Milwaukee School Superintendent Alan Brown thought he was going to play hardball in contract negotiations with the Milwaukee Teachers' Education Association.  But when the dust settled, the new contract called for a 2.5 percent retroactive pay raise for last year, and a minimum raise of $798 for this year. For new teachers, that amounts to more than a 5.5 percent increase. 

The union could hardly conceal its glee. "We think that it's probably a cutting-edge agreement," MTEA Executive Director Sam Carmen told Joe Williams of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. What was MTEA's secret weapon? Apparently, it was School Board President Joe Fisher, who took over negotiations for the district and undermined Brown's hard-line. Williams quotes a source this way:

"Basically, Alan Brown goes in and says, ‘This is the district's position,' and Sam Carmen tells him, ‘I don't believe you.' The funny thing was, Carmen was absolutely right." Fisher, coincidentally, was the beneficiary of union largesse during his election campaign in 1995, receiving the maximum contribution from MTEA and its parent, the Wisconsin Education Association Council. Carmen himself donated to Fisher's campaign. 

The Jefferson County Education Association (Colorado) is under fire for telling teachers they can use emergency phone numbers collected from students to lobby parents for a school tax increase. Jane Goff, president of the union, claims the practice is within the law. "Teachers in the past have often asked students to voluntarily give them their home numbers for purposes of contacting their parents about classroom or school-related matters," Goff explained. "If those are available to the teacher and are collected on a personal basis, then it is within the law to use those to contact parents." 

Parents filed a complaint with the secretary of state. "This information is to be used for notification from the school only," argued parent Jennifer Garland, "not as a telephone tree for political causes." 

The September issue of NSEA Voice, the monthly organ of the Nebraska State Education Association, announced an opening for a UniServ director. After listing all the requirements and contact information, NSEA informs potential applicants "Salary range will be consistent with the negotiated agreement with NSEA staff." That's a cute way to avoid disclosure of staff salaries to the rank-and-file. So, as a public service, EIA would like potential applicants to know that the average NSEA UniServ director will make around $63,000 this year, plus a very generous benefits package. Starting salaries are unavailable, but $50,000 would be a good estimate. Yes, that's about double what you make. 

 EIA sends its condolences to Seattle Times columnist Jennifer James, who recently wrote columns on the need for teaching reform. Yesterday, she wrote about what happened next. "Most surprising has been the harsh personal attacks," James wrote. "The angry letters usually ended with the comment, ‘If you would just spend a day with one of us, seeing how hard we work, you wouldn't have written those columns." This criticism apparently agitated James. "It doesn't matter that I have spent many days with both good and bad teachers," she responded. "The mantra of ‘if you had to do what we have to do' is repeated over and over. It creates a ‘we are unique and therefore you cannot comment' atmosphere. Many of the teachers I have spent time with had a good time, not a hard time, most days."

An additional criticism education writers receive is "Why don't you ever say anything positive about public schools?" So, let us do so. A recent survey of 1,100 teachers and 380 school principals about the federal Troops to Teachers program seems to indicate a rousing success. The program trains former military personnel to become classroom teachers. "They learn the discipline in the military," said James Chievous, a school principal in Newport News, Virginia, "but also they have a form of humanitarianism that is necessary when you are dealing with children." 

The survey shows that the soldiers, sailors and airmen fill a large number of voids in the school system. About 29 percent of the program's teachers teach math, compared to 13 percent of other teachers. They were twice as likely to teach biology and chemistry and nearly three times more likely to teach physics. Nearly 24 percent teach in inner-city schools, compared to 16 percent of other teachers. They also help public education's demographic problems. Nearly 29 percent of the program's teachers are minorities, compared to 10 percent of other teachers. They are also overwhelmingly male — 90 percent — as compared to 26 percent of other teachers. 

EIA will go one step further. Public schools could also learn a lot more about education from the military. Every few weeks, the armed services take poorly schooled men and women and teach them not only how to take apart and repair a tank, but how to behave in polite company. They are taught the values of cooperation, leadership, hard work and sacrifice. There is no social promotion for students. Teachers are held accountable for the performance of their pupils. Testing is rigorous and excuses are unacceptable. 

Now, which of you think tank researchers is going to run with the great report idea you just got? 

This week's papers contained a series of stories with two or more of the following elements: merger, AFL-CIO, the Catholic Church, school vouchers, and African American leaders. 

It was either the first step of the next merger campaign, or a symbolic thumbing of the nose at those in NEA who opposed the Principles of Unity. The AFL-CIO executive council released an education policy statement at its meeting last month, supporting White House proposals to reduce class size. "The AFL-CIO supports efforts to strengthen and improve public education and urges Congress to take action on these issues," read the statement. Expect to see more instances of "AFL-CIO" and "education" appearing together in news stories as the architects of merger attempt to disarm some of their opposition. 

AFL-CIO President John Sweeney addressed the congregation at Sunday Mass in Chicago's Holy Name Cathedral as part of a broad union effort to reverse its overall decline in membership. "While corporate executives are taking home scandalous pay packages, workers are taking home flattened paychecks and rising insecurity," Sweeney preached from the pulpit. "The right to join a union is a right to a better life." Several parishioners complained to the priest after the service that Sweeney's sermon "wasn't appropriate" for Sunday Mass. 

Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua, archbishop of Philadelphia, wrote an editorial in today's Philadelphia Inquirer that called upon school district officials to make use of the space for 26,000 additional students in the city's Catholic schools through school vouchers. "By providing an education to more than 111,000 students, Catholic schools across the archdiocese have already saved taxpayers more than $940 million this year," wrote Cardinal Bevilacqua.  "Vouchers are a viable alternative to ease public school challenges and give parents the choice they deserve." 

The Philadelphia Federation of Teachers mailed a 22-minute video to 20,000 union members that attacks State Rep. Dwight Evans, a leading candidate for mayor next year. The union dislikes Evans because of his role in passing a law that allows state takeovers of city schools — a move that would modify, if not eliminate, many contract protections negotiated by the union. Evans is also a strong voucher supporter. "He carries the anti-teacher, anti-union banner for his own gain," says the tape's narrator of Evans. Last May, a large-scale union effort to deny Evans renomination to his state house seat failed miserably, as Evans defeated his union-backed opponent by a 3-1 margin. 

Alveda King, niece of the late Dr. Martin Luther King, is gathering support for school choice among African American pastors and community leaders in several states. Speaking to congregations and community groups, King calls school choice "the civil rights issue of the '90s." The issue has made significant inroads in the black community, putting the education establishment on the defensive. NEA in particular has been very concerned about the trend, consistently sending its executive officers to speak to African American groups and churches. 

Hopefully, many of you received your copy of NEA Confidential: A Practical Guide to the Operations of the Nation's Largest Teachers' Union in today's mail. If not, please be patient. I'm stuffing envelopes as fast as I can! 

Quote of the Week: "They tell us not to use bad words, but they are using them. They're a bad influence on kids." — Michelle Alvarado, 10, after hearing a "boisterous exchange" between members of United Teachers Los Angeles and supporters of Marvin Avenue Elementary School Principal Anna McLinn.  Superintendent Ruben Zacarias placed McLinn on temporary leave to "defuse rising tensions" while an investigation into financial mismanagement at the school continues.