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

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1) Tennessee: Do Union Teachers Really Pay $422 in Dues to Receive $130 Less Money?

2) Last Week’s Intercepts

3) Quote of the Week

By now everyone knows about Kelley Williams-Bolar, the Ohio mom jailed for falsifying residency records so her daughters could attend school in a different district. Governments can be arbitrary about boundaries and jurisdictions even when common sense might argue for flexibility.

One wouldn’t expect a teachers’ union to run into that kind of problem, but in California the Azusa Educators Association found a building for its new headquarters, made an offer, and had it accepted. The union won’t be moving in, though, because the building is zoned for retail and the city won’t approve the sale.

“We can’t find anything else,” said union president Meg Savella. “We have gone to multiple places and they are either too expensive, it doesn’t meet zoning, or doesn’t meet our needs. I would be willing to be somewhere else, however, there isn’t anywhere else (in Azusa).”

A city director said he won’t make an exception because “soon enough everyone wants to do it and you have lost that retail direction.”

“It is a frustration we are trying to do something to better the community, invest in the community, but they are saying we would rather have vacant buildings,” Savella said.

We support the Azusa Educators Association’s bid to abide in the building of their choosing. In return perhaps they’ll lend their “Let Us In!” sign to Kelly Williams-Bolar and other parents in her situation.

While some believe Milton Friedman had the solution to what ails public education, Darren at Right on the Left Coast needs William Friedman to determine the answer to that age-old problem.

Darren writes:

My informant tells me that the information contained in these pictures is the secret to high-quality education. If we could just get this information and implement it, the future of our nation would be secured.

Can you assist him? You’ll be doing your country a great service.

The Department of Health and Human Services released its latest list of companies and organizations that received a one-year waiver of the Affordable Care Act’s ban on annual dollar limits on benefits. A total of 733 waivers have been granted for 2011, of which at least 144 went to unions and union trusts, while an additional 18 went to school districts.

Waivers were granted to at least 17 locals and affiliates of the Teamsters, 11 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW), 28 of the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW), 7 of the SEIU, and one to the United Federation of Teachers Welfare Fund.

Of the 18 school districts that received waivers, 16 were in New York and the other two in Minnesota. They were:

McGregor Schools ISD #4 (MN)
Mounds View Public Schools (MN)
Amherst Central School District (NY)
Avon Central School District (NY)
Canandaigua City Schools (NY)
Fairport Central School District (NY)
Fridley Public Schools Health Savings Plan (MN)
Grand Island Central School District (NY)
Hammondsport Central School District (NY)
Naples Central School District (NY – 2 waivers)
Newark Central School District (NY)
Niagara-Wheatfield CSD Self Funded (NY)
Panama Central School District (NY)
Rush-Henrietta Central School District HRA (NY)
Sherman Central School District (NY)
Silver Creek Central School District (NY)
Sodus Central School District (NY)
Williamson Central School District (NY)

In his State of the Union speech, President Obama singled out Denver’s Bruce Randolph School for praise as what can happen when “reform isn’t just a top-down mandate.” The school had a dramatic turnaround after becoming an “autonomous school.”

Bruce Randolph is being held up as an example of what can be achieved through collaboration. The Colorado Education Association produced a report titled “The Bruce Randolph Story” that lauded the school and its progress. And the union wasn’t shy about taking credit for it, either.

With 100% teacher membership in the (Denver Classroom Teachers Association), everyone involved considered the Association part of the solution at Bruce Randolph. Lahue and Ahrnsbrak credit their long-time Association involvement with giving them the system-wide perspective to think about – and implement – meaningful instructional development.

“Walking into Randolph was a completely different approach in dealing with the Association,” DCTA building representative Ahrnsbrak explains. “I had many conversations with everyone in leadership, and we are all on the same page. They truly believe that the most important component in the whole system is the teacher, and we were treated as professionals. We represent what can happen or what should be happening in our schools.”

…DCTA, the Colorado Education Association (CEA) and the National Education Association (NEA) enthusiastically support academic reform embodied in Bruce Randolph’s plan. “There’s no reason for battling and animosity… if we’re on the same side – all about student achievement and supporting the teachers and making sure they have everything they need to do the job that they do,” Ahrnsback says. The Association is part of the solution.

They must have a pretty big memory hole over at CEA headquarters. There was a great deal of collaboration – at Bruce Randolph. Above the school level, it was a highly contentious battle between school officials and the teachers’ union.

When the school asked DCTA for a waiver to the contract, the union refused, and offered a half-hearted compromise that was rejected by the school officials and teachers at Randolph. The same Greg Ahrnsbrak from the CEA report was frequently quoted in the Denver Post at the time:

The U.S. Department of Education announced the 150 participating school districts for its conference on labor-management collaboration Feb 15-16 in Denver, Colorado.

The broad cross section of participating districts selected by the Department closely mirrors the make-up of our nation’s schools. Approximately 34 percent are from cities, 34 percent from suburbs, 8 percent from towns, and 24 percent from rural areas. The districts are almost evenly divided between those with fewer than 10,000 students and those with more than 10,000 students.

That’s a pretty good distribution, considering only 245 districts applied, and the press release later says the 150 winners were “selected in lottery.” The 13 presenting districts include most of the usual icons of collaboration, though the presence of DC on the list might cause some dissonance. Green Dot is the sole charter representative, which is mighty accommodating of the organizers, but speaks to their tacit belief that there is no such thing as labor-management collaboration without the existence of a formal employees’ union.

Ten states did not offer a single applicant, never mind a participant, and I think it’s probably by design. The states are Alabama, Idaho, Mississippi, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Texas, Washington, Wisconsin and Wyoming. That’s also a pretty good distribution – of weak labor states and angry labor states.

Maybe I’m reading too much into it. Perhaps these ten states are just using sound meteorological judgment. Denver in mid-February?

Click here to read:

1) The End of the Decade of the Public Sector

2) Last Week’s Intercepts

3) Quotes of the Week