Don’t Know Much About the PAC I Took
* The Visalia Times-Delta in California has some wonderful quotes from local teachers’ union officials about their failure to file PAC disclosure reports for school board races.
“I flat out didn’t know I had to file until today,” said Pat Twiford, Visalia Unified Teachers Association political action committee chairman. “We are teachers first and all this stuff is on our time. I don’t even know where to go about deadlines or filings.”
“I never really kept much track of contributions,” Twiford said. “I was unaware the contributions had to be reported. I don’t deal with this too much.”
Teachers union president Karl Kildow said he was unaware if the PAC filed a report with the city clerk’s office. “It is my understanding that the committee sent it to the state Elections Office and the state told them to file it with a local entity,” Kildow said. “If they did, I’m not sure.”
* David Shreve of the National Conference of State Legislatures told a Nevada legislative committee yesterday that “there is no evidence that paying public school teachers more money will lead to better performance by students.” He was immediately taken to the woodshed by the local representatives of the education establishment, one of whom — Teresa Jordan — said there is a “weak correlation” between teacher pay and improved student performance. She blamed the weak correlation on the fact that teachers’ pay is based on level of education and years of teaching experience.
“However, Jordan said, research shows if pay increases are based on other factors — on which she did not elaborate — then students will perform better,” the Las Vegas Review Journal pointedly reported.
* A little history lesson from West Salem, Wisconsin.
