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1) Few Kentucky Districts Close for
Day of Protest. Only 23 of Kentucky's 176 school
districts closed today after a call by the Kentucky Education Association
(KEA) for a day of protest. The union and other state workers are upset
about the state budget plan that will raise health insurance premiums and
co-payments. Gov. Ernie Fletcher has called the legislature into special
session to deal with the issue.
After starting this whole ball rolling,
the Jefferson County Teachers Association decided to stay in school today,
leaving 45 minutes early to attend a rally. The Fayette County Education
Association, which had been vocal against the strike, announced it would
support one. Nevertheless, school was open there today as well. EIA has been
monitoring the response of KEA locals and they have been all over the map.
There seems to be little connection between each local's position on the day
of protest, the October 27 strike, or strikes in general. Some split the
difference and planned protests or rallies after school.
While there is universal concern among
KEA members about the health insurance rates, the lack of a clear mandate on
work stoppages and strikes must have union officials looking for a way to
declare victory and get out.
"It was never about closing schools,"
KEA President Frances Steenbergen told the Louisville Courier-Journal.
"The point was to share information and educate school employees, lawmakers
and the public about the issue, and our members will be doing that." Well,
that's a nice spin, except KEA's action plan specifically called upon its
local association officials to request school closures. That effort cannot
be considered a success.
With the legislature going back into
session next week, KEA is likely to present any compromise as a victory for
its tactics, and call off the strike. Otherwise, the union risks legal,
financial, and public relations disasters if relatively few employees walk
out.
2) Teachers' Unions Take Bread from
Atkins. The Wisconsin Education Association
Council began running a television ad last week that condemns corporate
interference in public schools.
Except, of course, when you get a piece
of the pie.
Both the AFT's largest state affiliate,
the New York State United Teachers (NYSUT), and NEA's Health Information
Network (NEA-HIN) will be working with Atkins Nutritionals, Inc. on the
company's Education Policy Initiative. The purveyors of the popular
low-carbohydrate diet program want to combat childhood and adolescent
obesity.
The Atkins people immediately denied any
effort to market its products to children, though the information it will
provide "focuses on some of Dr. Atkins' basic precepts," according to Dr.
Stuart L. Trager, the company's medical director. The Atkins press statement
notes, "Researchers are looking at dietary approaches to treating obesity in
adolescents and children, and their work is showing great promise for the
use of controlled-carbohydrate nutrition in youth populations."
NYSUT will work with Atkins on its "24/7
Let's Go" program, designed to promote better nutrition and physical
education at 24 school sites in the state. Atkins will provide financial
support to NEA-HIN to put up a web site (have they seen OWL.org?) that
promotes schools with model health programs. NEA says Atkins will have no
oversight over content, and that the web site will not advocate the Atkins
plan.
The arrangement came under fire from
groups like Commercial Alert and the Physicians Committee for Responsible
Medicine. The latter group accused NEA of "selling out" and "mortgaging
children's health in financial deals with a fad diet company."
In addition to the Atkins deal, NEA's
Read Across America project has a new arrangement with Warner Bros. Pictures
and the Houghton Mifflin Company called The Polar Express Reading Challenge,
after the book written by Chris Van Allsburg and published by Houghton
Mifflin -- soon to be a major motion picture starring Tom Hanks, to be
distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures.
EIA believes fear of these arrangements
is overblown. No one really expects NEA or NYSUT to pimp Atkins products to
school kids. But the public can now ignore union officials when they mount
their high horse to decry commercialism in the public schools.
"Yes, the market is eager to grab hold
of the public schools," said then-NEA President Bob Chase during his
convention keynote speech in 1999. "It would love to do to teachers what it
did to HMO doctors: turn us into profit centers, profit maximizers." Who's
maximizing profit now?
3) House Parties Attract the Choir.
An estimated 3,800 house parties were held last Wednesday, sponsored by NEA
and other associated liberal organizations. Because of the number and the
geographic spread, it is impossible for anyone (including NEA) to make a
generalized statement about how they went. But observations and press
accounts do allow for certain anecdotes:
* The organizers were insistent that the
parties were non-partisan. Tom Loveless of the Brookings Institution was
correct in noting that this claim "doesn't pass the laugh test," but the
claim was made primarily for legal and regulatory reasons. Any admission
that the parties had a partisan political purpose could subject them (and
the money spent on them) to campaign disclosure requirements. Imagine the
nightmare of getting all those individuals and groups to comply with the
regulations of the federal and 50 state governments. It's also a timely
lesson for those who often hear that teachers' unions don't spend dues money
on politics. By NEA's narrow definition, the house parties were community
outreach, coalition-building and member communication, not politics.
* One wouldn't expect a huge turnout for
any one house party, but some drew only the organizers themselves. Reporters
who attended parties in Louisiana and Florida found handfuls of teachers,
but no parents, politicians or community activists. The best-attended event
appears to have been the one in the Hollywood Hills, which featured NEA
President Reg Weaver, California Teachers Association President Barbara
Kerr, actress Helen Hunt, commentator Arianna Huffington, and about 100
people from the entertainment industry.
* There may be some reason to question
the estimated number of parties thrown. One of the parties listed for
Seattle, Washington, was hosted by that staunch public education supporter,
Test Email. And the ideological flavor of the proceedings was perhaps most
intense in Provo, Utah, where Friedrich Engels hosted a party.
4) EIA's Union Carb Counter.
As a service to NEA and AFT members, EIA introduces the Union Carb Counter,
in keeping with the spirit of the partnership between the teachers' unions
and Atkins Nutritionals.
According to a story in the Los
Angeles Times, the menu at the NEA house party in Hollywood Hills
included Merlot and potato pancakes with smoked salmon.
A four-ounce glass of a typical Merlot
has about 2 grams of total carbs, although some wineries are offering
reduced-carb Merlots. It was a much better choice than beer (13.2 total
carbs), but attendees who sucked down bourbon, rum, gin, whiskey, tequila or
vodka (or all of the above) can nurse their hangovers with the happy news
that they consumed zero carbs.
The smoked salmon was a wonderful
choice, as a six-ounce portion contains zero total carbs and only 199
calories. But potato pancakes?! A standard serving contains almost 22 grams
of carbs!
At your next NEA house party, consider
an appetizer of pork chops wrapped in bacon (with melted Monterey Jack
cheese) and wash it down with a mug of Jack Daniels. Happy low-carb living!
5) How to Solve the Male Teacher
Shortage. A headline in last Friday's Lompoc
Record is typical of what we have been hearing lately: "Male teachers
are at an all-time low." The story covers the usual ground, interviews the
usual experts and comes to the usual conclusions. Everyone seems to agree
the lack of male teachers is a problem, but no one seems to be able to do
anything about it.
That is, until FHM magazine ran
its Hot for Teacher competition over the summer. About 150 teachers
submitted photos and the magazine chose 22-year-old Heather Casey of New
Bedford, Massachusetts, as America’s hottest teacher.
"It felt a little weird not having a
shirt on in class," the preschool teacher told the Boston Herald. A
photo of Ms. Casey (rated PG-13 by EIA censors) is posted on the School
News Monitor page of the EIA web site at
http://www.eiaonline.com.
6) Ripples Begin in Denver Schools.
Last March, members of the Denver Classroom Teachers Association voted to
institute a performance pay plan to replace the standard salary scale. EIA's
lead story on March 22 was headlined "Will Denver Teachers Vote with Their
Feet on Performance Pay?" The story noted that because of the gradual nature
of the plan's implementation, teachers currently working in Denver voted on
how future teachers would be paid. This made the pay plan an experiment in
recruitment and retention. "What kinds of teachers will now apply for jobs
in Denver?" EIA wrote. "Which teachers will remain in the district and which
will transfer to a district with a traditional salary schedule? Which
teachers in other districts will want to transfer in?"
This morning's Denver Post
suggests the process has already begun. In a story headlined "Denver sees
teacher exodus," the Post reports that the district's teacher
resignations rose from 179 last year to 231 this year. The story goes into
great detail about reasons, and suggests upcoming exit interviews will
reveal others, but it does not mention the performance pay plan at all.
The situation in Denver offers a unique
opportunity to examine the workings of the teacher labor market. Even a
single question added to the exit interview -- "Did you vote for or against
the performance pay plan?" – could provide some interesting data.
7) Scheduling Note.
There may or may not be an EIA Communiqué next week. I am on standby
for jury duty.
8) Quote of the Week #1.
"If you can't explain an idea or a policy plainly in one or
two sentences, it's not yours, no one you speak to will be persuaded of it,
or even know what it is, or (and this is the real point) know what you are.
Words are not just the cosmetic clothing of some underlying integrity; they
are the operational vehicles of that integrity, the visible manifestation of
the character to which others respond. And if the words you use fall apart,
ring hollow, trail off and sound as if they came from nowhere or anywhere
(these are the same thing), the suspicion will grow that what they lack is
what you lack, and no one will follow you." – Stanley Fish, dean emeritus at
the University of Illinois at Chicago. (September 24 New York Times)
Quote of the
Week #2.
"Eduwonk's just back from a house party. Feelin' good, feelin'
mobilized! Yeah! Go team! Spend!" – Andrew Rotherham, director of the 21st
Century Schools Project at the Progressive Policy Institute and fellow
member of the International Brotherhood of Wise Guys. (September 22
Eduwonk.com) |
