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1) EIA Special Report: NEA,
AFT and the Democratic National Convention. The
Democratic National Convention opens today with more than 5,000 delegates,
alternates and pages carrying out the party’s business. One of the more
popular statistics is the number of NEA and AFT members among the party
delegates. A search of news stories over the past two presidential election
year conventions reveals a wide variety of estimates and pronouncements
about the number of NEA members – 1 in 12, 1 in 10, 1 in 9, over 400, and so
on.
So far, EIA has come across only one
count for the 2004 Democratic National Convention, and that reports 121 AFT
members among the 5,673 delegates, alternates and others. If NEA sent a
similar ratio of its membership, it would come to about 260 delegates, or
about 1 of every 22.
There are a lot of different ways to
determine this number (asking the unions would be one), but it isn’t the
number that is the important issue. For one thing, it actually understates
union participation because more than one in every four delegates is a
professional politician. That makes one group’s domination of the remaining
available seats all the more remarkable.
It is more enlightening to see who the
delegates from the teachers’ unions are, and where they rank in their own
organizational hierarchy. After all, being an NEA or AFT member doesn’t
grant you any extraordinary clout in the Democratic Party, as can be shown
by the fact that there are NEA and AFT members who become delegates to the
Republican Party convention. But if you are a delegate who happens to be the
president of an NEA state affiliate, naturally your influence over the
party’s education policy would be much greater.
And so, EIA set out to examine the lists
of delegates from each of the 50 states, to determine how many NEA and AFT
members could be easily identified, and whether they held high positions in
their union structure. The results were eye-opening.
Though I cannot present this list as
definitive, it is a representative picture of the role NEA and AFT play in
the Democratic Party and its convention. Due to its length, I present the
states from Alabama to Ohio this week, and will publish the remainder next
Monday. One other note: I mention some delegates by name, though it is
possible the accompanying job title may not be current:
Alabama – A
published report states “about half” of the delegation are Alabama Education
Association members. I also find one UniServ director, one AEA manager, and
AEA Associate Executive Secretary Joe Reed.
Alaska –
One member of the NEA Alaska staff.
Arizona –
None identifiable.
Arkansas –
One Arkansas Education Association member and one former AEA employee.
California
-- Eight California Teachers Association (CTA) members, one CTA political
consultant, two CTA managers, two of the CTA board of directors, Jimmie Gray
of the NEA board of directors, former CTA associate executive director Alice
Huffman, United Teachers Los Angeles President John Perez [Ed. note: See
correction on August 9, 2004], California
Federation of Teachers President Mary Bergan, CTA Vice President David
Sanchez, CTA President Barbara Kerr, and CTA Executive Director Carolyn
Doggett.
Colorado –
one Colorado Education Association local president.
Connecticut
– AFT Connecticut Vice President Leo Canty, AFT Connecticut President Sharon
Palmer, and Connecticut Education Association President Rosemary Coyle.
Delaware –
None identifiable.
Florida –
Three Florida Education Association (FEA) members, two FEA local presidents,
the director of FEA public policy advocacy, and FEA President Andy Ford.
Georgia –
Former Georgia Association of Educators President Lithangia Robinson.
Hawaii
–Karolyn Mossman of the NEA board of directors.
Idaho – one
Idaho Education Association manager, one former IEA employee.
Illinois –
Two Illinois Education Association (IEA) members, the IEA director for
instruction and professional development, and the Illinois Federation of
Teachers political director.
Indiana –
One Indiana State Teachers Association member.
Iowa – Iowa
State Education Association President Linda Nelson.
Kansas –
None identifiable.
Kentucky –
None identifiable.
Louisiana –
One Louisiana Federation of Teachers local president, and national AFT
Secretary-Treasurer Nat La Cour.
Maine –
None identifiable.
Maryland –
The president of the Baltimore Teachers Union, a former Maryland State
Teachers Association (MSTA) government relations specialist, and MSTA
President Patricia Foerster.
Massachusetts
– Two Massachusetts Teachers Association members, the political coordinator
for the Boston Teachers Union, and former national NEA staffer Debra DeLee.
Michigan –
Two former Michigan Education Association (MEA) reps, a former member of the
MEA board of directors, a former MEA local executive director, an MEA
lobbyist, two current members of the MEA board of directors, Joyce Lalonde
and Teri Moblo of the NEA board of directors, Detroit Federation of Teachers
President Janna Garrison, Michigan Federation of Teachers (MFT) Vice
President Mohamed Okdie, MFT President David Hecker, MEA Vice President Iris
Salters, and MEA President Lu Battaglieri.
Minnesota –
Two Education Minnesota (EM) members, one EM local president and one member
of the EM governing board.
Mississippi
– One Mississippi Association of Educators member.
Missouri –
Six Missouri NEA members (some retired), an MNEA attorney, an MNEA local
president, AFT Missouri President Luana Gifford, and MNEA President Greg
Jung.
Montana –
None identifiable.
Nebraska –
One Nebraska State Education Association UniServ director.
Nevada –
One former Nevada State Education Association organizer.
New Hampshire
– None identifiable.
New Jersey
– New Jersey Education Association President Edithe Fulton.
New Mexico
– One NEA New Mexico political consultant, and New Mexico Federation of
Education Employees President Christine Trujillo (affiliated with AFT).
New York –
Five members of the United Federation of Teachers in New York City (UFT),
five members of the New York State United Teachers (NYSUT), one UFT vice
president, NEA New York President Robin Rapaport, UFT President Randi
Weingarten, NYSUT Executive Vice President Alan Lubin, and NYSUT President
Thomas Hobart.
North Carolina
– Two NEA convention delegates, one North Carolina Association of Educators
(NCAE) local president, Hiawatha Foster of the NEA board of directors, NCAE
Vice President Carolyn McKinney, and former NCAE President Geraldine
McNeill.
North Dakota
– The executive director of the North Dakota Public Employees Association
(affiliated with AFT).
Ohio – Ohio
Education Association Secretary-Treasurer Bill Leibensperger.
The remainder of the list will appear
here next week.
2) Capital Research Center Publishes
EIA Report on NEA Staff Unions. It may very well
be the first and only public study of the labor relations between teachers’
unions and their own unionized employees. Do As I Say, Not As I Do:
Collective Bargaining Inside the National Education Association
describes the contentious, and often amusing, battles that occur when
unionists occupy both sides of the bargaining table. This EIA report has
been published by the Capital Research Center and is available in Adobe
Acrobat format on its web site at:
http://www.capitalresearch.org/pubs/pubs.asp?ID=206
3) Quote of
the Week.
“He’ll be as moving as a DaVinci.” – Marcia B. Reback, president of the
Rhode Island Federation of Teachers and Health Professionals, making a
prediction about John Kerry’s acceptance speech. (July 26 Providence
Journal) |
