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

I don’t know Jessica Olson, who sits on the board of the Everett Public Schools in Washington State. And she couldn’t have seen yesterday’s communiqué before writing this editorial for the Everett Herald, so her analogy was just pure coincidence:

The Everett School District recently invited a “Management and Operations Review” by an outside organization. The entity that performed the assessment, WASA, is the Washington Association of School Administrators. It is an organization of, by and for school administrators; an organization to which all higher level administrators in Everett (including Everett Superintendent Gary Cohn) belong and pay dues.

Having this organization assess the source of their income and calling it objective is akin to hiring the teachers’ union to review the effectiveness of teachers for the district, or hiring a textbook publishing company to rate the effectiveness of the district’s curricula.

(emphasis and link added)

And my thanks to Eduwonk, for referring to me as “unofficial newspaperman of education’s Potemkin Villages.” I’ve got to have that put on a web banner.

Click here to read:

1) NEA’s Independent Teaching Commission Not So Independent

2) Embrace L.A. Mayor Villaraigosa, But Use Only One Arm

3) Last Week’s Intercepts

4) Quote of the Week

Over many years I’ve tried to make the point that what the teachers’ unions say to the public is not nearly as important as what they say to themselves. It is why I’ve endured 13 consecutive NEA conventions and it’s why I bring this particular speech to your attention. I would have preferred to see the election post-mortem presentation, but this will have to do. It was delivered by NEA Vice President Lily Eskelsen to the National Council of State Education Associations meeting in Miami last month. The NCSEA is an umbrella group of all of NEA’s state affiliate leaders.

When I come across 39 minutes of video I rarely will take the time to sit through the whole thing. But if you’re reading this blog, you must have some interest in NEA and its view of things, and this will serve the purpose better than a week’s worth of commentary from me. I add only one note. Before you pack your bags and move to Finland, read a somewhat more reality-based assessment from the Wall Street Journal‘s “What Makes Finnish Kids So Smart?”

Andrew J. Rotherham asks on the pages of Time, “Is the Golden Age of Education Spending Over?”

No.

(with apologies to the J. Geils Band)

As is usual with anything concerning the Detroit Public Schools, no one looks good coming out of this.

At a school board meeting, Detroit Federation of Teachers President Keith Johnson and defeated DFT vice-presidential candidate Tracy Arneau tried to squeeze through a doorway at the same time. They jostled each other.

The headline blares, “Shoving match outside Detroit School Board meeting.” The headline served its purpose; it got me to read the story. But then I watched the video:

“Shoving match”? Be serious. So one is inclined to sympathize with the union’s characterization of the incident as “fodder for the media.” Except the primary players in this little drama are the ones blowing it out of proportion.

“You do not put your hands on me in an assaultive manner,” said Johnson. “I take that from no one.”

Assaultive?

But just when you think it couldn’t get any more ridiculous, we get this recap from Johnson on the DFT web site:

When the board went into closed session, Tracy Arneau, who ran for and lost the election for DFT vice-president was recruiting support of DFT presidential run-off candidate Steve Conn. Newly elected DFT Executive Board member Vanessa Parnell looked up to hear what Ms. Arneau was saying.

Ms. Arneau, according to what a television station camera man who was sitting behind Ms. Parnell told me, said that Ms. Arneau pointed at Ms. Parnell and said “I’ve had enough of you b—-, I’m going to kick your a–, we can go outside.”

Ms. Parnell went out of the board meeting where Ms. Arneau continued to shout “bring it on b—-.” I came upon the scene from the restroom and told Ms. Parnell to go back inside. As we went inside, Ms. Arneau elbowed me in the ribs and pushed me prompting me to push her off of me.

My brothers and sisters, I know that whoever ends up being president of this union, me or brother Conn, we MUST be unified in our struggle to fend off attacks upon public education in general and teachers in particular.

Physical attacks and threats such as those initiated by Ms. Arneau must not be perceived as reflective of our professionalism. Such acts only add fodder for the media. No matter which candidate you may support, I encourage everyone, especially me, to remain professional and respectful of each other because when it is all said and done, we MUST support each other and the DFT.

I particularly like the “fend off attacks upon public education in general and teachers in particular” line. Even Chris Christie isn’t going around telling teachers, “I’ve had enough of you b—-, I’m going to kick your a–, we can go outside.”

It’s a distant memory now, but back in 2006 New York State United Teachers was under the gun for promoting high-fee ING 403(b) annuities to members without revealing the investment giant was paying the union to do so. The practice had been going on for years. Then-New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer filed charges, prompting ING to settle for $30 million. NYSUT got off with a $100,000 payment. An excellent summary of the investigation and settlement is posted on the Foundation for Education Reform & Accountability web site.

Some NYSUT members, backed by the law firm of Keller Rohrback, thought that was an insufficient amount and filed a class action suit against NYSUT. The suit alleges “breaches of fiduciary duty, aiding and abetting a fiduciary breach, and unjust enrichment.”

Keller Rohrback filed a similar suit against NEA’s Member Benefits Corporation in 2007.

Ha ha! The last laugh is on you, all of you deluded education policy wonks who have spent years in DC, attending each other’s catered lectures and panels, sipping wine spritzers and noshing on seafood hors d’oeuvres.

I’ve noticed your thinly disguised disdain as you’ve asked, “Sacramento? How far is that from Palo Alto?” You’ve delighted in noticing our basketball team is even worse than the Wizards. The Wizards!

For weeks the rumors swirled. She’s in line for New York City. No, she’s headed for New Jersey. No, Florida. But love, it seems, has conquered all.

With a rollout in Newsweek and on Oprah, Michelle Rhee announced the launch of Students First, “a movement to transform public education,” for which she plans to raise $1 billion.

Sure, the rest of America is focused on that stuff, but The New Republic reports she’ll be “working out of Sacramento.”

Who cares if Rhee transforms public education? She will certainly transform Sacramento. Now, you DC guys will have to endure the TSA grope-fest to fly here. You’ll learn about time zones, so I won’t have to get up at 5:30 a.m. to answer your phone calls. You’ll need the inside scoop on local hotspots (?) so you can casually run into Rhee and Mayor Johnson in order to pitch your project. You may even see firsthand why we have a state government to match our basketball team.

You have plenty of other education reform celebrities in DC. Consider this a federal image bailout for a town that desperately needs one.