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1) New York Merger Vote Will Go Down
to the Wire. If, as appears likely, the
representative bodies of NEA New York and the New York State United Teachers
approve merger principles in April, it will set up a showdown at the NEA
Representative Assembly that will feature many of the same players from the
1998 NEA-AFT merger debate.
Last week, the NEA board of directors
approved a bylaw amendment by a 139-37 margin that would allow the New York
merger to go forward. That decision must go before the NEA convention
delegates in July for ratification.
NEA board members from nine states
provided the opposition to the amendment, but it is the actions of three of
those state affiliates – Michigan, New Jersey and Illinois – that will
ultimately determine the outcome. The coalition that picked up 58 percent of
the vote in 1998 will have to deal with a different set of circumstances in
this fight:
* It's just New York. Regardless
of where delegates stand on national merger, they are inclined to let local
and state affiliates go their own way. The New York merger requires no
change in Kansas, so why stand in the way?
* The climate in Texas. Delegates
from the Texas State Teachers Association were mostly anti-merger in 1998,
then flirted with a state merger in 2001 before it fell apart and ended the
union's no-raid agreement with the Texas Federation of Teachers. Though
relations between the two unions have cooled, it is probable that Texas is
more pro-merger today than it was in 1998.
* The big enchilada: California.
Though the California delegation was officially pro-merger in 1998, the
state was essentially split into two camps. The large, dual-affiliated
locals in Los Angeles and San Francisco supported the merger, but there was
a sizable minority in opposition in the central part of the state. The
ultimate vote margin also suggests that a lot of Californians talked pro and
then, in the privacy of the voting booth, voted anti. This year, however,
the California Teachers Association has bigger fish to fry. CTA will want to
spend its time drumming up support for its battles against Gov.
Schwarzenegger, and will see the NY merger debate as a distraction.
* The NEA-AFT Partnership. NEA's
partnership with AFT has not provided any momentum toward national merger,
though that was the hope of many who created it. However, in its defense,
the partnership has diluted much of the active resentment that existed prior
to 1998. In other words, it hasn't strengthened supporters, but it has
weakened the opposition.
Unless the anti-merger states can
persuade the majority of delegates (most of whom will hear about the New
York merger for the first time in July) that the bylaw amendment will
compromise the principles of the national union, the measure will pass, and
the New York unions will merge.
Why is all this important? The same
issue is being played out in the AFL-CIO, with Andrew Stern's proposal to
forcibly merge unions sparking the same kind of emotion. A New York merger
that provokes peace or dissension will provide ammunition for both sides in
the broader union movement.
2) Miami Union Vote Challenge
Dismissed. Both the American Federation of
Teachers and the Florida Public Employees Relations Commission (PERC) have
dismissed complaints against the recent election at the United Teachers of
Dade (UTD) that put Karen Aronowitz in the presidency over former UTD
Secretary-Treasurer Shirley Johnson. Johnson filed the complaints alleging a
lack of ballot security and improprieties during the campaign and vote.
The PERC summary dismissal stated that
Johnson's complaint failed to establish a prima facie case for violations of
labor law. The AFT investigation stated "there is not sufficient evidence"
of wrongdoing to take the matter further. The union found there was "no
basis to suggest that the election process or procedures were not sound."
Although Johnson can still appeal these
decisions through administrative or legal channels, it appears Aronowitz
will assume office as scheduled on April 30.
3) Challenger Tries to Make
Classroom Duty an Issue in Union Election. Today
is the final day to mail ballots for offices in the United Teachers Los
Angeles (UTLA), the second largest teacher union local in the United States
(behind New York). UTLA President John Perez is running for reelection,
along with a slate of candidates. His challenger, A.J. Duffy, is supported
by United Action, an opposition caucus within UTLA.
For those of us outside the union, there
is rarely much to distinguish one candidate from the other. But, as with any
other type of election, union politics favor the incumbent, requiring
challengers to come up with something to separate their views from those of
their opponents.
Duffy's tactic is one you don't see very
often. His campaign statement notes the "lackluster leadership" of Perez,
but then goes to on to make the (literally) bold-faced distinction of
himself as an active classroom teacher and Perez as someone "who has been
away from the classroom and school-site for approximately 15 years."
Running a large union full-time and
running a classroom full-time may be mutually exclusive activities, but few
members are aware of the length of the hiatus involved when teachers become
high-ranking union officials. Perez's 15-year absence is actually a
relatively short one.
If union presidents are to be given a
free pass on this issue, perhaps it is also time to stop criticizing as
'out-of-touch' those teachers who leave the classroom and take up other
jobs, such as, oh, principals.
4) Stupid Idea Gets Bipartisan
Support. Can it be only four weeks ago that EIA
and the rest of the nation were making fun of the obesity report card? (See
the
January 24, 2005 EIA Communiqué.) That was the measure introduced
in the Texas Senate by Leticia Van de Putte, a Democrat from San Antonio,
that would require schools to include a student's body mass index on his or
her report cards.
Evidently the national ridicule didn't
reach the ears of the Georgia legislature, where state Rep. Stephanie
Stuckey Benfield, a Democrat from Atlanta, has signed on bipartisan
co-sponsors to her obesity report card bill. "It wouldn't be any more
embarrassing than getting your grades," Benfield told the Atlanta
Journal-Constitution.
At least Rep. Benfield appears to be
thin, unlike most of her co-sponsors. Nonetheless, EIA will patiently wait
for her and her fellow lawmakers to publish their personal weight and body
mass index – on the next ballot.
5) Hope for Public Schools After
All. EIA has often highlighted the abysmal
ignorance of American high school students, but happily I take it all back
after evidence arrived from Austin, Texas, that the kids are learning more
about the real world than I could ever have dreamed.
According to a story in the Austin
American-Statesman, administrators at Austin High School banned candy
from campus vending machines last year. The idea was that the fat students
would immediately turn to eating substitutes (snacks, not teachers). The
school supplied tuna, granola bars and baked chips.
Instead, the students created a black
market.
Enterprising teenagers began appearing
at school "armed with gym bags full of M&Ms, Skittles, Snickers and Twix,"
selling their sugary wares at a jacked-up price of $1.50. "I heard kids were
making $200 a week just selling candy," said Austin High junior Hayden
Starkey.
American-Statesman reporter
Matthew Obernauer wins the EIA Phrase of the Year Award for describing the
underground candy market as "Willy-Wonka-meets-Casablanca."
The market was so successful that school
officials returned some candy to the vending machines. "It's all about
supply and demand," said Austin High junior Scott Roudebush. "We've got some
entrepreneurs around here."
6) District Searches for Truant
Ghost Children. The attendance officer at
Philadelphia's Martin Luther King High School was concerned about the
chronic truancy of James Dowling's daughter. Dowling would sometimes receive
up to five calls a week from the school, asking him why his daughter was
missing school.
Officials at a Philadelphia elementary
school were also calling Nancy L. Springer McAninley about her two children.
One time, the school nurse called to ask McAninley to come to the school
because one of her children was running a high fever.
But neither Dowling nor McAninley have
children. Any children. Never mind children enrolled in Philadelphia
schools.
Philadelphia Daily News columnist
Jill Porter found these two baffled citizens, victims of a district
bureaucracy and an automated phoning system with incorrect numbers keyed in.
Porter called the district and -- in the finest tradition of school district
spokesmen -- district spokesman Joe Lyons tried to turn the screw-up into a
holy virtue.
"We have a kid that's not coming to
school," he said. "We're going to do everything we can to find the kid and
get the interventions she needs. That's ultimately what we're in business
for, to benefit the kids."
Dowling and McAninley received
misdirected calls for two years. It's pretty ballsy to claim it was a
measure of dedicated public service.
7) Quote of the Week #1.
"Let the Governor Know Your Not Happy" – from the web page of
the Fresno/Madera Service Center of the California Teachers Association. (http://www.fresnomaderasc.org)
Quote of the
Week #2.
"They have no relevance to the world in which we operate
today. Seniority counts above competence. This is anachronistic and makes no
sense." – San Diego City Schools Superintendent Alan Bersin, speaking of
teachers' unions at an education forum on February 9. Bersin's contract was
not renewed by the school board, largely due to the efforts of the San Diego
Education Association. (February 14 Voice of San Diego) |
