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1) The NEA Paper Trail. This final report on
the events of the National Education Association Representative Assembly
includes items of interest from the various reports and documents
distributed to the delegates during the course of the convention.
Strategic Plan and Budget – NEA budgeted for an
increase of 30,000 teacher members and 8,000 support employee members in
2007-08, which would be an increase of 1.7 percent. This seems slightly
ambitious, but with
teacher hiring practices being what they are, reasonable.
The line-item for salary/fringe benefits will cross the
$100 million threshold in 2007-08, reaching almost $101.8 million, an
increase of 6.2 percent. NEA's executive officers will all see a four
percent increase in base salary. Reg Weaver will receive $269,100, while
Dennis Van Roekel and Lily Eskelsen will receive $236,562 each. The three
officers will also receive cash allowances for benefits and living expenses
from NEA, amounting to 40 percent of their base salary, all of which is
taxable income.
The last item of note is that NEA "will create and
implement a business model and structure to evaluate and manage all non-dues
revenue." Though this is less than one percent of NEA's income, it is the
only revenue stream not dependent on membership numbers.
Financial Reports – On page 14 may be the only
indication NEA has made that the IRS audit it underwent in 2003 resulted in
some additional tax and/or penalties. "The Internal Revenue Service ('IRS')
examined NEA's income tax returns for the years 2001 through 2003 and
proposed adjustments for those years. According to IRS's proposed
adjustments, NEA recorded additional provisions for the years 2004 through
2006. NEA has appealed the proposed adjustments and believes that it has an
adequate provision for any obligations that might arise from the unresolved
issues."
Additionally, the same page contains a reminder of the
Michigan Education Association's financial woes of 2003: "On August 31,
2003, NEA signed a $5,000,000 irrevocable standby letter of credit drawn on
Bank of America in favor of Comerica Bank. The standby letter of credit
guarantees the repayment of a loan between Michigan Education Association
('MEA'), an affiliate, and Comerica Bank. The standby letter of credit
automatically renews in one-year increments on the anniversary of its
inception unless notice is given to Bank of America. In the event of
default, NEA's contingent obligation under the guarantee is equal to MEA's
outstanding loan balance, which as of August 31, 2006 is $2,604,159.
Reports of Committees - NEA's Standing Committee
on Human and Civil Rights reported on its Human and Civil Rights Awards,
which are presented at a special dinner during the convention: "This year
NEA received only 29 nominees for 14 awards, and while 11 were found to be
quite deserving of recognition, the committee agreed there is a need to
revive interest in the awards and generate more high quality nominees."
The Standing Committee on Sexual Orientation and Gender
Identification had a research problem: "One of the challenges confronting
the committee was the continuing lack of empirical or even anecdotal data on
the experiences and the rate of harassment among school personnel. The
difficulty obtaining such data is more likely a byproduct of the extreme
homophobia that makes many schools inhospitable places for personnel to be
openly GLBT, rather than the absence of negative experiences among GLBT
personnel. In addition, the relatively few personnel who are openly GLBT may
report mostly positive experiences because they work in hospitable climates
and have strong support from administrators and the community. While these
experiences are valid, they probably do not reflect the experiences of the
majority of GLBT personnel nationwide."
2) Summer Doldrums for Teacher Union Membership.
A successful membership organization of any type must deal with the fact
that growth can only occur after departing members are replaced. With
teachers' unions, this process is singularly seasonal. They add most of
their new members in the early fall months, when school starts and new
teachers are inducted into the profession. They lose members during the
summer months, while school's out and teachers retire or move on.
It is reasonable to assume that an affiliate which
loses only a few members during the summer months will have a pretty good
year overall. EIA now has NEA's disaggregated membership numbers for
September 2006, which when compared to the same numbers from May 2006 (posted
when they were only days old), give us a pretty good picture of which
affiliates may be enjoying a good 2007, and which may not.
Most NEA affiliates lose somewhere between one and
three percent of their active members during the summer, a number only
slightly offset by those who become retired members (for $25). Of all NEA
state affiliates, only one grew during the summer of 2006. As you might
expect, it was Nevada, whose school enrollment growth dwarfs that of other
states.
States with summer membership loss of less than one
percent were Alabama, Arizona, Colorado, Georgia, Idaho, Maryland,
Massachusetts, Missouri, South Dakota, Utah, Washington, Wisconsin and
Wyoming, suggesting these affiliates have no worse than stable membership
situations this year.
States with greater than three percent loss were
California, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Louisiana, Michigan, New
Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Vermont and
Virginia.
After a thorough examination of these numbers, I have
concluded that it would be a mistake to try to assign a single reason for
some affiliates' successes and others' failures. States with and without
collective bargaining laws appear on both lists. States with growing and
falling enrollments appear on both lists. States with many and few charter
schools appear on both lists. While all of these things affect teacher union
membership, it is clear that a single one of them is not a determinant in
all cases.
3) South Carolina: The Incredible Shrinking NEA
Affiliate. The South Carolina Education Association defies routine press
coverage. As an affiliate of the National Education Association, it commands
respect in the state legislature and on the public stage, but with 10,000
active members in a state with more than 46,000 teachers, it has no
particular cachet among education groups in the state. As such, internal
mysteries that might become subject for comment in New York, or Washington,
or even
Long Beach, California, don't get over the "so what?" hurdle.
But that's why you come here, right?
SCEA's problems precede a governance
"redesign" in 2004, which was supposed to address the disconnects among
members, staff and elected officers.
Executive Director Richard Miller left – or was forced out – in unusual
circumstances in February 2006, leading eventually to the equally unusual
hiring of Chip Zullinger as executive director. Zullinger was a former
school superintendent, who left a trail of jobs behind (including Denver)
before ending up at SCEA.
Zullinger was fired in March 2007 (see
Item #6 here) and took legal action, claiming wrongful termination. EIA
has heard no word about this ever being resolved. While SCEA conducted a new
search, NEA headquarters sent
Katrina Thompson to South Carolina to act as an interim executive
director. Now it seems Thompson has problems of her own.
To begin with, through resignations and firings SCEA
has lost its communications officer/lobbyist, assistant executive director,
and business and finance manager. As of last week, SCEA had no managers,
outside of Thompson.
The UniServ and support staff (15 employees) is itself
represented by a union. It has filed three unfair labor practice charges and
eight grievances against SCEA management (such as it is). One employee filed
an EEOC complaint, claiming a hostile work environment.
The state elected officers consist of a president and
vice president. The obliterated management team suffered a further blow with
the sudden death last month of SCEA Vice President Judy Fair. This leaves
President Sheila Gallagher, who along with her supporters on the union's
board of directors, appears to be responsible for the parade of executive
directors.
The turmoil at SCEA headquarters also led to late dues
payments going up the line to NEA,
which always raises red flags. However, in this case it was merely poor
bookkeeping and the payments were soon made current.
By all accounts – and EIA has both pro-management and
pro-staff sources – national NEA is not contributing to the difficulties in
South Carolina and simply wants the problems cleared up and everyone back in
the same boat, which unfortunately appears to be the Titanic.
4) Last Week's Intercepts. EIA's blog,
Intercepts, covered these topics from July 23-30:
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The Pyramid Slide. Because you demanded it – the pyramid slide from
NEA's TSEDPFS program!
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Unacceptable Turnover Rate? Something must be done.
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British Scientist Upends Learning Orthodoxy. Learning styles?
"Nonsense," says Oxford professor.
5)
Quote of the Week.
"We therefore urge you to provide for additional information in school-level
report cards, but to reject the pressure to include such measures in the
Title I accountability system if they would mask low achievement and deprive
students and schools of resources and assistance that they genuinely need."
– from a July 13 letter to House education committee chairman George Miller
and ranking member Buck McKeon, signed by
The Center for American Progress,
The Citizens' Commission for Civil Rights,
The Education Trust,
The Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, and
The National Council of La Raza. (July 17
This Week in Education) |
