Intercepts
A listening post monitoring public education and teachers’ unions.

I’ll be winging my way to Orlando today, which means I’ve already missed NEA’s open hearing on resolutions, whatever protests were arranged outside, and a press conference on one of the less-compelling issues of the day in public education. For these reasons, I believe my life span has increased by one year.

With the declarations of victory and defeat out of the way, NEA delegates can now return to the real business of the convention: PAC fundraising! (check the contribution dates)

When I first heard United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA) President A. J. Duffy speak, at last year’s NEA Representative Assembly, I wrote, “The Los Angeles papers are going to have a blast with this guy.”

Yesterday, Duffy provided a tremendous public service by spelling out, in one wonderful sentence, the entire union philosophy regarding public schools and school reform.

In testimony before the California Senate Education Committee, Duffy defended the deal between UTLA and Mayor Villaraigosa by saying:

“This bill has been criticized for fragmenting authority over the system so that no one person is accountable, but that is precisely the genius of this legislation.”

Duffy is absolutely right. It takes sheer genius to craft a proposal so cleverly that an operation involving tens of thousands of employees, hundreds of thousands of students, and billions of dollars holds no one accountable.

Bravo, sir.

The Connecticut Education Association and AFT Connecticut both backed challenger Ned Lamont in the Democratic primary for U.S. Senator, but the state AFL-CIO is sticking with the incumbent, Joseph Lieberman.

Not that it was easy or clean.

Bill Shortell, a delegate for the Machinists union and vice president of the Central Connecticut Labor Council, told the gathered AFL-CIO throng that endorsing Lieberman “will splatter our banner with the blood of innocent people,” according to a report in the Hartford Courant.

The Courant also reported that “the loudest uproar of the day came when Howard Coling of the Communications Workers of America ended his endorsement of Lieberman by announcing loudly, ‘Mr. Lamont, who owns a telecommunications company, is non-union.’”

Funny, I don’t remember seeing this on Daily Kos.

“It’s my opinion this resolution will fail overwhelmingly.” – Paul Hubbert, executive secretary-treasurer of the Alabama Education Association for 38 years, on the proposed gay marriage/adoption amendment to NEA’s resolutions.

Click here to read:

1) EIA Coverage of NEA Representative Assembly Begins July 1
2) Alteration to NEA Gay Marriage Resolution in Works
3) NEA Alaska Executive Director Resigns
4) Los Angeles Takeover: Union Reaches for Champagne, Mobs Reach for Pitchforks
5) What a Difference a State Makes
6) Ohio Education Association Puts Funding Initiative on Front Burner
7) Almost $220,000 to Fire a Tenured Teacher in Illinois
8) Tornillo: The Gift That Keeps on Giving*
9) Quote of the Week

*banned by AOL e-mail!

Thanks to the Boston Globe, EIA has discovered the Museum of Bad Art. There is an audio slideshow that accompanies the Globe story that is well worth your time, but go to the museum’s web site to see more of the collection, including this disturbing piece called “Jerez the Clown.”

Most of the art displayed is actually worse than this, but Jerez is most likely to give you nightmares.

The proposed amendment to NEA Resolution B-8, which would place the union in support of gay marriage and adoption, is undergoing an amendment of its own, suggested by the union’s Resolutions Committee.

The amendment to Resolution B-8, Diversity, sponsored by NEA’s Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender (GLBT) Caucus elicited a swift campaign of denunciation from the conservative American Family Association, and evidently NEA’s e-mail servers have been groaning under the weight of electronic protests.

Under the new arrangement, the GLBT amendment would be dropped, and new language would be inserted into Resolution B10-Racism, Sexism, Sexual Orientation, and Gender Identification Discrimination.

The new amendment would read:

“The Association also believes that these factors should not affect the legal rights and obligations of the partners in a legally-recognized domestic partnership, civil union, or marriage in regard to matters involving the other partner, such as medical decisions, taxes, inheritance, adoption, and immigration.”

The new language will be debated and voted upon by the Resolutions Committee at its June 29 hearing and, whatever its decision, the issue will undoubtedly rise again at the June 30 open hearing on resolutions, which can be attended by any interested delegate. So far, EIA has heard nothing of what the GLBT Caucus thinks of this alteration.

In a communication to state affiliate leaders, NEA President Reg Weaver wrote: “While I understand that the e-mails and phone calls you are receiving are generating concern, we must not allow the tactics and manipulations of these divisive groups to derail our process. NEA has no position on same-sex marriages, and leadership is not seeking to establish such a position.”