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

Part of Gov. Deval Patrick’s education reform platform is to have a single statewide collective bargaining agreement with the teachers’ unions.

He’s not the first one to float this idea, but I get the sense even he isn’t taking it too seriously, since he “listed the statewide union as a goal to be achieved more than eight years from now.” Of course, eight years from now Gov. Patrick surely has designs on being Sen. Patrick or Vice President Patrick, leaving the mess for his successor.

There is only one state that negotiates a single teachers’ contract, and that’s Hawaii. The Aloha State’s labor relations record is not one that cries out for imitation (see item #4 here).

Even so, repeating it in Massachusetts would be much more difficult. For one thing, Hawaii’s teachers are all represented by one union – the NEA-affiliated Hawaii State Teachers Association. In Massachusetts, AFT has a significant presence, including the Boston Teachers Union. The two organizations are not exactly, uh, chums.

Gov. Patrick’s overall education plan has many facets, some of which may actually be enacted. This, however, is not one of them.

The Connecticut State Data Center is warning school districts to expect a 17 percent drop in K-12 enrollment over the next 12 years. Its findings are consistent with what has been happening in the state in recent years.

“For the past 20 to 30 years, enrollments have been going up and up as a result of the baby boomers and their kids,” said CSDC manager Orlando Rodriguez. “That’s now past and what’s coming behind is a much smaller generation.”

Apparently news of the Baby Boom hasn’t reached some Connecticut school officials. A spokesman for the state department of education said, “We are now entering a phase of declining enrollments, but if it follows historic patterns, we will see growth again in 10 years.”

In Waterbury, school officials predict “a faltering of growth, but no decrease,” while the superintendent in Woolcott asserted, “We are projecting a steady enrollment for the next two to three years, and then a slight decrease. That could be counterbalanced by many new (housing) developments.”

It’s exactly these attitudes that lead to the budget deficits and layoffs we’re seeing in many district across the country. Refusal to address the problem while it is small and manageable only leads to crisis actions later.

Rodriguez agrees. “We won’t bounce back the way we always have,” he said. “The numbers are just not there. The economy isn’t there. The people aren’t there.”

The South Carolina Education Association, which has been booting executive directors under mysterious circumstances for years, came full circle and hired Aaron Wallace to fill the position, according to EIA sources. Earlier this year Wallace was mysteriously forced out of his position as chief of staff of the Florida Education Association.

SCEA officers were apparently determined to head down this road, since they also interviewed Michael Billirakis, an outgoing member of the NEA Executive Committee who resigned from the board of the Ohio State Teacher Retirement System in 2006 after being charged with ethics violations.

Click here to read:

1) Coverage of NEA Representative Assembly Begins July 2
2) Working for the NEA
3) Weak Enrollment Problems Only Beginning
4) Another NEA Affiliate Executive Director Opening
5) Last Week’s Intercepts
6) Quote of the Week

“The next big thing: smaller schools” – headline in the June 22 Baltimore Sun.

“Small-school experiment doesn’t live up to hopes” – headline in the June 23 Seattle Times.