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

This is the EIA Communiqué for April 13, 1998:

+ Opposition to the proposed NEA/AFT merger has grown to the point where the outcome of the July vote is in serious doubt. The secret ballot vote at the NEA Representative Assembly will require a 2/3rds majority to approve the merger. Since the 10 largest NEA state affiliates have more than 50% of the votes, union officials thought it would take only a minor campaign to gain the necessary margin. That strategy now seems to be falling apart. Recent events make it clear that NEA will need landslides in pro-merger states in order to overcome a coalescing opposition.

*The Illinois Education Association (ranked 6th in membership) voted to oppose merger by a 2-1 margin.

*The Iowa State Education Association (ranked 22nd) voted to oppose merger by a nearly 3-1 margin.

*Affiliates from several right-to-work states — most specifically Georgia, Virginia and Iowa — have threatened to disaffiliate from NEA if the merger is approved.

The vote margin in Iowa was particularly galling, since it came after NEA President Bob Chase had addressed ISEA’s delegates. NEA continues to send high officials out to state conventions in an effort to gather support.

One major issue is causing the uproar — affiliation with AFL-CIO. Affiliates in right-to-work states are convinced that the merger will finish them. “In a right to work state, [merger] could cause us a great membership drop,” notes ISEA President Bob Gilchrist. “If members think we are ‘just a union’ they will stop joining and join the Professional Educators of Iowa. They are just waiting to send out a mailing.” Professional Educators of Iowa is one of many alternative teacher associations throughout the nation. These organizations tend to be less partisan, less politically active, and a lot less expensive to join than are NEA/AFT affiliates.

Ironically, an NEA/AFT merger, meant to reduce competition between the two union giants, may engender cutthroat membership wars between affiliates of the merged organization and former NEA affiliates. It’s possible that a teacher union monopoly at the national level could lead to market competition for unions and teacher organizations in a significant number of states.

Others have noted the contradiction between Chase’s push for new unionism and his simultaneous push for affiliation with the symbol of old unionism — the AFL-CIO. Signs of pro-merger anxiety are beginning to show. One NEA publication ran a story with the lead: “An array of right-wing organizations and individuals have stepped up their rhetoric against the proposed unification of NEA and the American Federation of Teachers. One group opposed to public education has sent letters directly to Association members cautioning against merger.” The story prompted the president of an Arizona local affiliate to remark, “I sincerely hope that NEA’s focus does not become to ‘force’ a merger/union just to spite the ‘radical right’… More games, I fear.”

+ Rumors reported by EIA last fall came only half-true. In September, EIA reported that it was “very likely” that an outsider would become the next NEA communications director. The new director, however, comes from neither the Kamber Group nor the White House. Her name is Kate Mattos, previously the managing director of Osgood, O’Donnell and Walsh, a “communications and strategies consulting firm” in Washington, DC. Mattos also spent four years as director of public affairs for AFT. Mattos has worked for three members of Congress and two presidential campaigns (guess which two?).

+ NEA is prominent among those who gave generously to the financially strapped Democratic National Committee in the first quarter of 1998. The union donated $100,500 to the DNC between January and March.

+ U.S District Judge Jeffrey Miller tossed out a lawsuit filed by the Grossmont Education Association (CA). The union claimed the school district had violated its First Amendment rights by refusing to let the union use school mailboxes to distribute a newsletter advocating the recall of a school board member. The California Education Code prohibits use of public funds, equipment or facilities to take sides in elections. The suit could have had wide-ranging repercussions throughout California, because the union claimed this provision of the code was “overly broad and vague.” Judge Miller dismissed that argument entirely.

+ In the early days of this century, many union members gave their blood for their unions. Today in Wisconsin, a union is asking its members to withhold their blood. Laboratory and office employees of the American Red Cross in Madison and Green Bay have been working without a contract since November. Their union — Wisconsin Council 40 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) — urged them to stop donating blood until a new contract is ratified. The Wisconsin AFL-CIO also authorized a statewide boycott of blood donations. The Red Cross claims that the last time this tactic was tried, blood donations increased.

+ Quote of the Week #1: “I think if they get paid $60,000 or $70,000 a year, they should get… in to work.” — Tom Danley, offering his opinion of the illegal Paterson (NJ) teachers’ strike. Danley is a deliveryman for Cream-O-Land dairy. He was greeted with cries of “Scab!” and “Who taught you how to read?” from members of the Paterson Education Association, who were walking a picket line outside P.S. 24.

+ Quote of the Week #2: “They told me to sign in and stay there. But I ain’t staying there for nothing. I just felt I was wasting my time.” — Joseph Davies, a 15-year-old sophomore at Eastside High School in Paterson. Paterson schools have been under state control since 1991 because of low test scores and poor administration. No word on whether young Mr. Davies opted to spend the day with a grammar book.

+ Quote of the Week #3: “This is such an unbalanced playing field.” — Paterson Education Association President Peter Tirri, after Judge Amos C. Saunders ordered the teachers back to work. Paterson teachers average $54,689 per year, which is 9% more than the state average. The median income in Paterson is $12,000. More than 80 percent of the teachers do not live in Paterson.

Union officials and district negotiators subsequently reached a tentative agreement. Details were not disclosed.

This is the EIA Communiqué for March 16, 1998:

+ Merger mania is beginning to hit various groups within the National Education Association with the dissemination of the “Draft AFT/NEA Principles of Unity” to board members and state affiliate presidents (available from EIA). With the exact wording defined, the first organized opposition to merger is beginning to appear. By a vote of 644 to 220, the representative assembly of the Illinois Education Association voted against merger. IEA became the first state affiliate to formalize its opposition. NEA-New Hampshire and the New Jersey Education Association have expressed concerns informally.Union staffers are also worried. Although NEA President Bob Chase pledged no national staffers would lose their jobs, he admitted that possible staff reductions at the state level were beyond his control. The draft principles allow — for the first time in NEA — release-time teachers to become union staffers. The principles also refer to part-time staff. This is setting off alarm bells at state affiliates across the country. Staff unions in the Midwest and Northeast have asked the National Staff Organization (the union of teacher union staffers) to oppose the merger. NSO has its own “Declaration of Principles”:

1) That pensions of NSO members be protected.

2) That staff jobs and salaries be protected.

3) That mergers do not create a new and larger bureaucracy more distant from its members.

4) That the current obsession with internal reorganization and merger does not interfere with our obligation to commitment to advocacy for the members of NEA.

+ On January 27, EIA began disseminating the “Joint Progress Report” on the merger from NEA President Bob Chase and AFT President Sandra Feldman (dated January 21). EIA has just learned that on February 5, NEA sent an e-mail to state affiliate presidents, asking them to withhold those details from members. Part of the message read: “More appropriate now is coverage that lets people know that the negotiations with AFT set in motion by delegates to the 1995 NEA RA have been making progress, so much so that a vote on Principles of Unity for creating a new organization could take place this July at the NEA RA.” In sum, nine days after you knew all about the joint progress report, NEA was still trying to keep it from its own members.

+ The preliminary results are in from Oregon’s “tough” new teacher tenure law. Only eight of the Portland School District’s 3,300 permanent teachers (about 0.2 percent) did not have their contracts extended. Richard Garrett, president of the Portland Association of Teachers, told The Oregonian he thought the district went overboard and was “cruel” to teachers.

+ The New Orleans Times-Picayune recently published a series of reports on the disappearance of school property. Orleans Parish School Board investigators discovered that more than $3.4 million in school computers, band instruments and equipment had gone missing in the past five years. McDonogh Senior High School topped the list with over $117,000 in missing and stolen property. “There has been a fatal absence of accountability in the school system,” said District Attorney Harry Connick. Some thefts approached the comical. Custodian Ernestine Falls stole a refrigerator from Edwards Elementary School. When it stopped working, she called the school’s maintenance department to come and fix it. “In a private business, if you lost those things, you would be held responsible,” said former Audit Advisory Committee member Edward Jackson. “But that is not how it works at the School Board.”

+ A 13-year-old Jehovah’s Witness threatened to sue the Highline School District when a teacher made him stand outside in the rain for 15 minutes because he wouldn’t recite the Pledge of Allegiance. District policy allows students to remain respectfully silent during the pledge. Meanwhile, a school in one northern California district alternates the Pledge of Allegiance with a number of other pledges, including this “Pledge to the Universe”: “I pledge allegiance to the world. To cherish every living thing. To care for earth and sea and air, with peace and freedom everywhere.”

+ Teachers represented by the Amphitheater Education Association in Arizona have a contract provision that allows them to save unused sick leave. When they leave the district, they are paid for the unused days. The problem is that the school district is building an unlimited liability at a rate of 5 percent per year. Eventually, the liability will grow beyond the district’s ability to pay. Current contract negotiations address the issue, but union reps say they will not “bargain away any of our employee benefits.”

+ Quote of the Week: “Clearly, this is an orchestrated effort. We can expect to see more of these attacks. They have already appeared in other cities in our state. Every teacher should note that the people responsible are not friends of education. Their negativism toward teachers is consistent and pervasive. In reality, this attack is probably based on the fact that many people fear us. They are afraid of our numbers. The fact that we are everywhere and are united makes us strong. Do not waste reason on these critics. The facts about teacher absenteeism do not work with these people. We know that working conditions and pressures often dictate increased absence. CEA challenges all our critics to look more closely. A building by building analysis will paint the real picture. If the State Board of Education wants to become involved in this debate without finding the real data we will take each one of them to task, personally.” — an editorial from The CEA Voice, the weekly newsletter of the Columbus Education Association, after a Columbus Dispatch story that showed Ohio teachers were absent more often than students.

This is the EIA Communiqué for March 8, 1998:

This EIA flash comes to you from the Westin Hotel in Los Angeles, where I have just attended the California Teachers Association’s Equity and Human Rights Conference. Along with the usual topics of ethnic and racial minority rights, women’s rights, and gay and lesbian rights, the conference also addressed two initiatives that will appear on California’s June 2 ballot: Proposition 226 (the Campaign Reform Initiative) and Proposition 227 (the English for the Children initiative). Prop 226 would require unions to annually obtain their members’ permission to use any portion of their dues for political purposes. Prop 227 would place students currently in bilingual education programs into English immersion classes for one year, then place them in mainstream classes. At two workshop sessions officials from CTA, the National Education Association and other organizations described the current status of their campaigns and their strategies for defeating the two initiatives.

Prop 226 — NEA’s Kevin DeLeon discussed the results of recent internal polling and focus group surveys of CTA members. He revealed that 70 percent of CTA members currently support Prop 226. The news brought gasps of surprise from the assembled teacher union representatives and activists. “Yes, we’ve nudged that down from 76 percent,” interjected a chagrined CTA board member standing at the back of the room.

Because of the huge rift in their base of support, NEA and CTA have decided on a dual approach to defeat Prop 226. Lee Berg, of NEA’s Center for the Revitalization of Urban Education, discussed the internal campaign to swing teacher union members away from support of 226. After a detailed report on J. Patrick Rooney, Grover Norquist, John Walton, Gov. Pete Wilson, and other financial supporters of 226, Berg instructed the audience to ask teachers “Why would your enemies want to help you?” He asserted that the passage of 226 “would bankrupt CTA’s political action committee” and warned the audience that once it happened, school vouchers and tuition tax credits would soon follow. Berg claimed “these things are orchestrated — and democracy’s at stake.” He proceeded to alert everyone to the dangers of vouchers. “When education is not public,” he said, “we no longer have the ability to control what is taught and what is not taught.”

Berg talked about Exodus 2000, a project of evangelical Christian groups to encourage parents to remove their kids from public schools. “What kind of nation would we have,” he asked, “if half the children were taught the universe was created in six days, 10,000 years ago, and are taught that as science? If you think our science scores are bad now compared to other nations, just imagine…”

DeLeon discussed the external campaign, designed to swing voters who are not members of teachers’ unions. Because most people do not belong to unions, NEA/CTA focus group research determined that discussing 226′s negative effect on union influence was counterproductive. “Therefore,” DeLeon said, “we are not going to use the word ‘union’.” He added that campaign ads, literature and other documentation targeted at external audiences would not refer to “unions.”

CTA is preparing a video on both propositions and will be unveiling it shortly. In the case of 226 it is expected to emphasize the use of out-of-state money, the vast advantage corporations would have in future campaigns, and the threat of vouchers. Though NEA and CTA revealed no source who donated more than $50,000 to support 226, Berg claimed that “They have bottomless pits of money and we have limited resources.” Between NEA, CTA and AFL-CIO, the anti-226 campaign is already committed to spending as much as $11 million.

Prop 227 — DeLeon would say only that “more than 50 percent” of CTA members currently support the Unz initiative. Their polls of the general public show 227 winning by a 2 to 1 margin. Panelists and audience members were vocally distressed by their lack of progress on the issue despite the fact that 227 is “screwy.” In an audience of activists and union reps, confusion was rife about what the initiative would do. Nevertheless, all but one of the 50 or so people in the room were vehemently opposed to it. One lone State Council member, an elderly Hispanic woman, spoke up. She informed the audience that she had participated in a CTA focus group, and that everyone had been against 227 — except for her and the only other recent immigrant in the group. “I have no problem with the Unz initiative,” she said. “Children should be getting their native culture and language at home, not in the public school.”

The temperature in the room dropped 30 degrees as she spoke. Other audience members then verbally attacked her views. The woman seemed more resigned than angry and soon left the room. Her absence did not end the barrage of criticism of her simple statement.

Stewart Kwoh, executive director of the Asian Pacific American Legal Center, and various audience members discussed approaches to take when attempting to “educate” those who “are not aware of the initiative’s implications.”

Kwoh noted that waivers from the proposed immersion program were “onerous” and “complicated” because they required positive action, paperwork and annual renewal. Interestingly, these are the same arguments supporters of Prop 226 use when they speak of the current procedures established for the reimbursement of the political portion of their dues.

Others in the audience saw a relationship between 227 and the new Standardized Testing And Reporting (STAR) Program. They suggested teacher sentiment could swing on this basis: Newly mainstreamed bilingual students will lower the test scores of your class. The STAR program will see to it that you receive poor personal evaluations for this. Your career, and eventually your pay, will suffer.

Still others suggested emphasizing the loss of parental choice should 227 pass. “One size doesn’t fit all” will apparently be a much-used slogan on the anti-227 side.

David Sanchez, a member of the CTA Board of Directors, interrupted to say that CTA focus group research had already discovered the way to defeat the Unz initiative. “The issue is money!” he said. Sanchez claimed that the $50 million annual cost — taken from Prop 98 funds — is what “turns the tide” on the initiative. He suggested a strategy similar to what was proposed to defeat 226. “Don’t even try to defend bilingual education,” he said. NEA and CTA are fairly convinced that older, white women are the key to the campaign. That demographic will be specifically targeted in the coming weeks.

Despite assurances that the battle could be won, the audience was told that lawyers from the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund (MALDEF) were already crafting a legal challenge. “If Unz passes,” said one CTA State Council member, “it will be in court the next day.”

Victor Nauro (spelling may be incorrect), a member of the speakers’ bureau in opposition to 227, said the field campaign will kickoff on March 21. He supplied the audience with the address and phone number of “One Nation, One California” — the Prop 227 campaign headquarters in the LA area — “in case,” he said, “you really want to target an office.” He did not elaborate.

This is the EIA Communiqué for February 2, 1998. A relevant embedded link has been added.

+ Here are a series of informative tidbits from a recent NEA Board of Directors meeting:

* NEA has created a “task force” to “coordinate the multiple levels of our response” to “right wing attacks.” For those readers who may be new to teacher union-watching, NEA and its affiliates have various permanent departments, groups, task forces and cadres dedicated to investigating, infiltrating and reporting on “extremists,” by which they mean opponents. If all the affiliates are taken into account, the budget for these activities runs into tens of millions of dollars. Here is a portion of a report from this particular board meeting:

“Many of these various attacks are being orchestrated nationally, by the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), the Evergreen Freedom Foundation, and the National Right to Work Foundation. There are also common funding sources: The Golden Rule Foundation, the Bradley Foundation and the Institute for the Study of Popular Culture.”

* The board defeated a motion to poll all members regarding the proposed merger and affiliation with AFL-CIO.

* The board approved the expenditure of $500,000 from NEA’s contingency fund to assist the California Teachers Association in fighting the payroll protection initiative. Since CTA is flush with money (class size reduction led to a membership boom in California), a grant of this size so early in the campaign can only mean the unions will spend a record amount, if necessary, to defeat the measure.

* NEA is very concerned about growing African American support for school choice programs. Both NEA President Bob Chase and Vice President Reg Weaver have been crossing the country, meeting with African American politicians and community groups. One director reported the gist of Weaver’s report as “We must find ways to improve schools in urban areas or the disconnect with the black community will widen.”

* NEA dues will rise by at least $3 next year. This planned increase will place the national portion of dues at $112. NEA projects the average teacher salary to exceed $40,000 this year.

+ Organized opposition to the NEA/AFT merger has yet to arise, though this may come from union staff rather than members. The biggest worry appears to be how the merger will affect staff contracts and seniority. Noises about AFT’s “equal partner” treatment have also been heard, because NEA outnumbers AFT by almost 3 to 1.

There is mostly silence about what state affiliates will do. The Minnesota affiliates of NEA and AFT have already merged. The Montana Education Association and the Montana Federation of Teachers just completed a draft constitution for a merged union and will vote on its governing structure in the next three months. On the other side, the West Virginia NEA and AFT affiliates are expressing doubt that they will ever merge.

+ Joseph Doherty, the Pennsylvania teacher charged with the indecent assault of a 12-year-old boy, resigned last week. The Avonworth Education Association, an NEA local affiliate, filed a grievance on Doherty’s behalf because the school installed a hidden camera in his room and captured the assault on videotape. “The reason for my resignation is not that I am guilty,” said Doherty’s resignation letter, according to published reports. “I am satisfied that I did nothing illegal, immoral or wrong. I certainly contend that I never touched that student’s buttocks or genitalia during the course of the wrestling.”

The Pennsylvania Education Association had contended that Doherty was innocent and was being targeted because of his union activities. Upon word of Doherty’s resignation, PSEA withdrew its grievance. “A union only represents employees,” explained PSEA representative Arleen Richardson.

+ A survey conducted by UCLA and the American Council on Education concluded that the academic self-confidence of college freshmen outweighs their performance. A majority of freshmen reported their high school grades as B- or higher and rated themselves above average in academics. However, a majority also reported needing remedial course work in math, English, science and foreign languages.

+ Need to get rid of a bloated district and state education bureaucracy? The Hawaii State Teachers Association found the answer. Simply guarantee teachers a pay raise large enough that you can’t afford all those bureaucrats. A faltering economy and a generous teachers’ contract last year has caused Gov. Ben Cayetano to call for cuts of $20 million to $40 million in his education budget. State officials are already floating ideas like fee increases for school lunches and bus transportation, and parent volunteers to perform custodial duties in schools. Now HSTA wants to ensure that classroom budgets are untouched. Joan Husted, HSTA deputy executive director, asked state officials to reduce administration bureaucracies to make up the shortfall. Hmmm, don’t some of those bureaucrats belong to unions, too?

+ In more news from the Aloha State, Principal Norma Barroga of Lanai High and Elementary School is suing Husted, HSTA President June Motokawa and four teachers for defamation. The HSTA charged that Barroga “had failed to honor grievance settlements, shared confidential information about teachers with other employees, solicited negative comments about teachers, made terroristic threats against an employee and interfered with a teacher’s right to file for workers’ compensation.” Thirty-five of the 40 teachers at Lanai School signed a resolution supporting Barroga and claimed that the HSTA allegations were false.

+ Massachusetts taxpayers will subsidize teachers’ home Internet use for at least the next three years — to the tune of $3.7 million. Through September, teachers will have free Internet access, after which they will pay $25 per year. “I envisioned teachers using the Internet to access the Red Sox web page,” said State Education Commissioner Robert V. Antonucci (no relation). “But teachers consistently told me that the Internet adds another teaching tool in an educator’s bag of tricks.”

Question: Isn’t this particular “bag of tricks” utilizing public money for the private benefit of a few? Shouldn’t this taxpayer subsidy wait until all teachers can afford home computers? Couldn’t some teachers use the Internet to access Bible study web-sites, thus violating the separation of church and state? Just wondering.

+ The following item appeared in the February NEA Today: “McGraw-Hill, the textbook publishing giant, saw profits jump 30 percent earlier this year, then forced over 100 employees to become Kelly Girl temps. The employees were fired a month later — and denied severance because of their temp status.”

Apparently those Houghton Mifflin “international hors d’oeuvres” were so good, it’s leading to bad publicity for competitors. Will McGraw-Hill escalate the appetizer wars? Stay tuned…

This is the EIA Communiqué for December 29, 1997:

+ If you call your business the Education Intelligence Agency you open yourself up to criticism of overstating the secrecy with which the education establishment operates. People will say you are equating union representatives with enemy agents. Read the following story — paying particular attention to the union response — and see if you think EIA has a legitimate purpose.

Steve Confer, the executive director of the Clark County Classroom Teachers Association (CCCTA) in Nevada, finds himself accused of misusing funds from the UniServ staff union fund while he worked for the Indiana State Teachers Association (ISTA) in 1996. According to a report in the Las Vegas Review-Journal, Confer wrote himself checks from the professional staff organization’s (PSO) fund and used the union’s credit card to charge personal expenses — for a total of $53,000. The staff union, of which Confer was treasurer, filed an insurance claim to recover part of the losses. The claim shows the expenditures were disguised with false entries in the union’s check register. Confer claims he cashed out his retirement plan to repay the money.

Confer claims the expenses resulted from a secret investigation of ISTA. “They knew this was going to be an expensive ‘black’ operation,” said Confer. “I acted on my belief that this was the mission I was given.” The board of the staff union denies knowledge of any covert operation. Confer said there were no records of his investigation, that he couldn’t remember when it began, and that he has since destroyed all the information he gathered. He claims to have followed people around and dug around in garbage cans during his investigation. “The things I was doing on behalf of the PSO were not the most attractive things,” he said. Confer refused to say how a charge of $287.16 to a Fort Wayne shoe store or tickets to Epcot Center at Walt Disney World aided his investigation.

Sue Strand, president of the CCCTA, questioned the motives of the Review-Journal reporters who broke the story. “This has nothing to do with him being here,” she said. “This makes me real suspicious.” Confer also sees himself as a victim. “Someone’s trying to discredit me,” he said.

This is not Confer’s first caper. In 1996, he filed suit on behalf of the Fort Wayne Education Association against Fort Wayne Community Schools (FWCS) for contracting with a private school, Richard Milburn High School, to provide remedial help to at-risk students. On the evening of May 1, 1996, Confer decided to visit the Milburn school. What happened next depends on whom you believe. Confer said that when he identified himself, an offered tour of the facilities was withdrawn and that he was asked to leave, which he did. The police report filed by Milburn’s director, Carolyn Glossenger, claims Confer harassed employees, pushing past them. The report stated that Confer smelled of liquor and threatened to return as he was leaving. This prompted Glossenger to phone police.

Confer claimed that the police report was the work of FWCS Superintendent Thomas Fowler-Finn. In a press release, Confer wrote: “We have learned that Dr. Fowler-Finn does not deal well with criticism and will often personally attack his critics.”

+ A story by Mark Maremont in the Wall Street Journal indicates that at least the idea of union “black operations” is not the figment of Steve Confer’s imagination. The story details the role of Hoffa operative Richard Leebove in uncovering the misuse of dues to benefit the campaign of Teamster President Ron Carey. Leebove cultivated informants at Teamsters headquarters in Washington, who supplied him with confidential documents and computer files. He used false identities to extract information from Teamster contributors. Government investigators credit Leebove with uncovering the money trail from union funds, to assorted individuals and advocacy groups, to the Carey campaign.

+ The NEA Executive Committee approved the Colorado Education Association’s use of reduced dues to aid efforts to organize the Boulder Valley Paraeducator Association.

+ Looks as though NEA will need to gin up another “Strategic Association Response to Extremism.” No sooner has NEA President Bob Chase’s response to a critical article been printed in Redbook, when that other purveyor of anti-public education propaganda — Good Housekeeping — published “When Teacher Gets an F” in its January 1998 issue. The article includes a sidebar entitled “What Parents Can Do,” which includes the phone number of the Center for Education Reform because, as the article says, “A lone parent can hardly buck the power of the teachers’ unions.” Pencils are reportedly being sharpened at NEA headquarters.

+ EIA starts the new year in excellent shape. Many thanks to all of you who have shown support for this enterprise. I encourage you to send feedback. Let me know what information you would like to see, and how you have used the information provided. This list will expand considerably beginning next week. Bear with me as I introduce new readers to EIA. A happy and prosperous 1998 to each of you.

This is the EIA Communiqué for October 2, 1997. I’ve added a relevant embedded link.

+ Aetna Insurance Company offers its Opportunity Plus retirement annuity exclusively through New York State United Teachers (NYSUT) — an American Federation of Teachers (AFT) affiliate. The program is endorsed by NYSUT and offers reduced commission rates. In compliance with the law, Aetna states that “All of the contributions received by Aetna on behalf of participants are invested in the participants’ accounts in the investment options selected by participants. No portion of their contribution is returned to NYSUT.”However, in exchange for this exclusive arrangement, Aetna does make payments to NYSUT. According to the Opportunity Plus prospectus, “NYSUT is reimbursed for direct out-of-pocket expenses incurred in the promotion of the Opportunity Plus program up to a maximum of $75,000 per year. In addition, the Company will pay NYSUT between $30,000-$42,000 per month from 1994 through 1998. NYSUT has indicated to the Company that it intends to use these amounts to enhance benefits to the membership.” This arrangement sheds some light on endorsement agreements that are far from uncommon among union affiliates. An annual payment of $435,000 to $579,000 to an affiliate the size of NYSUT is not chump change. It also suggests that the way to determine union income from these arrangements is to avoid the vague and convoluted union documentation, and go instead to the data of the private firm offering the benefit, who must explain the arrangement to its stockholders.

+ In what should become a model for think tanks in other states, a group of public policy experts in Wisconsin put together a study of the contract between the Milwaukee School District and the Milwaukee Teachers’ Education Association. Milwaukee has been the scene of labor unrest recently. Howard Fuller, director of the Institute for the Transformation of Learning at Marquette University, George A. Mitchell, a public policy consultant, and Michael E. Hartmann, director of research at the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute, co-authored the study which was featured in the October 1 issue of Education Week. The authors concluded that contract provisions are known by only a handful of people and rarely improve academic achievement. The authors recommend collective bargaining take place in public to increase accountability.

The report is available from Mr. Fuller’s organization (414) 288-5775.

The study also notes that after the union’s executive director met with one of the report’s authors the union staff declined to respond to questions and refused to provide copies of important documents and publications. That type of attitude promises to keep EIA in business for a long time….

+ A letter to the editor of the Detroit News warmed my heart. It was from Tom Lukshaitis, president of the Sandusky Education Association. He wrote, in part: “As a local president of a Michigan Education Association (MEA) bargaining unit, I can honestly say the only time I’m aware of what the brass in our organization gets in salary is when it is reported in the newspapers.

“In the past, I’ve asked for the specific salaries of many different leaders in our association. All I ever received was a very intricate salary schedule with many different levels to go along with salary steps. The decision as to what each of our executives make is not made by or reported to the general membership…. I believe in what our union stands for. The office and field workers of the MEA try their best to help the constituents. Unfortunately, MEA leaders have allowed the organization to become more important than the purpose for which it stands. It appears that our execs have spent considerable time promoting their importance, instead of spending time on what is important.”

+ The Washington Education Association must be feeling the heat of multiple lawsuits and campaign finance investigations. Their web page features a series of attacks on the Evergreen Freedom Foundation (EFF), the organization whose stellar work uncovered the irregularities in the first place. WEA’s computer thesaurus is evidently operating at optimal speed, as the union claims that because EFF’s facts have been “inflammatory, histrionic, far-fetched and grossly exaggerated, we chose not to respond directly…” (Where have I heard that “exaggerated” and “chose not to respond” phrase before? Hmmm…)

+ The Professional Association of Georgia Educators (PAGE) is the state’s alternative teachers’ association, and is unique because its membership (about 45,000) is larger than the state’s NEA affiliate, the Georgia Association of Educators (GAE). GAE has about 32,000 members. “New teachers moving into the state, they’re just elated to know they don’t have to join the NEA,” said Barbara Christmas, executive vice president of PAGE. GAE has its own explanation of PAGE’s success: crypto-racism. “If you were to look at the board of PAGE and its employees today, they are almost all white,” said Grady Yancey Jr., president of GAE. “It is not an inclusive organization as far as representing the diverse population of students.” PAGE’s annual dues are $99. GAE’s are $273.

The following is the EIA Communiqué for September 12, 1997:

+ The staff unions for both the Lousiana Association of Educators (LAE) and the Ohio Education Association (OEA) have been on strike since Labor Day against their teacher union bosses. Picketers marched in front of the OEA building in Columbus carrying signs that read “A Labor Union on Strike Against a Labor Union on Labor Day.” The gyrations of these stories are hard to follow, so bear with me.The Columbus Education Association is involved in a bitter contract negotiation with the Columbus School District. So OEA UniServ consultant Rick Logan has agreed to continue to assist the Columbus EA. But by doing so, he is “scabbing” the Ohio Professional Staff Union to which he belongs (probably with its consent). Meanwhile, secretaries at the Columbus EA have joined the picket line, prompting the Columbus EA to ask members for “your patience as we utilize temporary help.”

Apparently OEA presented a contract with 40 “take backs” to the staff union. The staff union also alleges that OEA “walked away from the table” after presenting this offer. OEA President Mike Billirakis has reportedly been quoted as saying he is willing to lose 30,000 members, if necessary, before he gives in. In OEA’s defense, the average OEA staff cash/benefits package (including “management”) is worth $87,582.

In Lousiana, LAE is attempting to tie staff salary steps to good evaluations (merit pay?!?). Iona Holloway, one of the nine most senior elected officials in the National Education Association by virtue of her recent election to NEA’s executive committee, reportedly crossed the Louisiana staff union’s picket line to answer phones at the LAE office. A source inside the LAE building says there is no end in sight.

Such teacher union/staff union battles are not all that unusual. In the past two years, the staff unions in Kansas, Kentucky and California have conducted bitter fights with their teacher union management. Last year, the Michigan staff union went on strike, and filed a series of unfair labor practice complaints against the Michigan Education Association (MEA). Speaking of which…

+ I’ve been fielding calls from Michigan all week, after the Detroit News printed (on page 1) Mark Hornbeck’s article on EIA’s union salary report. The Associated Press picked up the story, which ran statewide. The Detroit News followed up with a lead editorial the next day, and MEA spokeswoman Dawn Cooper responded, claiming EIA’s numbers were “inaccurate and misleading” and “fraught with errors.”

“I don’t know where they got their figures,” said Cooper.

“We got our figures from the MEA itself,” I responded in a Sept. 10 press release, pointing out that the statistics came from MEA’s own report to the U.S. Department of Labor, signed by the union’s president and treasurer. “If Ms. Cooper believes the figures are fraught with errors,” I replied, “I suggest she contact the U.S. Department of Labor immediately, because MEA would have to be in violation of federal law.” Both the Detroit News and Muskegon Chronicle are planning follow-up stories. Several school districts have asked for copies of the report.

+ Add NEA-New York to the list of state affiliates who will oppose any effort to establish peer review and evaluation programs in public schools. This brings the number of irreversibly opposed states to five — California, Wisconsin, New Jersey, West Virginia and New York — a total of 22.7 percent of NEA’s membership.

+ The New Jersey Education Association (NJEA) decided to make “no endorsement” in the race for governor. But when NJEA held a party for retiring former president Dennis Testa, Gov. Christine Todd Whitman was there to deliver a congratulatory message. Democratic party candidate James McGreevey reportedly “crashed” the party. After a few tense moments when it looked as though McGreevey might be asked to leave, he was ushered to the podium where he delivered his own speech. Activists at the party saw the whole affair as an underhanded attempt by NJEA to endorse Whitman without endorsing her. Whitman, it bears mentioning, is well ahead in the polls.