MADISON – Wisconsin Education Association Council President Mary Bell is a liar.

That’s according to a recent blog on BigGovernment.com by Collin Roth of Media Trackers.

Roth looked into recent media reports that WEAC officials asked prospective gubernatorial candidates to promise to veto any budget that doesn’t restore collective bargaining privileges for public sector unions.

He was inspired by Bell’s comments to the LaCrosse Tribune in which she insisted the union never asked for a veto pledge.

“Absolutely not,” Bell told the newspaper. “It’s not the approach that any of us would take.”

James Palmer, executive director of the Wisconsin Professional Police Association, helped expose WEAC’s request for a veto pledge for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. He told Roth he’s sticking to his statement, that WEAC and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees union “demanded a hard commitment” on the veto pledge in exchange for their endorsement.

Bell is lying when she says otherwise, Palmer told Roth.

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PHOENIX – Public school teachers who use their classrooms to indoctrinate students with their personal political beliefs may finally be getting the attention they deserve.

Arizona lawmakers are debating the merits of a bill that would punish teachers who preach “partisan doctrine” disguised as legitimate lessons, as well as schools whose administrators defend those teachers’ inexcusable tactics.

Arizona State Sen. Lori Klein sponsored SB 1202 after hearing repeated complaints of “political indoctrination in the classroom,” according to Capitol Media Services.

As the bill is written, educators who promote “partisan doctrine” to students would be fired. School districts whose administrators knowingly allow biased lessons would lose some of their state funding.

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ANDOVER, Mass. – For teachers unions and school administrators, work schedules are a touchy subject.

The schedule dictates the number of days each year teachers spend in the classroom, the number of hours in a day set aside for preparation, and the number of teachers necessary to provide instruction.

Put simply, time is money.

That’s why school officials in the Andover, Massachusetts school district are pressing the union to agree to a full schedule for the district’s high school teachers, who spend far less time in the classroom than their peers in similar districts.

The situation has left the district with more teachers than it needs, which is a huge drag on its already overloaded budget.

“Business as usual is just not acceptable right now,” Annie Gilbert, chairwoman for the Andover School Committee, told EAG. “We have a responsibility to ensure taxpayer dollars are being spent in the most efficient way possible.”

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MERIDEN, Conn. – Ask Gwen Samuel to describe just what her Connecticut Parents Union does, and she’ll begin by explaining what it doesn’t do.

“This is not a parents union that sells brownies to raise money for the local school,” Samuel tells EAG. “There’s no brownie baking here.”

Instead, the Connecticut Parents Union (CTPU) – which celebrated its one-year anniversary Jan. 14 – has the far more ambitious goal remaking the Nutmeg State’s entire public education system, a system it says is failing too many children.

“We’re the richest state in the country, but we have some of the worst schools, and we have the worst achievement gap in the nation,” Samuel, CTPU President and Founder, says.

The “achievement gap” is a shorthand way of describing the huge disparity in academic performance that exists between students in low-income, predominantly minority school districts and those in mostly white, middle-to-upper income districts.

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Not Until Obama's Union Friends Get Theirs First

Unlike politicians, budgets don’t lie. They reveal both the priorities and values of those who make them. Give me a household budget and I can tell you what the parents prioritize and value. The same is true for a government’s budget.

What then to make of President Barack Obama’s decision to exclude the D.C. scholarship program from his budget this year?

It can’t be the cost. At $20 million a year, it is a pittance compared to the proposed $68.9 billion a year proposed for his Department of Education. It must be something else.

Obama knows full well that his budget won’t pass muster. His last one failed to get a single vote in the Senate. This one will assuredly fail, too. Indeed, it was designed to fail so that President Obama could run against a “do-nothing” Congress. Knowing this, Obama could easily have put the D.C. voucher program in the budget. He therefore must have chosen not to.  In Obama’s previous federal aid plan, $20 million went to public schools, charters and vouchers, but in this years new budget, Obama gives millions to public and charter schools but not one penny to vouchers. Why not? Could it be that the teachers unions, who give overwhelmingly to Democrats, are committed to giving him money in what promises to be a tough election year?

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MIDDLETON TOWNSHIP, Pa. – Everyone has their breaking point.

After years of watching bullying and abuse of his colleagues, Neshaminy High School teacher David Ferrara decided to do something about the “gang” of thugs who have been terrorizing his school. So he wrote a simple letter of concern and emailed it throughout the school district.

Who are the thugs he refers to? The leaders of his local teachers union, who allegedly use fear and intimidation to deal with members who have dared to question union tactics during an ongoing contract dispute with school administrators.

“In the past four years the members of the (Neshaminy Federation of Teachers) have been subjected to an endless barrage of tactics from our elected union officials,” Ferrara wrote in his letter. “These officials have been surrounded by a small number of individuals who continually tell them what they want to hear. This has led to the implementation of ‘terror and fear’ tactics in our workforce.

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Even though voters in Washington State have rejected charter schools three times over the past 20 years, the idea refuses to go away.

After years of dipping their toes in the water, it appeared that Washington State lawmakers were finally ready to take the plunge, and approve a very modest charter school law.

But right at the last moment, Democratic state Sen. Rosemary McAuliffe took it upon herself as education committee chairwoman to close down the pool and order everyone out.

McAuliffe, who was given the Washington Education Association “Friends of Public Education” award in 2010, blocked the bill that would have allowed 50 charter schools to be created in the state over the course of five years.

The bill had enough support – from five Republicans and two Democrats – to pass the committee, the Seattle Times reports.

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LANSING, Mich. – During a legislative hearing at Michigan’s state capitol last week, a member of the education establishment made a stunning admission about how parents are viewed by the “experts.”

Debbie Squires, associate director of the Michigan Elementary and Middle School Principals Association, explained to members of the House Education Committee why her association opposed allowing more cyber (or online) schools to operate in the state.

“Educators go through education for a reason,” Squires said. “They are the people who know best about how to serve children. That’s not necessarily true of an individual resident. I’m not saying they don’t want the best for their children, but they may not know what actually is best from an education standpoint.”

Committee chairman Tom McMillin, a Republican, seemed taken aback by Squires’ comments.

“Wow … Parents don’t know what’s best for their child?” McMillin asked.

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WINTER HAVEN, Fla. – Deric Feacher had a very worthwhile dream.

He wanted to establish a charter school in his hometown that specialized in helping disadvantaged and at-risk students earn their high school diplomas.

So he did what Florida law required. He took his proposal for the new charter school to the Polk County School Board’s Charter Review Committee, two different times. And twice he came away without permission to open his school, according to the Sunshine State News.

What was the committee’s hang-up? Were members afraid that Feacher would establish a bad school? Do they have a problem with the idea of creating a special school for children who are struggling in traditional schools?

It was nothing like that. The board members were just worried about losing money.

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COLUMBIA, S.C. – It seems that most states are looking to reform their K-12 public education system, either out of necessity – lack of money, low student achievement – or on the principle that families should have the right to choose their child’s education.

South Carolina is no different. During the current legislative session, state lawmakers are expected to consider a number of education reforms, including the possibility of increasing the number of charter schools in the state, linking teacher pay to student learning, and giving principals the power to fire ineffective teachers.

What distinguishes the Palmetto State’s K-12 reform debate from all the others is that it’s being led by an outspoken, retired Army brigadier general and former college president who is eager to take on the “liberal education establishment.”

State Superintendent of Education Mick Zais, a Republican, won election in 2010 by a huge margin of 108,000 votes. He has been in office for just over a year, but he has rankled lawmakers of both political parties by refusing to accept federal education dollars from President Obama’s Race to the Top initiative that gives states money in exchange for approved school reforms.

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CHESTER, Pa. – Three thousand students at Pennsylvania’s largest charter school face the imminent risk of having their school year cancelled in the coming days or weeks, and seeing their school “stop operations” entirely due to a lack of funds.

That grim reality is a direct result of decisions by officials in the nearby Chester Upland School District to keep state funds legally owed to the Chester Community Charter School, and to use them instead to bail the district out of its “self-inflicted budgetary crisis.”

That’s according to a legal brief filed by attorneys representing the Chester Community Charter School in response to last month’s judicial ruling that gave the Chester Upland School District a $3.2 million state bailout, and left the charter school holding almost $7 million in I.O.U. notes.

Attorneys for the Chester Community Charter School (CCCS) say the school faces a very real risk of shutting down because it cannot pay its bills.

As a result, it is “extremely likely that Chester Community Charter will have to stop operations, turning in excess of 3,000 students, nearly 700 with disabilities, out on the streets in the middle of the school year.”

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WASHINGTON, D.C. – It’s no secret that Big Labor is dependent on dues and fees automatically withdrawn from the payroll checks of union members and non-members alike.

The automatic deductions funnel millions of dollars into public sector union coffers each year, with a portion frequently going toward partisan political causes and liberal candidates who promise to preserve or expand the unions’ forced dues racket.

But this vicious cycle is finally being challenged in states and municipalities around the nation. Perhaps the most important challenge, Knox vs. Service Employees International Union, was heard earlier this month by the justices of the U.S. Supreme Court.

The case is one of a growing number of examples of how public employees, including public school teachers, are pushing back against forced union dues – something many consider a violation of their First Amendment rights. American citizens should not be forced to financially support an organization or political causes they don’t agree with, union objectors rightly contend.

By forcing members and non-members to subsidize its radical political agenda, Big Labor may have finally cooked its Golden Goose.

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RACINE, Wis. – Al Levie must be proud of himself.

The Racine teacher had his fifteen minutes of fame this month when he refused to accept an award from Congressman Paul Ryan at a Martin Luther King, Jr. event at a local college. A video of Levie’s antics, accompanied by a lame explanation for his defiance, is circulating online.

“Paul Ryan is a lackey for the one percent,” Levie contends in a video interview after the event.
The video made Levie an instant folk hero for leftists.

But our research shows that silly antics are nothing new for Levie, an ends-justify-the-means type who routinely uses his students to promote his personal political agenda.

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WEST HEMPSTEAD, N.Y. – Bill Signorile has regularly attended West Hempstead school board meetings for the past two years, in hopes of getting board members to curb the district’s spending.

He says the board’s big-spending habits, particularly when it comes to union labor costs, are jeopardizing the financial futures of taxpayers and younger school employees, and threatening the quality of instruction for students.

Over the past decade, Signorile has watched his school property taxes increase by 232 percent – from $2,584.97 in 2001-02 to $5,994.71 in 2011-12.

During that same period, the West Hempstead Union Free School District’s budget has increased by 56.7 percent – from $34.7 million to $54.4 million – even while enrollment has dropped by 200 students.

Signorile says “runaway” taxes make it difficult for him to keep his home or send his children to college, while the ballooning school budget puts the jobs and pensions of district employees at risk.

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HARTFORD, Ct. – Since 2010, Connecticut has had the dreary distinction of having the largest student achievement gap in the nation.

Students in Connecticut’s well-to-do school districts significantly outperform students in poor, urban districts, which is a major economic and moral dilemma. But it appears that state lawmakers are finally ready to get serious about addressing the problem.

Gov. Dannel Malloy, a Democrat, is promising education reforms that will be “the most far-reaching in our state’s history,” and has targeted six areas for improvement – including increasing the number of charter schools, revising teacher tenure and seniority, and authorizing “intensive interventions” for the lowest-performing districts.

Education reform groups such as the Connecticut Coalition for Achievement Now and the Connecticut Parents Union are expected to bend lawmakers’ ears about the need to link teacher evaluations to student achievement.

Former teacher and State Rep. Douglas McCrory, a Democrat, put the upcoming education reform fight into perspective.

“This is winner-take-all, folks,” McCrory said in a recent speech. “I don’t think we’re going to have another opportunity like this in the state of Connecticut any time soon. We need to get it done now, or you know what the future looks like.” (more…)

DENVER – Across the United States, taxpayer dollars are being used to subsidize the salaries and benefits of teachers and other municipal employees who work for their local labor unions.

This wasteful tradition costs taxpayers millions each year, and has gone largely unnoticed because the details of the arrangements are most often negotiated behind closed doors.

Luckily this practice, popularly known as “union release time,” may be coming to an end in many parts of the nation.

Severe budget problems in California, Colorado, Arizona and other states have increased scrutiny on labor spending, with critics highlighting union release time as a disgusting waste of taxpayer money at a time when most schools and municipalities can least afford it.

Education Action Group has documented different forms of union release time in our reviews of teacher contracts in numerous states, and the issue has been probed in depth by researchers like Ben DeGrow of the Independence Institute’s Education Policy Center.

Educators are often released from their regular duties with pay - either full-time, part-time or on a per-diem basis – to serve as union officials. They are free to use school time to handle grievances, attend collective bargaining sessions, lobby government officials, do political work, and perform other union-related activities.

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Florida’s Marion County school district drew national headlines last summer when it announced that it was switching to a four-day school week as a way to save money.

Other school officials took a more conventional route by laying off teachers and cutting student programs, all the while blaming Gov. Rick Scott for underfunding Florida’s public schools.

Now comes a report that finds 946 school employees in the Sunshine State earned at least $100,000 in 2010. That’s up 818 percent from 2005, according to the Foundation for Government Accountability.

The foundation also finds the percentage of non-school employees who earn at least six-figures has increased by only 7 percent during that same period.

“You don’t have to be great in math to figure out that something is wrong with these school salaries,” Tarren Bragdon, Foundation for Government Accountability CEO, told the Sunshine State News.

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Pennsylvania’s Neshaminy Federation of Teachers has agreed to end its nearly two-week strike, and members will return to the classroom Friday morning. But that doesn’t mean the nastiness is over.

The school board had refused to continue contract negotiations while the union was on strike, which means the disagreements about future pay raises, health insurance contributions and retroactive pay are still unresolved.

State law requires that a three-member arbitration panel be brought in to help assist negotiations, reports PhillyBurbs.com. The panel will make its non-binding recommendations by spring. If the district and the union still cannot agree, the NFT has the legal option of going on strike a second time this school year.

School board President Ritchie Webb said that a second strike would prompt the district to file an injunction with the state, asking that the teachers be ordered back to work.

“Teachers need to understand that you can strike until the cows come home, but it doesn’t create more money in the district,” Webb said. “We have limited resources.”

The community seems to have had enough of the NFT’s selfish behavior, too.

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GRANT, Mich.  – Ever wonder what it costs to quit a labor union?

For one Michigan educator, the annual costs of “non-membership” in the local, state and national teacher unions total $544.28.

But Andrew Buikema, 10-year teacher with Grant Public Schools, is willing to pay the price, just for the privilege of being seen as a true professional, instead of a union worker.

Michigan is not a “right to work” state, which means Buikema’s job is still affected by the district’s contract with the local teachers union, the Grant Education Association. The GEA is affiliated with the Michigan Education Association and the National Education Association.

Buikema has been trying to leave the union since last spring, when he realized that GEA leaders were uninterested in helping the district control costs, even in the face of a multi-million dollar deficit.

By refusing to make wage and benefit concessions, the union contributed to conditions that led to 27 teachers – including Buikema – receiving layoff notices. The district was also forced into making cuts to student academic and extracurricular programs.

Buikema’s job was saved at the last minute, but he was disgusted by the union’s selfishness.

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INDIANAPOLIS – Would you like a vivid example of how dysfunctional leadership and top-heavy bureaucracy can cripple an inner-city school system?
Just take a good look at Indianapolis Public Schools. The horrifying results speak for themselves.

Less than 60 percent of IPS students graduate high school on time, third- and eighth-graders score more than 20 percentage points below the state average on math and English tests, and six out of seven of Indiana’s worst schools are within the district.

Those sobering statistics are the impetus behind an encouraging new proposal to remake the district, drafted by education reformers at The Mind Trust, an Indianapolis nonprofit charter school advocacy group.

In the report – “Creating Opportunity Schools, A Bold Plan to Transform Indianapolis Public Schools” – The Mind Trust outlines how excessive and illogical labor spending in the district could be redirected into classrooms, where it belongs.

The report calls for drastic restructuring of the district, including decentralizing of the administration, expanding school choice, and giving high performing schools greater control over their budgets and staffs.

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