Teachers Unions:

CATO@LIBERTY

From: CATO@LIBERTY

McCain to NAACP: It’s Time for School Choice

July 20, 2008John McCain told the NAACP this morning that after decades of broken promises by the nation’s public school systems it is time to give all parents an easy choice of public and private schools. He is right, so long as he doesn’t propose a private school choice program at the national level.

The merits of wide-open parental choice — and the basic justice of it —are compelling, but the Constitution mentions neither the word “education” nor the word “school.” Congress and the president simply do not have a mandate to create such a program. ..

THE COLUMBIAN

Union’s stance hurts teachers, students

Friday, May 09, 2008

By SONYA JONES, for The Columbian

Full article Sonya Jones The Columbian

Teachers unions exist to employ teachers. They have no interest in providing for enhanced educational opportunities because, after all, that has nothing to due with union membership and mandatory dues. Nothing better demonstrates this truth than the story unfolding about the private grant Washington public schools sacrificed because the union stranglehold will not allow it.

The Dallas-based National Math and Science Initiative (NMSI) awarded grants to seven states to fund Advanced Placement programs in math and science, including one for $13.2 million to Washington. Such programs allow high school students to gain college credit while in high school. Franklin and West Seattle high schools in Seattle, Evergreen and Union high schools in Vancouver, and three high schools in Spokane will lose that money because Washington law won’t allow them to have it.

The problem? NMSI wanted to pay the money directly to participating teachers, but Washington state law mandating collective bargaining (between unions and school districts) for any compensation to teachers would not allow such a pay scheme. A full 22 percent of the $13.2 million ($2,640,000) was to be paid directly to teachers who participated, including incentive pay for those whose students performed the best on the Advanced Placement exams.

Visit: Center For Union Facts

The union's 2005 financial filings with the Department of Labor show that they gave members' money to:

Alliance for Retired Americans ($27,000)

Ballot Initiative Strategy Center ($5,000)

Floridians For All ($100,000)

Give Nevadans A Raise ($25,000)

Protect Our Schools ($55,000)

Protect Your Check ($500,000)

Voices for Working Families (AFL-CIO project) $100,000)

Vote Yes for West Virginia's Future (?BALLOT INITATIVES - POLITICAL LEGISLATIVE MOBIL.?) ($5,000)

Yes on 72 ($150,000)

Albert Shanker Inst. ($470,000)

Center for Community Change ($25,000)

Citizens for Tax Justice ($15,000)

Economic Policy Institute ($550,000)

American Federation of Teachers (AFT)

National Headquarters

555 NEW JERSEY AVE NW

WASHINGTON, DC 20001

Total Assets: $ 96,154,256 Members: 822,504

"I'll start representing kids when kids start paying union dues," said former American Federation of Teachers President Al Shanker.

You've got to give the AFT credit: it is more open about its mission, which it now claims is "to improve the lives of our members and their families," than is its rival, the National Education Association. The smaller of two national education unions, the AFT is a member of the AFL-CIO.

Like its AFL-CIO brothers, the AFT indulges in the language of conflict. Among its bank accounts are a "solidarity fund" and a "militancy/defense fund" ? the union's single largest war chest with more than $31 million in the bank.

The AFT's militant behavior is best illustrated by its association with one group in particular: In 2004, the union gave $100,000 of its members' money to a minimum wage ballot campaign in Florida.

That campaign, designed to increase voter turnout for the Democratic presidential candidate, was run by a shady group called ACORN, which has been tied to voter fraud in at least 10 states.

Undaunted by the fraud that beset that campaign, the AFT's New York state federation paid the radical group more than $125,000 to organize teachers.

The AFT isn't afraid to flex its financial muscle in the policy realm either. In its fiscal year 2005, the union spent $7.7 million on government relations (influencing their own employers) and almost $5.5 million on public affairs (indirectly influencing their own employers).

And while there are countless AFT members who don't like the causes the union supports, there is no one that condones the fraud seen by local AFT unions.

One of the most egregious examples of union staff taking advantage of their members comes from the AFT's Washington, D.C. affiliate, which lost as much as $6 million to embezzlement.

The Future of American Education is South of the Border

Mark Krikorian over at NRO’s Corner has an interesting post on an arresting report:

And you thought our teachers’ union was bad? We’ve just published a piece by William & Mary Prof. George Grayson identifying Mexico’s stupefyingly corrupt teachers’ union one of the reasons that country is so screwed up and can’t hold on to its own people.

The leader of the union, one Elba Esther Gordillo Morales, makes Jimmy Hoffa look positively civic-minded. Among other evidence of her venality:

“Her acquisition of at least four apartments and six houses in the exclusive Lomas de Chapultepec and Polanco neighborhoods of Mexico City, valued at $6.8 million (68 million pesos); property in the deluxe Coronado Cays development in San Diego, Calif., where her yacht is moored; properties in France, England, and Argentina; private jets; and “a personal fortune … [of more] than $300 million in cash,” according to a longtime key operative.”

The teachers union in Mexico might be more corrupt, powerful, and destructive than our own teachers unions. But not by all that much — our teachers unions also deal in corruption, protect bad teachers, and block education reforms –- and it shows.

Mexico comes out worse than the US on international tests, but we’re down there at the bottom with them. Our kids do worse in math than Azerbaijan, worse in reading than Poland, and worse in science than kids in the Czech Republic.

It’s sad but no surprise that the average graduation rate in America’s 50 largest cities is only 52 percent according to the non-partisan America’s Promise Alliance.

And unlike Mexico, we spend mountains of money on education. The New York Times reported that out of 40 countries, the U.S. had “the poorest outcomes per dollar spent on education” in 2003.

If we don’t do something about the teachers unions’ deathgrip on public education, the future of U.S. education is in Mexico. Except more expensive.

Imitation is the Sincerest Form of Flattery

Guess Who's Confessing That Its Too Difficult To Get Rid of Bad Teachers

AL SHARPTON !!!

Visit Center For Union Facts

It’s a little unexpected, but we’ll take it: Al Sharpton has signed on to the Center for Union Facts proposition that teachers unions have made it too difficult to get rid of bad teachers, saying that education reform “includes getting teacher unions to make concessions in contracts so bad teachers can be fired.”

Why is he weighing in on the issue? Sharpton has pegged education as the leading civil rights issue of the day: “I think there is nothing more important as we commemorate 40 years after the assassination of Dr. King than the education crisis,” as he said at a panel hosted by his National Action Network. (Incidentally, we couldn’t agree more on the question of education as a civil rights issue, as this op-ed we published in January makes clear.)

It’s been a little while since our launch of TeachersUnionExposed.com, and we’d like to think our efforts to get the word out about how hard it is to get rid of a bad union-protected teacher are what motivated Sharpton to speak out. After all, since he’s based in New York City, he has surely seen either our massive billboard in Times Square or our full-page advertisement in the New York Times.

Full article Newark Teachers-Shocking Details

The Union Protects Bad Teachers

School district records show that in a four-year period (school years 2001-02 through 2004-05) only one or two tenured teachers were fired each year -- a total of five teachers fired in four years.

The Newark school district has about 3,850 tenured instructional staff. Many of them are hard-working, committed educators. But can it be true that no more than .032% of tenured teachers are unfit to teach school?

If it were really true that the union only kept good teachers from getting fired, then the district’s .032% firing rate would mean that the overwhelming majority of Newark kids go through the entire school system without ever encountering a bad tenured teacher. Check out school performance stats to see why that’s not likely.

Use of Dues for Politics

Every day, millions of union members have money taken from their paychecks to support some union presidents' political agenda. In 1996, Rutgers economics professor Leo Troy estimated that union political expenditures totaled about $500 million in each election cycle.

More recently, the National Institute for Labor Relations Research estimated that total union political expenditures reached $925 million in the 2004 cycle. Over time, this has added up: According to The Center for Responsive Politics, eight of the top ten all-time political contributors are labor unions.

Labor leaders have made the use of employee money for political causes a popular practice — but it's far less popular among the public and the members themselves.

CATO@LIBERTY

posted by Andrew J. Coulson

Full article Andrew J. Coulson CATO

Excerpts:

According to a report by Tallahassee’s News Channel 7, the Florida Education Association may sue to shut down that state’s scholarship tax credit program. Under this program, businesses can donate to non-profit scholarship funds that subsidize tuition for low-income kids at the private schools of their families’ choosing. In return, the businesses can claim dollar for dollar tax credits up to a certain limit.

Public school employee unions have left this program alone since its enactment in 2001, despite having successfully sued to kill a much smaller school voucher program two years ago. So why the sudden talk about filing suit? Let’s go to the Chanel 7 report by Mike Vasilinda:

The teachers [i.e., the Florida Education Association, ed.] successfully challenged the voucher program that was centered around failing schools. They’ve turned a blind eye to the corporate voucher [i.e., scholarship tax credit, ed.] program, but they [through FEA attorney Ron Myer] say if it’s to triple over the next five years, they may go to court.

Townhall.Com

Homeschoolers in the Crosshairs of the NEA

By Ken Blackwell

Full article Ken Blackwell Townhall.Com

Excerpts:

Recently a landmark ruling that stunned many parents and could have legal repercussions for families across the country was handed down by a California state appellate court.

Judge H. Walter Croskey wrote a court opinion that declared California children were only allowed to be taught by teachers credentialed by the state. Such a decision was a stark about-face from the previous California policy that provided parents with options in determining how best to educate their children.

A decision such as this has profound ramifications that stretch beyond educational choice, from parental rights to privacy laws.

By Greg Toppo, USA TODAY

Full article Gregg Toppo USA Today

Excerpts:

A Washington-based anti-union group hopes to "jump-start a conversation" about the difficulty schools face in getting rid of bad teachers — with a contest that sounds as if it were designed for reality TV.

The Center for Union Facts will ask parents, students and other teachers Tuesday to nominate the "worst unionized teacher in America." The center says it will choose 10 and offer each $10,000 to quit; "winners" must allow the center to write about them on its website.

The center plans full-page ads today in USA TODAYand The New York Times. It also plans TV ads.

Teacher Unions, Teacher Activism: Is anyone actually teaching?

December 29, 2005

Full article Reform K-12.com

Excerpts

On Wednesday we pointed out that while there's no "War on Public Education" there are a few areas which need serious reform. Pointed criticism of these areas leads some to believe that people are just "bashing" public education, which simply isn't true.

Today we have a few words on Teacher Unions and Political Activism. (In future articles we'll address Teacher Certification, Mediocrity, Opposition to Competition, Opposition to Home Schooling, Lack of Discipline and Safety, Zero Tolerance Run Amok, and Lack of Accountability.)

Teacher Unions: A major problem with public education today is the behavior of teacher unions. One problem is that they block the door to progress: if it doesn't "serve their membership" in the form of less work for more pay, they're not interested. Teachers often complain that they aren't respected, yet they happily join unions whose leadership is all too willing to conduct labor-union thuggery, the most common of which is extortion (in the form of labor strikes). Writes one conservative teacher, "Want to be treated like professionals? At least act the part."

citizenlink.com

10-16-07

Utah Parents Make Their Case for School Choice

To Citizen link

On Nov. 6, Utahns will vote on a statewide school-choice program that would give students money to attend private schools. Utah families could receive $500 to $3,000 a year per child depending on income, The Salt Lake Tribune reported.

Parents for Choice in Education is working to dispel one of the opposition's biggest arguments: that school choice won't help Utah's poorest families.

Parent Maui Estey said she and others are willing to do whatever it takes to give their children the best education, even if that means making sacrifices. She said her husband works two jobs, and she works one. She hopes to eventually put her young child in private school.

"The program would allow us to put our child in a private school without working a fourth job," Estey told The Tribune.

Parent Richard Green said: "We are frankly tired of being told vouchers won't help us. Sometimes all the sacrificing a family can do isn't enough."

News About Teachers Unions

The Following Article Is From Labor Pains

Why Unions Prefer Illegal Immigration

June 1st, 2007 by Bret Jacobson

In the never-ending sea of media stories on Big Labor’s split over immigration reform, it’s not often you find really good reporting adding something new and meaningful. But today the Los Angeles Times had an interesting insight into why service employee union bosses are so dead-set on preventing a temporary worker program that they actually prefer illegal immigration: because it is easier to get illegal aliens to join the union.

Remember, service sector union bosses aren’t hiding their desperate grab for more dues payers. The Wall Street Journal’s Alan Murray noted it of SEIU president Andy Stern just this week: “those who have met with him say [he] mainly wants one thing: more members.” Now it’s UNITE HERE’s Tom Snyder, who says 80 percent of the members of the Los Angeles Local 11 chapter are immigrants, explaining his union’s stance on the immigration battle:

“As the makeup of the industry changed, we were — and are — very assiduous about appealing to and reaching out to those workers,” Snyder said. “For us, the welcome mat is out.”

Creating a temporary-worker program would undercut those efforts, Snyder said, because the new workers would be more dependent on employers and less invested in the workplace.

But as with all things in Big Labor’s Big Divide, the most interesting rhetoric still comes out of SEIU bosses. The Times reports:

While illegal workers are in a similar position, they have a greater sense of permanence and willingness to fight injustice than temporary workers, labor organizers said.

Mike Garcia, president of SEIU Local 1877 in Los Angeles, said that workers’ illegal status “hasn’t been a significant barrier,” but a temporary-worker program would be. Immigrants make up 65% of the SEIU’s 28,000 California members and 95% of the affiliated janitors’ union, he said.

“How are we going to continue to build power off of a temporary workforce that has a temporary mind-set and doesn’t see the union as a vehicle for improving their lives?” he said. “Why would they sign the union card?” [emphasis added]

Kids took the big hit again as Teachers Unions , in this case, Florida's , flexed its powerful muscles, to kill a school voucher bill that has an outstanding record of achievement for thousands of children, in districts with failing public schools.

The powerful union succeeded in getting the Republican majority leader to desert his own party.

That leader, also bucked the governor of his own party and thousands of parents, who saw for example, that under the program defeated by the teachers, student performance above grade level, had soared to 66%, among African-Americans, compared to a mere 23% under the old rigid and failing program.

Democrats and the teachers continue to conspire to maintain the status quo for teachers at the expense of children.

All but one Democrat voted to end the beneficial program. Practically all Republicans voted to keep it.

Teachers Unions continue to come up with glib explanations of how it is “for the good of the kids”.

Bull. Plain bull. They are not fooling anyone. They keep buying time for their own fiefdoms, while young lives are lost.

Teachers Unions To Public-School-Monopoly