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1) NEA NCLB Lawsuit Dismissed.
Unless you are still in a turkey coma, you already know that Chief U.S.
District Judge Bernard A. Friedman dismissed the lawsuit the National
Education Association brought against the federal government over the No
Child Left Behind Act (NCLB).
This is hardly a surprising outcome,
since the lawsuit took two constitutionally defensible positions – one, that
Congress has spending power, and two, that the states and people retain all
powers not enumerated in the U.S. Constitution – and combined them into the
constitutionally indefensible position that states are entitled to federal
money while ignoring key portions of the regulations that accompany the
money.
As EIA published in
Intercepts last Wednesday, even NEA General Counsel Robert Chanin
recognized the untenable nature of such a legal argument two-and-a-half
years ago when he wrote: "In point of
fact, however, neither the parental notice requirement – nor, indeed, any of
the other requirements in NCLB – are 'imposed' on the states in a legal
sense. NCLB has been enacted on the basis of Congress' Spending Power, and
states can avoid this and other statutory requirements simply by declining
to accept federal Title I funds. If the states decide to accept such funds,
however, then they must also accept the conditions that Congress has
attached to them." (ref. EIA Communiqué
December 8, 2003, and again on
April 25, 2005.)
NEA announced it would appeal the decision to the U.S. Court of Appeals
for the Sixth Circuit. But there the union faces a double problem. Not only
does NEA need to have Judge Friedman's ruling reversed, but the issue of the
union's standing to file such a lawsuit will arise again.
Judge Friedman addressed the issue of standing in this way: "Defendant's
arguments would more properly be raised in support of a motion for summary
judgment. At the pleading stage, however, the court must accept the
allegations as true. Plaintiffs have met their 'relatively light' burden of
alleging injury, causation and redressability."
In short, should the suit be reinstated
by the Court of Appeals, the U.S. Department of Education could then file a
motion for summary judgment on the premise that NEA lacks standing to file
suit.
2) Parental Involvement: What Might
Work. Considerable uproar accompanied a
study by EdSource that found parental involvement was much less
important to a student's academic achievement than a number of other
school-related factors. The
Los Angeles Times highlighted that angle when the report appeared
last month, and
Jay Mathews of the Washington Post did the same when revisiting
the report last week.
Two more articles in the nation's most
prominent newspapers, when viewed in this context, suggest both schools and
students might benefit from a division of labor when it comes to student
achievement.
School officials correctly complain that
getting students to read and write English, compute math problems, and
understand fundamental facts about history and science are nearly impossible
if the students don't show up, don't show up on time, and won't behave
themselves when they are at school. Teachers routinely name classroom
management as their biggest challenge and one of the primary reasons they
leave the profession.
On
the flip side, educators are constantly calling on parents to read to their
children, check their homework, and fully involve themselves in public
education. "[We want] parents who will take time to get to know the teacher,
find out what's going on in the classroom, and reinforce at home what their
child is learning at school," NEA President Reg Weaver told the delegates at
the union's convention last July.
While all these things may be desirable, perhaps what the EdSource report
tells us is that students do best when teachers teach and parents parent.
The
Sunday New York Times contains an excellent commentary by Judith
Warner headlined, "Kids
Gone Wild." Warner sees a backlash growing against overindulged and
misbehaving kids. Right on cue, today's Washington Post has a
wonderful story about teenagers who view their
school suspensions as mini-vacations.
It's great when parents can supplement their children's education through
their own knowledge of literature, math or history. But it's even better if
they see to it that Johnny regularly attends class with his homework
completed and that he will respectfully listens to the adults who are
charged with providing his education. Teachers can then spend more of their
time teaching, instead of riding herd.
Such
specialization might improve educational efficiency, and will certainly
make it easier for the rest of us to evaluate the performance of schools,
teachers, parents and students.
3) District Size an Issue Again.
It was another one of those odd weeks when a single issue appeared in
totally unrelated stories across the country – no, not
childhood obesity – but school district size.
EIA has
covered this issue several times beginning in 1999. But it's unusual to
see the nation's newspapers take it on, particularly in the same week or so:
* November 17
Las Vegas Review-Journal – The Nevada legislature appropriated
$250,000 to fund a study of how to break up the Clark County School
District.
* November 17
Tampa Tribune – Resolutions were introduced in both houses of the
Florida legislature to allow counties with more than 45,000 students to
split districts. The
Orlando Sentinel ran its own story on the resolutions on November
20.
* November 22
Lincoln Journal Star – Advocates for small school districts in
Nebraska are battling forced mergers into larger school districts.
* November 23
Detroit News – Enrollment in the Detroit Public Schools has dropped
by more than 30,000 students in the last four years – 10,000 in the last
year alone. More school closures are inevitable.
* November 25
Sacramento Bee – The best of the bunch. Reporter Phillip Reese found
that of the 25 school districts in the area with declining enrollment over
the past five years, only eight had reduced the number of school
administrators. Five districts with declining enrollment added
administrators.
4) Pennsylvania Local Placed in
Trusteeship. The Pennsylvania State Education
Association imposed a trusteeship on its education support personnel local
affiliate in the New Brighton Area for failing to meet its state dues
obligations. Three union officers were appointed to oversee the local's
operations and finances.
5) New York Union Merger Moves
Along. The NEA New York board of directors
recommended the adoption of a new constitution for a merged teachers' union
with the New York State United Teachers (NYSUT), the state affiliate of the
American Federation of Teachers.
The board's vote was the latest step in
a lengthy merger process. The constitution and by-laws will require
two-thirds approval of NEA New York representatives when the union holds its
Delegate Assembly next April.
NYSUT's board of directors will hold a
similar vote next week. If, as expected, the board recommends adoption of
the new constitution, the document will be voted on by NYSUT's
representatives next May.
If all votes are affirmative, New York
will become the fourth merged state affiliate (joining Minnesota, Florida
and Montana) in September 2006.
6) Forspent With Toil, As Runners
With a Race. Saturday marks my 47th
birthday, which I will commemorate with a large pasta dinner, after which I
will rise bright and early on Sunday morning to run my first-ever marathon.
The
California International Marathon covers a 26.2-mile route from Folsom
Dam to the Capitol building here in Sacramento. I fully expect to be
conscious and relatively coherent next Monday, but in case I am not, it is
possible the next communiqué could be delayed until Tuesday, December 6.
7) Quote of the Week.
"For a $13 billion agency with 727,000 students, 87,000
employees and that many parents, to be spending $800,000 on communications
is absurd. You need to be spending in the millions of dollars." – Darry
Sragow, who has been consulting with the Los Angeles Unified School District
"in an unofficial capacity," explaining why the mammoth school district
should spend more money on public relations. (November
25 Los Angeles Daily News) |
