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1) Florida Education Association Chief of Staff
Ousted? In the wake of the sudden dismissal of NEA regional director
Michael Butera (reported last week and
quickly confirmed) comes another unexpected employer action – this time
it's the Florida Education Association's (FEA) pending removal of Chief of
Staff Aaron Wallace.
Wallace has served as chief of staff since Florida's
NEA and AFT affiliated unions merged into a single union in 2000. Before
that he was the elected president of Florida Teaching Profession-NEA and one
of the prominent voices in favor of the proposed national NEA-AFT merger in
1998. He also sits on the board of the
NEA Foundation for the Improvement of Education.
Contacted by EIA for this story, FEA released the
following statement:
"FEA President Andy Ford has made a recommendation to
the Executive Cabinet to exercise the early cancellation provision in the
contract of Chief of Staff Aaron Wallace. The Cabinet will act on the
recommendation at its meeting on April 9. Mr. Wallace's employment contract
permits such action to be taken at any time without the requirement of
formal cause. The contract, which is being fully honored, specifies the
benefits to which Mr. Wallace is entitled upon early cancellation."
Mr. Wallace did not reply to a request for comment.
2) NEA's Retention on Retention.
With its usual
impeccable timing, NEA decided to feature teacher retention in its
April 2008 issue of NEA Today.
I have made my own
views on this issue abundantly clear many times on these pages, so I won't
kick that horse again. I'll only note a couple of items:
* NEA quotes
teacher retention guru Richard Ingersoll as saying, "The whole retirement
thing has been consistently exaggerated." And
who is doing the exaggerating?
* NEA
adds a sidebar that notes some controversy over the oft-repeated claim
that half of all new teachers leave the profession in the first five years,
even though NEA President Reg Weaver repeats it without any caveat in his
accompanying editorial, "It's
Not Brain Surgery!"
Well, it may not
be brain surgery, but it certainly looks like short-term memory loss. A
different web page from NEA Research posted last year still lists
34% as the national loss rate after five years.
3) No Cash Left Behind in Arizona. The Arizona
House of Representatives
approved a bill to opt out of the provisions of the No Child Left Behind
Act, beginning on July 1, 2010. Yes, a state has finally decided it can do
something about that soul-deadening destroyer of public education – a mere
five years after an NEA director floated the idea (see
Item #5 here).
Funny, though, there are still a few diehards who think
opting out is a bad idea. Included among them is Arizona Education
Association President John Wright. "It's not a position we can support over
the long term," he said. "The federal money is too important, especially for
the at-risk kids in our public schools."
The
Arizona Republic editorial page states, "In truth, the anti-NCLB
legislation is a 'message' bill, and, if push ever comes to shove, the
Legislature simply is not going to walk away from $600 million."
It seems to me that's the real message.
4) Solidarity Forever? Union in-fighting broke
into the mainstream press in a big way last week.
* In New Jersey,
Carla Katz is running for a regional vice president slot in the
Communications Workers of America. Katz is best known for having a
controversial personal and professional relationship with New Jersey Gov.
Jon Corzine. The national union dismissed charges Katz made against her
opponent, and is
investigating charges he made against her.
* SEIU President Andrew Stern is
attempting to get rid of Sal Roselli, head of United HealthCare Workers
West, in a broad dispute over the direction of the national union.
* Amid mutual recriminations, the Screen Actors Guild
and AFTRA decided not to jointly negotiate a new contract with motion
picture and television producers. The effort to paper over differences
between the two unions is best illustrated by these Variety headlines
from just the past three weeks:
March 11 - "SAG,
AFTRA mending fences"
March 18 - "SAG,
AFTRA get OK from AFL-CIO"
March 27 - "SAG,
AFTRA United"
March 30 - "AFTRA
goes its own way"
5) White Hat and Black Humor. Irony is indeed
dead.
I don't know if there is any merit to the
complaint filed by the Ohio Federation of Teachers with the Internal
Revenue Service against White Hat Management, Inc., which runs a number of
charter schools in the state and elsewhere. But you've got to love their
rationale.
According to the Cincinnati Enquirer:
"Susan Taylor, president of the Ohio Federation of
Teachers, said White Hat, which is supposedly hired by the schools' boards,
exercises too much control over the schools, boards, and finances, violating
IRS rules, she said."
Wow. Can you imagine a private, tax-exempt organization
that exercises too much control over the schools, boards, and finances?
I can.
6) NEA Spent $9.2 Million Lobbying in 2007. EIA is often asked to
compile the amount of money NEA spends on "politics." Soon thereafter begins
my long, well-rehearsed lecture on the definition of "politics" – the
segregation of federal, state and local PACs, candidates vs. issues, ballot
initiatives and "legislative crises," et al. The
Associated Press reminds us there is yet another category to consider:
federal lobbying.
The latest disclosure figures indicate NEA spent $9.2
million last year lobbying Congress and federal agencies on a variety of
issues.
Despite the differing rules that govern each of these
separate categories of political spending, NEA still manages to find gray
areas in between them. Case in point is a
radio ad the union is running in North Carolina. Here is the transcript:
"You can find her on the carpet during
circle time. And in the computer lab. And sitting at a teacher's desk.
"In every classroom across North
Carolina, you can find Bev Perdue's imprint.
"As a State Senator and now our
Lieutenant Governor, Bev Perdue has fought for pre-kindergarten programs
like Smart Start - so children come to school ready to learn. (Dunn Daily
Record, 10/26/07)
"She's raised teacher salaries - so our
schools can attract the best teachers for our kids. (Business Leader,
December 2007 and Times-News, 10/17/07)
"And Bev Perdue is paving the way with
a plan called North Carolina's College Promise -- so more kids can afford to
go to college. (Greenville Daily Reflector, 11/21/07 and Associated
Press, 11/6/07)
"For Bev Perdue's commitment to our
children and their schools - she's earned the appreciation from teachers all
across North Carolina. (Associated Press, 10/1/07)
"Now on the state Board of Education,
she's making sure our high school graduates have the skills to compete in
the 21st century. (http://www.ncpublicschools.org/state_board/)
"Call Bev Perdue at 919-733-7350. Tell
her to keep fighting to make North Carolina's schools great and our
children's futures bright."
Oh, by the way, Bev Perdue is running for governor of
North Carolina and has been endorsed by NEA's affiliate in North Carolina.
But NEA spokesman Dan Kaufman says the ad is "not a political or campaign
ad," but a "grassroots lobbying ad" paid for with dues money.
Not surprisingly, Perdue's opponent, Richard Moore,
filed a complaint with the state elections board.
"This is a political ad pure and
simple," said Moore's deputy campaign manager Julie White. "Claiming it is
'grassroots lobbying' insults everyone's intelligence and breaks state
campaign finance laws."
7) Last Week's Intercepts. EIA's blog,
Intercepts, covered these topics from March 24-31:
*
Confirmed: Butera Out, Lyons In. Aren't unions opposed to arbitrary
dismissals?
*
And On the Seventh Day They Rested. But then
there was light.
*
I Blame NCLB. Getting to root causes.
8)
Quote of the Week.
"What an a**hole." – Madison Teachers Inc. Executive Director John Matthews,
offering a terse commentary on Stan Johnson, former president of the
Wisconsin Education Association Council. (March 27
Isthmus Daily Page) |
