The Kentucky Education Association joined the growing list of NEA state affiliates officially opposed to merger with the American Federation of Teachers and affiliation with the AFL-CIO. Kentucky has 38,000 members, and becomes the third state affiliate ranking in the top 25 in membership to vote against merger. At least five others in that group are likely to follow suit. 
Merger requires a 2/3rds majority to pass. 

The Kentucky vote came after a lengthy debate and a "spirited" question- and-answer session with NEA Secretary-Treasurer Dennis Van Roekel. The vote result was described as "very close," but the Kentucky state delegation will head to New Orleans in July with instructions to vote "no" on  merger at the NEA Representative Assembly. 

In other merger news: 
 
Pennsylvania, thought to be "in the bag" for merger support, is hearing  a lot of noise from the staff and the rank-and-file. So much so, that Pennsylvania State Education Association President David J. Gondak and Pennsylvania Federation of Teachers President Albert Fondy sent a joint letter to state teacher union members endorsing the merger and declaring it "truly necessary for the survival of public education" and "perhaps even for the survival of the union movement altogether." Gondak and Fondy also pledged to "proceed very carefully on any possible state merger." 

EIA has received no news of the Oklahoma Education Association's position on merger, but its AFT counterpart, the Oklahoma Federation of Teachers, is very much opposed. OEA has 30,000 members, while OFT has only 3,000. About half of OFT's members belong to the local affiliate in Oklahoma City. Local President Ted Metscher warns "we are more or less an island and will be eaten up by the OEA's centralized authority and high dues." 

Many people ask why some teachers are so adamantly opposed to affiliation with AFL-CIO. The main reason given is the slippery slope away from education issues toward traditional labor issues — at the cost of the professional image that teachers so desperately want. Two cases in point this  week:

The West Virginia Federation of Teachers, affiliated with AFL-CIO, endorsed 88 Democrats and 4 Republicans for state office. "We do have a lot of friends among Republicans," explained WVFT President Judy Hale. "A lot of Republicans aren't on the right side of union issues." Hale said that while education issues were the primary focus, WVFT also examined how candidates view matters "important to organized labor."

The Buffalo Teachers Federation has joined a coalition of labor groups,  including locals of the United Auto Workers, the International Association of  Machinists and the Food and Commercial Workers, that are attempting to put  together a Labor Party in New York State. Unhappy with the "rightward-  drifting Democratic Party," the coalition plans to offer a slate of labor-friendly  candidates for the November elections. "Why not create a political vehicle that puts our kind of populist economic politics forcefully into the political debate?" asked point man Bob Master, legislative and political director for the New York local of the Communications Workers of America. 

It was a excellent week for education reporting. No fewer than four stories ran that highlighted rarely examined aspects of the education debate:

• Los Angeles Times reporter Ralph Frammolino disclosed that Los Angeles school board members "received most of their political money from the same unions and district employees that lobby them for raises and other job benefits." Of the more than $750,000 donated to the current members of the board over the past three years, more than $250,000 came from United Teachers-Los Angeles alone. The California Teachers Association contributed another $20,000. Board President Julie Korenstein received 82% of her donations from UTLA. "This means that those organizations with a particular interest in the school board have a disproportionate influence," said school board member Jeff Horton. 
• Hartford Courant reporter Rick Green exposed the curious disparities in  the number of special education students in Connecticut's public schools. "Anybody can be special education," Middletown school official Mariann J. Rossi-Ondusky told Green. "I've just got to give you the right tests." Other officials agreed. "Nobody is slow anymore," said Norwalk Superintendent of Schools Ralph Sloan. "If you are not in the fast track, you have a disability." One boy in Milford with a 141 IQ was identified as learning disabled. Despite his father's efforts to get the label removed, an independent evaluation confirmed "a learning disorder" in "the mechanics of academics." 
• Julian Guthrie of the San Francisco Examiner uncovered the fact that 10 percent of California's teachers lack a credential. "When you take Joe Blow, who has an emergency credential, and put him in a classroom, you're setting everyone up for failure," said Armand Magid. Magid has taught in San Francisco public schools for 40 years. 
• California Teachers Association spokesman Bob Cherry was talking about initiatives in context of the union's opposition to paycheck protection and English immersion measures on the June ballot. "Initiatives are a bad way to make public policy on complex issues," Cherry told Los Angeles Times reporter Dan Morain. Most reporters would have let that one slide. But Morain pointed out that in 1988, CTA "was a sponsor of one of the most far-reaching initiatives — Proposition 98 — which passed with 50.7% of the vote and established a complex school funding system that guarantees public schools almost 40% of the state budget." 

This mathematical spin wasn't enough, however. In the report's "Technical Notes," the authors declared: "This comparison serves only as an index to adjust for unique conditions within each state and to facilitate interstate comparisons. It is not presented as a standard by which to judge how much teachers should get paid relative to the average worker." 

Quote of the Week: "Time magazine came running in and said, ‘We're going to put you on the cover.' Then they asked me to hold this bat. I've never used a bat on young people. They have Uzis. They'd blow my black butt away. The bat was for the media." — Joe Clark, former principal of Eastside High School in Paterson, New Jersey, and subject of the film "Lean on Me."