In Albuquerque, New Mexico, a student walkout over low teacher pay turned into a riot as dozens of rock-throwing teens smashed windows, damaged police cars and looted a convenience store. One officer was slightly injured during the incident just off the campus of Rio Grande High School. Nine students and one teacher were arrested. The teacher, Jimmy Romero, was arrested for attempting to interfere with the arrest of his son, a student at the high school.

About 500 to 800 students (roughly one-third of the student body) walked out after a signal was given over the school's PA system. Most were persuaded toreturn to class after a short time, but about 200 students left the campus.

Soon, they were throwing rocks through the windows of homes and businesses.  "They threw cans at passing cars," said one witness. "They were like playing."  When police arrived, they were pelted with stones and their patrol cars were damaged.

School officials suspended the arrested students. Romero was placed on administrative leave. "If there were teachers who incited or encouraged this in any way, we will find out and punish them, too," said Albuquerque Public Schools Superintendent Brad Allison.

The teachers' union site representative claimed there was no teacher
encouragement of the walkout, although the pay question was a topic of discussion in class. Some students carried protest signs apparently fashioned from paper from the school's media center. Only teachers are supposed to have access to the supplies. Teachers had been staging periodic picket lines outside the school in their efforts to get a 9 percent pay raise prescribed by the state legislature. The school board has offered 5.2 percent.

Albuquerque Teachers Federation President Don Whatley told the Albuquerque Journal he hopes state lawmakers will take notice of the riot as a possible sign of trouble at the school, one of several he said suffer from outdated facilities that are not conducive to good learning and student behavior.

EIA's story about the Illinois Education Association's endorsement of
Republican gubernatorial candidate George Ryan brought this response from IEA Communications Director George King:

"The IEA endorsement of George Ryan in no way estranges IEA from NEA. Rather, it underscores the success of our bipartisan strategy that places the best interests of children and public schools over partisan loyalties, a strategy to which NEA subscribes.... [F]ar from declaring our independence, we are instead hand-in-glove with NEA in efforts to be more bipartisan where such bipartisanship can pay excellent dividends to public schools."

With the beginning of the new school year, the organs of NEA affiliates resume publication. And their accounts of the merger vote make for very interesting reading. Case in point: the story in California Educator entitled "Merger talks continue despite setback." The leadership and about two-thirds of the delegation of the California Teachers Association favored the merger.  The headline hints of slant and errors to come (the margin of defeat isn't mentioned until the 8th paragraph). Describing the reasons for the opposition, the article lists:

• "Affiliation with the AFL-CIO was a problem with many delegates, especially those from the South." The word "especially" seems misplaced. The most outspoken critics of AFL-CIO affiliation were from New Jersey, Illinois and Michigan.
• "Several speakers cited the perceived lack of representation for medium tosmall chapters on the Leadership Council." This is incorrect. The small chapters had increased representation on the Leadership Council. The problemwas the Leadership Council was to be merely an advisory body, unlike the current NEA Board of Directors.
• "The reduction in the number of representatives on the Executive Board made some delegates feel that the new organization would be too ‘top down.' " 

The article notes that "the motion allows those states wishing to merge a chance to do so immediately." While the Minnesota affiliates of NEA and AFT have, in fact, merged, the motion does not allow state mergers until guidelines have been approved by the NEA Board of Directors. This has not yet taken place. The motion states "No state affiliate mergers will take place except in accordance with these guidelines." The fact that Minnesota has apparently violated the motion (in addition to allegedly asking for a $2.4 million loan from NEA to pay for its merger) will undoubtedly cause some heated discussion at the next NEA Board of Directors meeting (set for Oct. 9).

California merger supporters were not dismayed by the vote. "We didn't have enough time to educate our members," claimed CTA Board member Sandra Thornton.  "And people need to understand this thoroughly before they'll vote for it." So, merger opponents, stand by to be educated.

The president of the Banning (CA) Teachers Association resigned after it was learned her four-day absence from teaching duties for "union business" was in fact a four-day vacation to Cabo San Lucas in Mexico. Sonia Schroeder's escapade was uncovered because she apparently invited other teachers to join her. When confronted, Schroeder admitted to the trip, claiming she was "stressed" because of an impasse in teacher contract negotiations.

Today's New York Times contains a story by Steven Greenhouse entitled "New York Union's Chief Assailed Over Corruption." The story describes investigations of fraud and embezzlement in District Council 37, a New York union that represents 120,000 public employees. The story hits all the highlights of the scandal, but I suggest you track down an extensive investigative piece on District Council 37 written by Robert Fitch in the Sept. 1 Village Voice. It's called "Union for Sale" and is the type of labor reporting we don't see much of anymore. Highly recommended.

AFL-CIO President John Sweeney suspended the three top officers of its Kentucky affiliate and placed the organization on "emergency monitorship." An internal audit reportedly found improper use of funds. Though Sweeney offered no specifics about the audit, a series of mysterious and tragic events have occurred around the Kentucky headquarters. Police are investigating a Labor Day fire there as a possible arson case. A burglary at the headquarters building is also being investigated. Donna Bayless, the Kentucky AFL-CIO bookkeeper, was reported missing by her husband. Her body was found over the weekend, the victim of an apparent suicide.

I'll be in Washington all this week covering CEO America's School Choice Conference and NEA/AFT's Teacher Quality Conference. I'll be available via e-mail the entire time.

Quote of the Week #1: "Teachers can be some of the most mean-spirited people I've ever seen. They simply won't accept criticism from their peers. I spend a lot of time in my union position getting due process for teachers who don't really deserve it. How did they ever become teachers? That's what I want to know." — Ben Schmookler, West Oakland (CA) high school teacher and vice president of his local teachers' union.

Quote of the Week #2: "No teachers want to teach simply to a test. There is much more by which we judge education. If money were simply the answer, we would have done it a long time ago." — Connecticut Education Association President Daria Plummer, reacting to a Hartford program that pays cash bonuses to principals when their students' test scores improve.