|
1) McCain Polls Unusually Well Among NEA Members.
The National Education Association's
recent focus on the policy positions of Republican presidential candidate
John McCain owes much to its inability to choose between Democrats
Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. But multiple independent sources inform
EIA that the union is also concerned about the feelings of its own members.
The NEA board of directors was informed at its meeting
in Washington, DC last week that internal polling shows more than 41% of NEA
members "have a positive opinion of John McCain," even though his position
on education issues is almost always opposite that of the union. Forty-one
percent might not seem all that great at first glance, but NEA is a key
component of the Democratic Party coalition. The union is worried enough
about it that, according to one director, "a massive education effort of our
own members about the candidates and their stands on issues has begun."
Particularly disturbing for NEA was McCain's strength
among NEA members in the battleground state of Ohio, where two independent
sources tell EIA that internal polling showed McCain ahead of both Obama and
Clinton among Ohio Education Association members. This unsettling news also
prompted the Ohio union to quick action,
posting a web page aimed at members on McCain's education stances.
NEA's ability to sway the views of its own members
should not be underestimated. Nor should anyone believe that McCain's
relative popularity among teachers is in any great measure due to his
education policies. But
NEA's own information has often shown that its rank-and-file members
(particularly education support employees) are much more representative of
the American voting public than its activists are. This information
indicates that education employees, like most everyone else, don't choose a
President based on education policies.
2) Everyone Take One Step Forward: Van Roekel,
Eskelsen Declared Elected. The filing deadline for NEA office has come
and gone, leaving current NEA Vice President Dennis Van Roekel the lone
candidate for president, and current Secretary-Treasurer Lily Eskelsen the
lone candidate for vice president. Under union rules, they have been
declared elected and will assume their new positions in September.
This leaves only the open position of
secretary-treasurer for suspense, but it's an important one since it is the
only reasonable gateway to higher office in NEA. I neglected to check for
any new candidates, but I know both Marsha Smith of Maryland and Becky
Pringle of Pennsylvania are vying for the post. If I have missed other
candidates, please let me know.
In other news, NEA selected astronaut
Barbara Morgan as its 2008 Friend of Education.
3) Let's Face It: Most People Don't Care About
Education Policy. It isn't a Republican-Democrat issue,
liberal-conservative issue, labor-management issue, blogosphere-mainstream
media issue, or any other of the convenient ways we set up debates. No one
is getting the job done.
Fresh off
last week's news that the public has no clue what we spend on education
or how much teachers make, comes the depressing report that after 17 years
they don't know what a charter school is either.
Regardless of where we stand on the issues, we're all
in the business of education information. Clearly, we're not getting our
message across. We can blame the messengers. We can blame the audience. What
we can't credibly do, however, is blame political candidates for not
discussing education.
The only people who ever seem to get worked up over
education issues are school employees and parents with kids currently
enrolled in public school. That leaves out the vast majority of Americans.
Maybe an organization like
ED in '08 can worry a little less about why presidential candidates
aren't talking about education and a little more about why most Americans
don't know or care anything about it.
4) Lessons in Media Management.
The Grand
Rapids Education Association in Michigan certainly knows how to edit
creatively, but it got caught in the act last week.
Evidently the district released statistics indicating
school violence decreased over the last three years. Union officers disputed
the figures, leading the Grand Rapids Press to publish a story on the
issue, which began, "Grand Rapids Public Schools leaders are hiding the
number of weapons, drugs and other incidents in the city schools by
describing them as less-threatening offenses on district safety reports,
teachers union leaders claim."
The union then cited that sentence in a campaign
mailing, but left out the all-important clause "teachers union leaders
claim," instead attributing the statement to the Grand Rapids Press
itself. The sleight-of-hand backfired, however, as the Press got wind
of it, and published a
blistering editorial, calling the maneuver "an egregious manipulation."
5) District Spending Data Updated for Five More
States. EIA has updated district-by-district enrollment, workforce and
spending tables for the states of Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky and
Louisiana. Some items of note:
* In Indiana, 13 of the largest 20 school districts
exceed the state average in per-pupil spending.
* In Iowa, the teacher workforce has grown despite
drops in enrollment, led by a 5% increase in teachers in Des Moines, despite
a 1.1% decline in enrollment, between 2001 and 2006.
* In Kansas, most school districts are matching
enrollment declines with reductions in teachers, except for some of the
state's larger districts, such as Wichita, Kansas City and Topeka.
* In Kentucky, Jefferson County shows a 78% increase in
the number of teachers over the last five years, with only minimal
enrollment growth. I suspect a reporting error in the U.S. Census Bureau
2001 data.
* It is difficult to draw any conclusions from
Louisiana's figures, including as they do the after-effects of Hurricane
Katrina the state's school systems.
The tables are located at
http://www.eiaonline.com/districts.htm. District statistics for all
other states will be added over the next several weeks.
6) Labor Disclosure Reports Will Include Individual
Benefits. With a court's decision to require all NEA state affiliates to
file detailed financial disclosure reports with the U.S. Department of
Labor comes more bad news for unions. The reports will soon require labor
organizations to
individually itemize the cost of benefits paid to officers and
employees. Currently benefit costs are reported in one lump sum.
7) Charter School Schadenfreude.
Before this
month, Ohio Attorney General Marc Dann was best known for
getting his legal advice from the Ohio Education Association regarding
the best way to shut down charter schools. Now he's best known for uniting
the state's Republicans and Democrats behind one goal: getting rid of Marc
Dann.
According to the
Cincinnati Enquirer: "It's not just Dann's admission Friday of an
extramarital affair with an employee that troubles [Gov. Ted] Strickland.
The attorney general's failure to immediately investigate allegations of
sexual harassment involving other subordinate employees, and months of
mismanagement, are grounds for impeachment if Dann doesn't leave
voluntarily, Strickland said at a news conference outside the Statehouse."
Dann refuses to resign, and Ohio legislators are
scrambling for the best way to oust him. Maybe the Ohio Education
Association can come up with an idea.
8) Headline of the Week. "Teachers' union needs
to get a grip on reality" – May 10
Ottawa Citizen.
9) Last Week's Intercepts. EIA's blog,
Intercepts, covered these topics from May 5-12:
*
At Least He Didn't Wear a Bikini. Wizard!
*
Vermont NEA Executive Director Saves His Job. And he didn't even have a
union rep.
*
The Tide Is Turning. As Eduwonk succinctly puts it, "Who
Lost Merrow?"
10)
Quote of the Week.
"In their zealousness to protect teachers, they're not looking at the larger
picture of creating schools where teachers feel empowered. Teachers are, I
think, asking for a little less protection and a little more freedom." –
Doug Fireside, a Baltimore science teacher, speaking about his union. (May
12
Baltimore Sun) |
