
own web site (http://www.qualityednow.org).
But you’ll search in vain for any mention of the union or the union officers
and employees who comprise CQE’s board (see the March 29 EIA Communiqué
for those details).
The “About Us” section identifies no
one. The “frequently asked questions” are not, except for the one about how
CQE will be funded. The answer, however, is “with the help of individuals
and organizations that share our goals and our priorities.” The “Contact Us”
page contains no names, and the words “union” or “NEA” do not appear on any
page.
CQE staffers made the rounds in Florida
last week, citing contradictions between the school ratings systems of
Florida and the federal No Child Left Behind Act.
6) Memorial Day: You Can’t Remember
What You Never Knew. If Jay Mathews of the
Washington Post had deliberately set out to make me angry and sad last
Friday, he could not have done a better job than by leading his column with
these two paragraphs:
“Tiffany Charles got a B in history last
year at her Montgomery County high school, but she is not sure what year
World War II ended. She cannot name a single general or battle, or the man
who was president during the most dramatic hours of the 20th
century.
“Yet the 16-year-old does remember in
some detail that many Japanese American families on the West Coast were sent
to internment camps. ‘We talked a lot about those concentration camps,’ she
said.”
Yes, the internment camps are an
important part of our history and should be taught and studied in high
school. Yes, dates and details can be overemphasized in history. But without
Midway, Anzio, Normandy and Iwo Jima, and the men who fought there, a lot
more people all over the world would have ended up in internment camps, or
worse.
7) Another Big Dues Hike in Ohio.
Delegates to the Ohio Education Association
representative assembly approved a budget that increases dues by $31 over
two years. State and UniServ dues will be raised to $433 in September,
followed by an increase to $441 for the 2005-06 school year. The union has
raised dues $85 over the last five budget years.
8) Local Control?
Both the Los Angeles Times and Los Angeles Daily
News ran stories over the weekend detailing the influence of the United
Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA) over the school board members the union
supported in the last election. The articles suggest that these board
members meet with UTLA President John Perez up to twice a week, and are
receiving notes and hand signals from union activists during board meetings.
“It’s so blatant,” board member Mike
Lansing, who is opposed by UTLA, told the Daily News. “It’s like a
baseball game – people giving signals out there. It’s ridiculous. These guys
are puppeteers, and we’ve got board members who can’t think for themselves.”
9) Pennsylvania Charter School
Employees Reject Union. Teachers and support staff
at the Northside Urban Pathways Charter School in Pittsburgh voted against
representation by the Pennsylvania Federation of Teachers by a vote of 18-3.
There are about 100 charter schools in the state, only three of which are
unionized.
10) Quote of the Week #1.
“You can’t just sit over there and say, ‘I’ve asked Richard for his wallet
and he hasn’t responded. I’ll just go over and get it.” – Washington Supreme
Court Justice Richard Sanders, explaining to attorneys for the Washington
Education Association (WEA) why failure to receive objections from
fee-payers for the union’s political expenditures does not imply their
approval. The court is hearing a class action suit against WEA that could
affect refunds to an estimated 8,000 present and past fee-payers. (May 28
Olympian)
Quote of the
Week #2.
“Bagwell said the IEA is much different than the National Educational
Association (sic), which might espouse the kinds of policies that would
offend the Idaho electorate.” – from the Times-News of Twin Falls,
Idaho, reporting on the Republican primary in Idaho’s state house District
27. Incumbent Rep. Scott Bedke defeated school principal Wayne Bagwell, who
was supported by the Idaho Education Association (IEA). (May 27
Times-News) |
