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1) Teacher Union Disclosure Reports
Continue to Trickle In. More of the new federal
Labor Organization Annual Reports (Form LM-2) submitted by teacher union
affiliates are now available. The reports have long been required of labor
unions that represent any private sector workers (fully public sector unions
are exempt). NEA and AFT national headquarters, many of AFT's state
federations, plus about ten of NEA's state affiliates
are required to file the report.
The latest come from the AFT-affiliated
New York State United Teachers (NYSUT), NEA Rhode Island (NEARI), the Maine
Education Association (MEA) and the Pennsylvania State Education Association
(PSEA).
* NYSUT took in $80.8 million in dues
for itself in the 2004-05 school year. One of its local affiliates, United
University Professionals, owed NYSUT $1.8 million, of which almost $910,000
was 90-180 days past due. The United Staff Association of NYU owed NYSUT
more than $627,000, all of which was more than 180 days past due. The union
claims only 23 of its 457 employees spend more than 2 percent of their time
on political activities and lobbying. The union had 511,000 members, but
only 374,000 of these are active employees.
Both the outgoing president, Thomas
Hobart, and his successor, Richard Iannuzzi, were paid more than $197,000.
Six-figure salaries are common in NYSUT.
Other interesting payouts: $126,250 to
ACORN for organizing; $10,672 to the
Lake George Steamboat Company for transportation services under the
heading "special projects;" $5,901 to the long-time union target Sodexho
Marriott Services for food; and large amounts to a lot of consultants.
* NEARI took in almost $3 million in
dues for itself in the 2004-05 school year. The union claims only two of its
22 employees spent more than 10 percent of their time on political
activities and lobbying. The union had 9,769 active professional and support
personnel members.
Union president Larry Purtill was paid
$102,474, but NEARI's highest paid employee was its executive director,
Robert Walsh, at $131,207.
Other interesting payouts: $58,800 to
Working Rhode Island; and $5,216 to "various" for "other miscellaneous
expenses."
* MEA took in almost $5.2 million in
dues for itself in the 2004-05 school year. The union claims 31 of its 45
employees spent 15 percent or more of their time on political activities and
lobbying. The union had 20,058 active professional and support personnel
members.
Union president Robert Walker was paid
$86,733, less than many UniServ directors in his office, and MEA's highest
paid employee was its executive director, Mark Gray, at $111,432.
Other interesting payouts: $8,554 for
landscaping and grounds maintenance; $7,054 to
Talent Tree temporary staffing agency; and this note:
"The
LM-2 filed for 2004-05 [Ed. note. actually 2003-04] reported a loss
involving a former employee. Subsequent to filing that report, during a
follow-up investigation by the USDOL-OLMS, it was discovered that the loss
was underreported by $9,962.71. The newly-discovered loss involved the same
(former) employee writing and cashing 43 checks to 'Petty Cash,' each in the
amount of $250 or less over the same time period as the originally-reported
loss. A claim has been filed with the bonding company, and full recovery is
expected."
For
background, see "Missing
Union Funds a Maine Trend?" in the September 6, 2005 EIA Communiqué.
* PSEA took in almost $47.3 million in
dues for itself in the 2004-05 school year. The union claims only 17 of its
295 employees spent more than 10 percent of their time on political
activities and lobbying. The union had 144,530 active professional and
support personnel members.
Union president James Weaver was paid
$181,841, higher than Executive Director Carolyn Dumaresq at $156,669.
Probably due to a lump sum payment, David Helfman, the former assistant
executive director for program services, received $225,517 before moving on
to his new job as executive director of the Maryland State Teachers
Association. Many PSEA employees are paid in six figures.
Other interesting payouts: Three
payments to
Manpower, Inc. in Philadelphia ($126,173, $49,186, and $38,494); two
payments ($14,684 and $5,724) to Manpower's branch in Altoona, another
$7,154 to its branch in Milwaukee, plus $28,445 to
Office Team, a temp firm headquartered in Chicago, and $6,973 to
Dual Temp in Allentown; $5,000 to Pennsylvania ACORN; $30,000 to the
Keystone Research Center; $28,800 to Communities for Quality Education
(see
CQE Update); $13,379 to
Sungard Availability Services for "disaster recovery consulting fees;"
$56,762 to the
Economic Policy Institute (includes $37,500 for the "How Does Teacher
Pay Compare" project); and $50,000 to the
Rand Corporation for the Value Added Assessment project.
2) In California, Here It Comes.
It didn't take a great amount of political know-how to predict that once the
California Teachers Association had defeated the governor's initiatives it
would immediately seek a major influx of cash into the state's $50 billion
education budget. So last Wednesday CTA, along with other representatives of
the state's educational establishment, met with the governor's staff to
demand another $5.5 billion – or an 11 percent increase.
It's easy to dismiss this as greed, or
"to the victor belong the spoils." But it is more calculated than that.
Through October 22, CTA spent a documented $53 million on the special
election, which of course does not count whatever massive amounts were
dropped during the final two-and-a-half weeks of the campaign (at least
another $2.8 million, according to the California Secretary of State).
Whatever the final tally, the union is in debt for at least another two
years. It needs cash, and it has only two ways to get more: more members and
higher dues.
Getting more members might be problematic without further class size
reduction (unlikely, but don't bet the ranch you won't hear any new cries
for it). Raising dues through a vote of the State Council, or making the $60
special assessment permanent might also be problematic, since the increase
was sold to the members as a temporary debt reduction measure.
That leaves only one option. CTA dues are automatically increased by the
average increase in the average state teacher salary over the previous three
years. That's why the
$1.84 billion the union extracted from Gov. Davis in 2000 was so
welcome. The across-the-board pay hikes of 10-12% greatly affected the
average teacher salary – moving California to first in the nation – and
therefore greatly increased CTA's dues income over a three-year period.
Once this $5.5 billion goes into the state's general fund, CTA locals all
across the state will have nice friendly conversations with their school
board and school administrator allies, saying, "Our defeat of the governor
got this money. Now it's ours." Whatever "bargaining" takes place will
consist of school districts fighting for the remaining crumbs.
So,
to all the administrator and school board groups that cheered the humbling
of the governor: your turn is next.
3) Six-Month Newspaper Investigation
of Illinois Teacher Tenure. Here's a D-Day type
effort you rarely see newspapers put together for an education story. The
Small Newspaper Group, publishers of a handful of small, Midwestern papers,
filed some 1,500 public records requests with all of Illinois' public school
districts to learn how often they attempted to fire a tenured teacher. The
results: In the past 18 years, 93 percent of the state's districts have
never even tried to fire a tenured teacher. Of the more than 95,000
tenured teachers in the state, an average of only two per year are fired for
poor job performance.
Illinois Education Association (IEA)
President Ken Swanson had called the notion that you cannot fire a tenured
teacher in Illinois "an urban legend." Judge for yourself. The Small
Newspaper Group has set up a web site that will contain all the stories in
the series, a discussion forum and links to the series' supporting
documents. It is located at
http://www.thehiddencostsoftenure.com.
Interestingly, the State
Journal-Register published a profile of new IEA Executive Director Jo
Anderson yesterday. The story notes that IEA and its allies will "continue
to push for easier tenure rules, which they say will attract a new
generation of teachers." By "easier," of course, they mean easier for
teachers to receive tenure.
4) Idaho Judge Rules Against
Paycheck Protection Law. In a decision that got
virtually no press coverage, U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill ruled that
Idaho's paycheck protection law is unconstitutional as long as unions pick
up the tab for administering dues deductions. Judge Winmill upheld the right
of the state to ban union payroll PAC contributions if the state is paying
the costs of deducting the money and sending it to the union.
In other legal news, the U.S. Department
of Education filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit the state of Connecticut
filed against the No Child Left Behind Act. This was an unsurprising move,
based on the same grounds that saw a federal court dismiss NEA's NCLB
lawsuit.
5) If There Was a Problem, Yo, I'll
Solve It. New York City's United Federation of
Teachers has set up a special e-mail address where members can report
incidents of harassment by administrators:
IAMHARASSED@uft.org.
But what do you do if you're harassed
by the UFT? I guess you have to e-mail
ICE, ICE, baby. Word to your mother.
6) Intercepts a Finalist for
Weblog Award. EIA's daily blog, Intercepts,
has been named one of 15 finalists in the "Best of the Top 5001 - 6750 Blogs"
by
WeblogAwards.org.
This would be a little like winning a Division III football tournament, but
I solicit your votes anyway.
CLICK HERE TO VOTE FOR INTERCEPTS AS BEST BLOG IN ITS CATEGORY!
You can place a single vote every 24 hours, so vote early and often. Thank
you for your support.
7) Now Bid Me Run, And I Will Strive
With Things Impossible. Yes, I am still conscious
and coherent, if only marginally ambulatory, after completing the California
International Marathon. My chip time was 3:56:29. Thanks to all of you who
sent along their best wishes last week.
8) Quote of the Week.
"We discussed whether we could do this with the unions, and
it was decided that it was very hard to have the workplace flexibility you
need. Charters don't have the same union rules, and that's the biggest thing
they have going for them." – Walter Isaacson, former chief executive officer
of CNN, now the vice chairman of the Louisiana Recovery Authority,
describing the decision to establish charter schools in post-Katrina New
Orleans. (December 2 Wall Street Journal) |
