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

I notice that Gov. Rick Perry is sending the Texas Rangers to patrol the border with Mexico, but evidently there’s a lot more infiltration of school district borders across the United States.

In just the last week, we’ve seen stories of North Dakota students sneaking into Minnesota schools, Chicago teachers hopping the fence from the suburbs, and New York teachers fording Niagara Falls.

Is it time for walls, guard dogs and machine gun nests?

It wasn’t a great day for legal proceedings if you are a teacher union fan:

* King County Superior Court Judge Andrea Darvis set fines of $200 a day for teachers and $1500 a day for the Kent Education Association if the don’t end their illegal strike and return to work. She also had some pointed words for the strikers:

This Court understands that the teachers believe deeply in the positions that they have taken. Nevertheless, violating the law is not the appropriate way to achieve the teachers’ goals. Nor is it the appropriate way to demonstrate for students a respect for our democracy and our justice system…

It is undisputed that the teachers each signed contracts with the Kent School District for the 2009-2010 school year that required them to begin teaching on Aug 31, 2009. The strike is in violation of those contracts.

The law is clear that teachers do not have a right to strike under Washington law. That is why this court granted the School District’s request for an injunction –  the strike is unlawful, and it is harming children and their families. Some 26,000 children who should be getting an education in the schools are not being educated. Children and families who rely on the schools for special services are not getting those services. Families who depend on the schools for child care during regular school hours are being forced to scramble to make alternative arrangements for care and supervision of their children. High School seniors who plan to graduate next summer, and who have made or are in the process of making plans for college, have concerns over being able to graduate on time. Classified (non-teacher) employees of the District are not being paid while school is not in session. The longer the strike continues, the greater the degree of harm that is occurring….

Refusal to obey a court order is a sign of disrespect for our free institutions. It is a sign of disrespect for the Court – the very institution of government that exists to protect rights, liberties and access to justice for all people, regardless of their wealth, status or background. It is a poor example to set for the young people who are looking to their teachers as role models for how to behave in a society that is founded on the rule of law.

* A Missouri circuit court judge ruled that the Springfield school district can conduct collective bargaining with multiple representatives of teachers. Missouri NEA argued for exclusive representation. I particularly enjoyed this bit:

“Sally Barker, SNEA attorney, argued the policy is unconstitutional because it allows a minority party to potentially undermine the majority interest.”

I’m pretty sure constitutions enshrine the rights of minority parties to potentially undermine the majority interest.

* In Florida, Collier County Education Association executive director Jonathan Tuttle was arrested and charged with DUI property damage when he flipped his SUV earlier this week. Tuttle claimed he was avoiding a dog in the road, but he failed field sobriety tests and refused a breathalyzer.

* Florida teacher Alexandra Kralik is under investigation for the sixth time in 11 years for physical abuse of a student. This time it’s for forcefully yanking the arm of a kindergartener. The previous five times Kralik received a year’s leave, a written reprimand, a 20-day suspension and an order to attend anger management classes, and two more written reprimands. This time, “a Broward Teachers Union attorney said the union is investigating and Kralik has the right to due process.”

I’m fascinated by how performance pay for teachers has entered the mainstream of education policy thought. I won’t rehash the pros and cons; it’s just interesting to watch the theoretical debate.

Folks have been suggesting for many years that our current salary system doesn’t promote excellence in either teachers or students, and they have been mostly dismissed as ideologues or cranks. Experiments were tried. Some were successful, others were not. As time passed, more politicians and people of influence expressed guarded support for the concept. Then some Democrats. Then some Democratic presidential candidates. Then a Democratic President. Now we have legitimate work being done to put performance pay systems into place all over the country. This has prompted more detailed debate in the education policy world, and in the larger political world.

In just the last two days we’ve seen thoughtful posts on the topic by Kevin Carey at The Quick and the Ed, Robert Pondiscio at The Core Knowledge Blog, Megan McArdle at The Atlantic, and Matt Yglesias at his eponymous blog. All of this – the movement on the issue, the debate, the embracing of the idea by people of all political stripes – is good and is to be applauded. But while they all might acknowledge this one simple fact about performance pay, they fail to provide any practical ideas regarding what to do about it:

The teachers – and their unions – aren’t going for it.

Their position on the issue is clear and inflexible, despite the supportive tone that is sometimes served up for public consumption. And the last attempt to fundamentally change NEA’s position on the issue – nine years ago – ended with a rare delegate revolt and a strengthening of the union’s opposition.

So while a lot of energy and resources are being expended to design the perfect system, or to collaborate with the unions to determine what kind of system they might accept, no one seems to want to face the fact that they are perfectly happy with the current system and don’t want it altered.

They don’t want it. Are you going to do it anyway, or not?

New York State United Teachers and other teachers’ unions dodged a bullet when a federal district court judge ruled that 403(b) plans are not subject to the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA). Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald dismissed a lawsuit against NYSUT filed by teachers seeking redress because their 403(b) plans – the public sector equivalent to 401(k)s – had high fees and poor returns while the union was receiving payments from ING to promote the plan to members.

Judge Buchwald ruled 403(b)s are “governmental plans” and are exempt from ERISA regulations and sanctions. She then dismissed the suit as it did not fall under federal jurisdiction.

This is good news for teachers’ unions because Keller Rohrback, LLP, attorneys for the plaintiffs, seemed to have targeted NEA for similar legal actions.

Click here to read:

1) EIA Exclusive: Text of ISTA Lawsuits
2) Back-to-School Time Means NEA Affiliate Media Buys
3) Induction Induction
4) Contract Hits
5) Last Week’s Intercepts
6) Quote of the Week

The President: Hello everyone – how’s everybody doing today? … I’m glad you all could join us today….

Some of you are probably wishing it were still summer, and you could’ve stayed in bed just a little longer this morning. I know that feeling…

I wasn’t too happy about getting up that early…  This is no picnic for me either, buster.

But I’m here today because I have something important to discuss with you. I’m here because I want to talk with you about… what’s expected of all of you… 

Now I’ve given a lot of speeches…. And I’ve talked a lot about responsibility…

Don’t spend every waking hour in front of the TV or with that Xbox… 

None of it will matter unless all of you… put in the hard work it takes to succeed. 

Every single one of you has something you’re good at. Every single one of you has something to offer. And you have a responsibility to yourself to discover what that is…

You can’t… just drop into a good job. You’ve got to work for it and train for it and learn for it…

You’ll need the creativity and ingenuity… to build new companies that will create new jobs and boost our economy… 

If you don’t do that…  you’re not just quitting on yourself, you’re quitting on your country…

Maybe you… have friends who are pressuring you to do things you know aren’t right. 

But at the end of the day, …that’s no excuse for… having a bad attitude. That’s no excuse for talking back… or… not trying… 

That’s why today, I’m calling on each of you to set your own goals… and to do everything you can to meet them. Your goal can be something as simple as doing all your… work, paying attention… , or being teased or bullied… I hope you’ll all wash your hands a lot…

I want you to really work… 

I know that sometimes, you get the sense from TV that you can be rich and successful without any hard work… But the truth is, being successful is hard….

You won’t love… some of the most successful people in the world… These people succeeded because they understand that … you need to try harder…

That doesn’t mean you’re stupid, it just means you need to spend more time… at… hard work…

I do that every day… It’s a sign of strength…

So today, I want to ask you, what’s your contribution going to be? What problems are you going to solve?…

What will a president who comes here in twenty or fifty or one hundred years say about what all of you did for this country?…  

So I expect you to get serious this year. I expect you to put your best effort into everything you do. I expect great things from each of you. So don’t let us down – don’t let your family or your country or yourself down. Make us all proud. I know you can do it.

Thank you, God bless you, and God bless America.

King County Superior Court Judge Andrea Darvas issued a back-to-work order to the striking teachers of the Kent Education Association. Darvas ruled – as every other judge has ruled – that Washington state teachers do not have a statutory right to strike.

So, just like in a bad movie where the hero is surrounded by 40 armed villains and advises them to drop their weapons and surrender, KEA President Lisa Brackin Johnson responded to the news by issuing an ultimatum to school district officials, saying the union would give them “one more opportunity to do the right thing.” The union will wait until after the Labor Day weekend to decide whether or not to defy the court order.

At a membership meeting, some teachers wore “jail orange” sweatshirts with serial numbers printed on the back – apparently to signal their willingness to go to prison rather than back to work. That’s pretty funny – but I encourage those teachers to look into the case of Middletown, New Jersey, in 2001 to see who gets the last laugh.

I’m opposed to no-strike laws, but those who defend defying a court order should consider the general application of such a tactic. What’s to prevent a maverick superintendent and school board somewhere from firing a group of teachers en masse, and the defying a court order to restore them to their jobs? How about defying an arbitrator’s decision in a grievance case? What if your principal showed up at school in an orange sweatshirt after involuntary transferring your union rep? Not so funny anymore.