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1) EIA Report Reveals Teachers Make
Up Bare Majority of Education Employees in US.
Teachers comprise no more than 50.8 percent of all K-12 public education
employees in the United States, according to a new EIA report. Eighteen
states plus the District of Columbia employ more non-teachers than teachers.
South Carolina ranks highest in the percentage of teacher employees at 65
percent, while Kentucky brings up the rear with classroom teachers making up
only 42.6 percent of its public education workforce.
The finding is just one of the tables
included in the school pay and staffing statistics report, updated every
three years by EIA using the latest information from the U.S. Census Bureau,
U.S. Department of Education, and National Education Association. The report
also contains tables ranking the top and bottom 25 large school districts in
per-pupil spending, state per-pupil spending, average teacher salaries,
teacher compensation as a percentage of instructional spending, number of
teachers for every district administrator, teacher salary vs. worker salary,
cents spent on benefits for every dollar of salary, average teacher
compensation, and per-teacher spending.
All the tables are available and
downloadable as Adobe Acrobat (*.pdf) files on the EIA web site at
http://www.eiaonline.com/statistics.htm.
2) NEA New York Delegates Approve
Merger. Delegates to the NEA New York delegate
assembly approved a merger with the AFT-affiliated New York State United
Teachers (NYSUT). The merger, requiring a two-thirds majority, was approved
398-111, or 78%-22%.
The debate now moves to the floor of the
NEA Representative Assembly, where delegates must approve an amendment to
the NEA bylaws that will allow the merger. NEA New York's largest local, the
Buffalo Teachers Federation, continues to be the main source of opposition
to the merger. Assuming NEA approval, NYSUT delegates will have their say in
April 2006, leading to merger of the two unions by September 2006.
New NYSUT President Richard Iannuzzi
informed his delegates of the timeline at their recently concluded
convention. "While there are many hurdles still before us, clearly bringing
30,000 new members into NYSUT and into the House of Labor would be a great
achievement," he said.
3) Unions Show Their Briefs.
Lawsuits are the order of the day:
* NEA is expected to announce shortly
that it is filing its long-threatened lawsuit against the federal government
over the provisions of the No Child Left Behind Act. Let's hope NEA succeeds
on constitutional grounds, and inadvertently eliminates all federal
involvement in public education. It would serve them right.
* NEA and AFT won the first round of
their legal battle against a broader interpretation of the Labor-Management
Reporting and Disclosure Act. The financial disclosure provisions of the law
apply only to private sector unions, or unions with at least one private
sector worker as a member. Currently, NEA, AFT and about a dozen of their
state affiliates are required to file disclosure reports. The rest are
exempt. Last year, the U.S. Department of Labor notified NEA and AFT that
because the national affiliates were subject to the law, all state
affiliates were also subject to the law. A U.S. District Court judge
disagreed and granted summary judgment to the unions.
* EIA has copies of the lawsuit filed by
the Ohio Education Association (OEA) against its own staff unions over their
standing to file grievances on behalf of retirees (see last week's
communiqué). The most interesting declaration OEA makes in the suit is the
following: "The retirees are not employees, are not members of the
bargaining unit and are not parties to the Contract."
EIA will leave the legal justification
for that claim to the experts, but wonders how teachers feel about their
union advancing this argument.
4) University of Minnesota Graduate
Assistants Continue to Defy Union Trend. Fertile
recruiting grounds for unions have been hard to come by, but they have
achieved many inroads among graduate and teaching assistants at America's
largest universities. Today's New York Times, for example, contains a
story about a five-day strike at Columbia and Yale as these assistants seek
union recognition.
But teaching assistants at the
University of Minnesota continued their tradition of confounding the experts
by once again defeating a major union organizing drive – this time by the
United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America. The vote was 1,296
in favor, with 1,779 against. The opposition was led by a small group of
graduate students calling themselves TAU – Truth About Unionization.
The campaign mirrored the last union
effort at the university in 1999, conducted by Education Minnesota, NEA and
AFT. The union spent 2 1/2 years and over $250,000 but fared no better (see
the
May 11, 1999 EIA Communiqué for details).
5) Madison Delegates Won't Attend
Wisconsin NEA Convention. About 900 delegates will
attend the Wisconsin Education Association Council (WEAC) representative
assembly this weekend, but none of them will be from the capital city of
Madison. The Madison Teachers, Inc. (MTI) has had a long-standing dispute
with WEAC over the terms of its affiliation (see the
June 1, 2004 EIA Communiqué for the details). The MTI Board of
Directors voted not to send delegates to this year's WEAC convention, but
the point may have been academic anyway, since WEAC could have denied seats
to Madison delegates because the local isn't paying its full dues. Perhaps
Madison should team up with Buffalo.
6) NEA State Affiliate Roundup.
* The South Carolina Education Association instituted Internet voting for
union officers, to supplement the mail-in ballots sent to each member, but
the results were disappointing. Though the union claims 10,000 active
members, it could generate no more than 611 votes for any one office.
* Delegates to the Massachusetts
Teachers Association annual meeting next month will be asked to approve an
$8 dues increase, with the assessment for the PR and media fund to remain
the same at $30 per member per year.
* Delegates to the Delaware State
Education Association representative assembly agreed to continue a $1 per
member contribution to Communities for Quality Education (CQE). Remember
them? They are the NEA-created 501(c)(4) organization that helped sweep John
Kerry into the White House and recapture the Senate and the House for the
Democratic Party with millions of dollars in contributions from NEA member
dues and PAC funds. Then the newly elected Democrats revoked the No Child
Left Behind Act and diverted the funds to an across-the-board salary
increase for K-12 public education employees. Oh, wait. That's what happened
on the Planet Mongo (see the
February 12, 2001 EIA Communiqué for how things work there).
7) Short List of Suspects in
Michigan Union Theft Case. The Daily Mining
Gazette reported that police are investigating possible embezzlement at
the Michigan Education Association field office in Hancock. The paper cited
an unidentified source with knowledge of the case who claimed as much as
$100,000 may be missing. Denis Skoglund, the UniServ director for the area,
confirmed the investigation was taking place but refused to provide
additional details.
"We are saddened by these allegations
and are cooperating fully with authorities," he said.
I'm no Hercule Poirot, but only two
people work in the Hancock office and Skoglund is one of them. Doesn't that
narrow the list of suspects considerably? Let's see how long it takes to
crack this case.
8) Do You Have an Interesting
One-Night Stand Story? See Jerry at the OFT Convention.
Television eyesore Jerry Springer was scheduled to address the Ohio
Federation of Teachers (OFT) convention last Friday. Despite extensive
efforts, EIA can find no report of what words of wisdom he might have
spoken, but one hopes he didn't troll for guests while he was there.
According to his web site, Springer's producers are currently searching for
the following: people with "an interesting one-night stand story," "a wild
sexy woman," "a prostitute with a shocking story to tell," anyone who
belongs to "a racially motivated group," anyone "torn between two lovers,"
"a polygamist" or someone who is married but wants to "add another
husband/wife," "a swinger," or anyone who is "cheating on your lover and
feel it's time to confess."
9) Quote of
the Week.
"Forgetting the 'S' is like forgetting the teachers." –
United Educators of Pittsfield President William Berryman III, after union
members marched on City Hall last week behind a banner that read "United
Educators of Pittfield." The banner was made by Local 108 of the New England
Council of Carpenters. (April 16 Berkshire Eagle) |
