February 15, 1999

Welcome to the large number of new subscribers this issue. Hop on board quickly; there is a lot of material to cover. Because there was no communiqué last week, this issue is exceptionally long. We'll return to normal next week. I'm available to answer your questions about EIA, and a year's worth of communiqués are archived at http://www.calnews.com/archives/archeia.htm to help you catch up.

The second merged state affiliate of the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers will appear in Florida. The new organization, to be called Education Florida, sent its proposed constitution and by-laws to members late last month. The new organization will have many of the facets that were rejected on the national level by NEA delegates last July: affiliation with AFL-CIO, weighted voting, secret ballots for individuals but results reported out by locals, an expanded "Executive Cabinet," a "Governance Board" with guaranteed seats for local affiliate presidents, et al.

Delegates to the conventions of the Florida NEA and AFT affiliates will vote on the constitution separately in May — a full two months before the NEA Representative Assembly votes on required guidelines for state mergers. In fact, there are no approved guidelines yet, and the NEA Board of Directors will not vote on guidelines until May 1. So, will Education Florida be automatically disaffiliated in May, as Education Minnesota was last September? If so, when will it be re-affiliated, since there is no intervening NEA Board meeting between May and the RA in July? How will NEA bend the rules to seat disaffiliated Florida delegates at the RA -- to be held in Florida? Will another 10-year loan agreement with NEA be required? Will the Coalition for Democratic Principles, the umbrella group for anti-merger sentiment last year, make an issue of the two premature state mergers at this year's NEA convention? There's only one place you'll get the answers to these and other questions — and it isn't NEA Today.

Campaign disclosure statements revealed that former Iowa State Education Association President Bob Gilchrist, who ran for a seat on the NEA Executive Committee on an anti-merger platform, was outspent 14-to-1 by the incumbent he nearly ousted, Roger Sharp of Indiana. Gilchrist's guerrilla campaign spent only $2,029.83 while picking up over 45% of the delegate vote.

The latest issue of NEA Today highlights the work of the Collective Bargaining Education Project, which provides help on curricula dealing with labor issues. Among the curriculum materials presented for elementary schools is a "workplace simulation" called "The Yummy Pizza Company." It was developed for grades 1-5 by the California Federation of Teachers (NEA Today mistakenly credits its own affiliate, the California Teachers Association). The curriculum, which includes the creation of an assembly line to make small pizzas, has to be seen to believed. Rather than bury you in its details, EIA instead provides this excerpt from a recommendation letter, included in the materials, from Bill Morgan, a San Francisco teacher who utilized the program: "Quite suddenly, I decided to cut everyone's wages to 15 cents a shift, citing rising costs. I also told the class that the profits were mine, as owner of the company. I thought I that (sic) I would spend the profits on my new house instead of on a class trip to a local theme park as we had earlier discussed.

"This is where the lesson became reality. A storm of protest arose, and many of the students decided to follow the example of César Chávez (who we were studying) and go on strike. Twenty-one of the twenty-seven students present that day voted to strike, and strike they did. With my few faithful scabs, I tried to make pizza that next day. Strikers kept coming over to them, trying to convince them to walk out. Three did, and I was left with only three helpers. When we went downstairs to the yard to sell our pizza cookies, things got uglier. Picketers walked back and forth in front of our stand, strikers came up and sneezed on the cookies, and told the other kids not to buy them and a scuffle broke out over a sign."

Last year NEA, in coordination with its state affiliates, put together a task force to determine "who was behind paycheck protection." The task force's work culminated last fall in the release of "The Real Story Behind ‘Paycheck Protection' — The Hidden Link Between Anti-Worker and Anti-Public Education Initiatives: An Anatomy of the Far Right." Now there are indications that NEA will put together a similar task force to develop a national strategy against the privatization of public schools. The Edison Project and the School Futures Research Foundation are expected to bear the brunt of NEA scrutiny.

Meanwhile, in Connecticut, the Waterbury Teachers Association has accepted the challenge of a proposed Edison Project school in its district. The local union is negotiating a deal with the city's board to open its own charter school in a head-to-head competition with Edison. "Teachers always say, ‘If only I could run it myself.' Here's the chance," union President Jack Cronan told Rick Green of the Hartford Courant. "We're not going to stop [Edison]. We better get on the train. You can't always keep criticizing." Both schools will receive the same amount of money per-pupil.

Last month many press outlets (including EIA) gave the Milwaukee Teachers Education Association credit for agreeing to a tentative contract that allows certain schools to accept incoming teachers without regard to seniority, if they so choose. However, what MTEA is telling its own members suggests there is less to this concession than meets the eye. Schools wanting to conduct interviews for positions (instead of accepting the most-senior transferee) must establish a school interview team, "the majority of which must be teachers, elected by teachers, through a uniform process conducted by [union building representatives]," according to MTEA. The interviews can be used only to fill vacancies, not to replace current teachers. And, after two staffing cycles, a two-thirds vote of the teachers at a school can end the interview system there.

The January 11 communiqué told the story of State Senator John Lynch's defamation suit against the New Jersey Education Association. Lynch, a Democrat, was Senate president in 1991 when he introduced a bill that would have capped salary hikes for teachers. That fall, NJEA ran a newspaper ad calling Lynch "The Boss of Bosses," claiming he controlled three mob-owned companies that were illegally dumping toxic waste. The state Supreme Court may well determine NJEA acted recklessly, particularly since a little research would have determined that the John G. Lynch who controlled the companies was an entirely different person than John A. Lynch, the senator. A lot of NJEA dues money is being spent to defend this indefensible screw-up.

Lobbying by the South Dakota Education Association helped kill a bill in the state Senate Education Committee. SB 169 would have allowed anyone who holds a PhD to teach in South Dakota public schools without going through the certification process. The bill was defeated on a 6-1 vote. SDEA thanked the six senators for "their vote to maintain certification standards for teachers." Yep, we can't have those PhDs running loose in the public schools without taking a few more courses from, well, other PhDs. 

The Westerly School Department in Rhode Island paid a consultant $900 for 20 hours of research to determine if the music of the rock band White Zombie promoted Satanism. His findings are to be used in a dress code dispute with a student. In Maryland, Freetown Elementary School officials filed second-degree assault charges against a 7-year-old student, whom they say pushed a teacher. Arizona teacher Cathy Amanti, who runs conflict resolution workshops at a local prison, writes "Schools and prisons are similar in many ways." While school districts are ratcheting up measures against student crime, there is often a conspiracy of silence about employee crime. EIA fills that gap with its latest report, Rotten Apples: School Crime from a Different Angle. The 32-page report compiles 359 published cases of school employee offenses from 1998. Rotten Apples is available free by contacting EIA at any of the numbers listed below. Please provide your snail mail address.

Quote of the Week: "If I came over to your house and painted it lime green, and then handed you a bill for $2,000, would you pay it?" — Indiana state Rep. Gerald Torr, explaining his opposition to union agency fees, which are compulsory fees paid by non-members for union services they may not want. Supporters claim the fees prevent "free riders" in places where unions hold exclusive bargaining rights.