February 2, 1999

        The Council for School Performance, a research agency funded by the State of Georgia, released its annual report cards on the state's public schools. The council generated the first standards for identifying "consistently low-performing" public schools. Last week, the council was happy to inform reporters that 100 state schools failed to meet those standards — but refused to name the schools. "We are not a standard-setting body," said CSP research director Gary Henry. "We just thought the public needed to have the numbersand the criteria."

        Why announce the existence of 100 failing schools, then force the public to go through an arduous process to discover their identities? Well, both nature and EIA abhor a vacuum. The crack EIA "staff" spent two full days going over the council's standards, examined its individual school report cards, one by one, for the last three years, and released to most of the Georgia press the names of the schools that failed to meet the standards. The information is available to interested parties in other states by contacting EIA.

        In a widely covered press conference that featured basketball legend Michael Jordan, the National Foundation for the Improvement of Education announced a new partnership with Jordan Fundamentals to provide grants of $2,500 to teachers serving underprivileged students. NFIE is a nonprofit foundation wholly owned and operated by the National Education Association, while Jordan Fundamentals is wholly owned and operated by The Jordan Brand. "NEA members created NFIE," said NEA President Bob Chase, "and the men and women in our nation's public schools are proud to count Jordan Brand among the corporations working hard to make things better for young people." A nice little story, right?

        But there's an entirely unexamined angle to this story. The Jordan Brand is not a stand-alone corporation. Jordan is the CEO, but he has no money invested in The Jordan Brand. The Jordan Brand is a division of Nike Inc., which has been excoriated by organized labor for years because of "sweatshop" practices in Asian nations. Jordan himself has been mildly criticized by the left-wing, specifically the Rev. Jesse Jackson, for his seeming lack of interest in the issue. The American Observer noted that "Nike's operations in Indonesia have received a particularly large amount of scrutiny and criticism from labor groups because union organizing is a near impossibility in the country, unless it is authorized by the government." And it didn't take EIA long to find an issue of Human Rights News, a publication of the American Federation of Teachers, in which Michael Jordan is called upon to "Do the Right Thing!"

        "Jordan is paid $20 million a year to endorse Nike products, including his Air Jordan sneakers," reads the story. "Air Jordans are made by workers earning $2.23 a day. When Michael was approached with this issue, he said, ‘It's not my problem.' So, whose problem is it? Don't be like Mike. Help stop worker abuse." The story then provides a sample protest letter for the Coalition of Labor Union Women to forward to Nike. Is it merely a coincidence that NFIE's press release does not mention Nike?

        The merits of the charges against Nike are certainly arguable. However, when one of the nation's largest labor unions establishes a joint venture with one of the nation's largest labor union foes, it should inspire a series of questions which currently are not being asked.

        Three years ago, billionaire Walter H. Annenberg launched the Annenberg Challenge, a huge national program to provide hundreds of millions of dollars to public schools in more than 30 states. Last year, Patrick Reilly of the Capital Research Center wrote an editorial in which he claimed the additional money had produced no improvement in student achievement. Reilly was royally lambasted by the establishment, most notably by officials running the Annenberg project. Last week, Annenberg program administrators for the Los Angeles County schools admitted that the $53 million donated to 247 L.A. schools has had virtually no impact. When the grant money runs out in June of next year, the Los Angeles Annenberg officials want to turn the program into an educational watchdog group. "Our hope is to commission research in key areas such as literacy and governance and issue reports and recommendations," said L.A. program president Maria Casillas. "We would expect to monitor performance of everyone from reading coaches to boards of education, even unions."

        Let's see... research... issue reports... monitor performance... even unions... The insights you can buy for $53 million are just amazing! What would be a good name for the group? I know, Education Information for Annenberg!

        The 11/16/ 98 EIA communiqué told the story of 300 members of a dissident local in Mexico's national teachers' union seizing control of the Mexican Senate, smashing windows and doors, and holding five senators hostage for several hours. Five teachers were arrested. The arrests sparked even larger demonstrations. Last week, some 9,000 teachers protested outside the residence of President Ernesto Zedillo, calling for the immediate release of the five prisoners.

       In a related (?) story, striking teachers in Volgograd, Russian, locked two city officials in their office for 12 hours, demanding back wages. The officials were ultimately released unharmed. International teachers have evidently found a response to the lock-out: the lock-in.

       In Burgettstown, Pennsylvania, a student was suspended from school and charged by police with disorderly conduct for tossing a single french fry in the cafeteria. New Jersey and South Carolina both reported increases in school crime. Why? "The school districts are reporting every incident to us," said South Carolina Education Superintendent Inez Tannenbaum, "incidents that in years past, they may not have reported as school crime." The top two "crimes" listed are "disturbing school" and "possession of a pager."

        Meanwhile, in Columbia, Tennessee, a middle school resource officer was charged with four counts of rape of two 14-year-old male students. A Los Angeles Unified School District employee and a district retiree were arrested on bribery and embezzlement charges. In exchange for gifts such as vehicles and a boat, the two men approved payment for maintenance work that was never done.

        Zero tolerance policies for students are becoming more widespread, but school officials are surprisingly tolerant of their own ignorance of employee crime. EIA's latest report, Rotten Apples: School Crime from a Different Angle, examines the anecdotal evidence, through newspaper stories, public documents and other sources. Rotten Apples is available for free. Contact EIA at the numbers listed below.

        The next communiqué will be published February 15.

        Quote of the Week: "Thus far, the leading writers of the current school reform movement have shirked from a critical examination of teachers' unions and collective bargaining. With very few exceptions, one will search in vain in the school reform literature for even the appearance of the word union." — Todd A. DeMitchell and Richard Fossey, from their book "The Limits of Law-Based School Reform."