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July 21st, 2010
July 20, 2010
Alpena board imposes terms on stubborn teachers union
Meanwhile, support staff unions throughout the state are finally accepting concessions
ALPENA - Finally, some real concessions from school employees who want to keep their jobs and help their districts survive.
It’s happening in districts all over the state, including Holland, Jackson, Farmington, Monroe, Brighton, Orchard View and Northwest Community Schools, to name just a few.
The only problem is that, in most instances, the concessions have come from unionized support staff. Most local teachers unions continue to resist any type of contract concessions, which would save cash-strapped districts significantly more dollars.
That reality has forced at least one district - Alpena - to impose new contract terms on its teachers, after they rejected more generous terms recommended by a state mediator.
Ironically, the Alpena Education Association would have been better off accepting the mediator’s terms, which called for a one percent raise for the coming school year. The board imposed a contract based on its final offer of a ½ percent raise.
Teachers had been working without a new contract since their previous pact expired in August of 2009.
The sticking point in negotiations – surprise, surprise – has been insurance. While all other bargaining units in the district, as well as non-union employees, have agreed to drop from Blue Cross/Blue Shield PPO 1 to PPO II coverage, the teachers union has refused to follow suit.
So the school board made the concession for them.
While the law allowed the board to impose the contract following the failed intervention of the mediator, the issue is still not settled. The two sides must continue to meet with a mediator to hammer out a final deal, and so far there’s been one session and no progress, according to Pat Sampier, the assistant superintendent for human resources.
Sampier could only guess why the teachers union has been stubborn about accepting insurance coverage that everyone else in the district lives with.
“I don’t know – I guess they really believe it can’t happen to them,” Sampier told the Insider. “We’re really between a rock and a hard place. We have a wonderful academic staff. Do they deserve something? Sure. But it’s not possible right now.
“We should all be working together. All of our support staff (accepted the insurance downgrade). The administrators did that more than a year ago. I’m not sure why the teachers don’t feel they should have to do that, also.”
A shortage of operating funds is the bottom line in Alpena. The district has been eating away at its fund balance for the past seven years, and that money could be exhausted within a year, according to Sampier. Four school buildings have already been closed and layoffs have occurred in all employee groups.
“We made it very clear that the only way we could offer any sort of package at all (to teachers) would be with savings through insurance changes,” Sampier said.
Thus far the labor standoff has remained pretty peaceful, according to Sampier. While the teachers picketed a school board meeting last night, the protests have remained calm and professional in nature, she said.
We hope the situation remains peaceful, and we hope the teachers union comes to its senses, accepts the type of sacrifices being made by other employees, and sets a positive example for other unions around the state.
The unions that are holding out for handouts from Lansing or Washington, D.C. are not contributing to any reasonable, lasting solution.
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INTERESTING TIDBIT FROM ALPENA
During our interview, Sampier mentioned that the Alpena school board long ago declared itself the policyholder for employee health insurance policies.
With that status, the board legally keeps the issue of the insurance carrier off the collective bargaining table. The unions can still negotiate specific benefits, but have no say regarding the insurance company the board chooses to contract with.
It’s a great way for any district to avoid union-owned MESSA coverage.
“(The teachers union) keeps bringing up MESSA, and we keep telling them, as soon as MESSA allows the district to be the policyholder, we’ll listen,” Sampier said.
MESSA, of course, insists on being the policyholder in every district where it does business. That means it won’t do business with Alpena.
Good for Alpena.
There is another benefit for boards that keep the policyholder status, according to Sampier. The district gets to see how much money is actually spent on insurance claims, and has a deal with the carrier to recover unused premium payments. While she didn’t have actual figures available, Sampier said the annual savings are significant.
Under MESSA, schools rarely see financial details of employee claims, and any unused premiums are kept by the company, Sampier said.
The way we see it, any school board that doesn’t insist on being the health insurance policyholder is costing itself money and unnecessary frustration.
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That’s probably why their unions are suddenly offering concessions. And in most cases we’ve heard about, school boards have chosen to accept those concessions and keep their employees, rather than opting for privatization.
“Everyone at the table was sensitive to the economic times currently impacting our community,” Steve Grose, president of the Holland school board, told the Grand Rapids Press.
“Our main priority was to keep our people – whatever it took,” Lindy Loughlin, president of the Northwest Community Schools Support Personnel Association, told the Jackson Citizen Patriot.
In the Holland district, the support personnel union, which represents secretaries, maintenance and transportation employees, made a huge step by agreeing to dump expensive MESSA insurance coverage. The employees will now be covered under the same insurance plan that other employee groups have been using for the past four years.
The employees agreed to pass on a retroactive pay raise for the last school year, and will receive a 1 percent raise in the coming year. Two extra vacation days will replace a pay raise in 2011-12.
Teachers are now the only employees in the district still covered by MESSA. But there’s little hope they will make similar insurance concessions when contract negotiations begin next year.
Goeff Legg, president of the Holland Education Association, refused to comment on the support staff contract. “But I will say this,” he was quoted as saying, “Teachers are very happy with their MESSA plan.”
Sounds like an ugly fight is brewing.
In Muskegon County’s Orchard View district, concessions from support personnel allowed the board to cut $2.4 million from the budget without privatizing any services.The savings came largely through a five percent pay cut for employees and increases in insurance co-pays, deductibles and premiums.
Twenty-three jobs were saved by the concessions. Now the district is waiting on teachers to make similar concessions.
“We sought concessions from both (teacher and support) union groups, and we only got concessions from support staff,”Superintendent Pat Walstra told the Muskegon Chronicle.
We salute the employees and the school boards that have managed to work together to save precious dollars. Cooperation and sacrifice and clearly the keys to surviving the current crisis.
It’s just too bad more teachers unions haven’t accepted that reality.
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ARCH LEWIS COMPARES DISTRICT TO BILL GATES
Our new video news service, EAGtv, caught up with Arch Lewis, the MEA’s traveling financial guru, at his most recent stop July 15 in the Warren Fitzgerald school district.
As our video demonstrates, Lewis gave the school board and a small gathering of teachers his usual song and dance, insisting the district has plenty of money and isn’t spending enough on salaries and benefits for teachers.
Of course the Fitzgerald teachers union is currently negotiating a new contract, so Lewis’ presentation was obviously timed to influence those talks.
Lewis’ major argument is that the district has about $3 million in fund reserves. He actually said $30 million during the meeting, but we’re certain he misspoke.
As EAGtv reporter Theresa Rashid pointed out, the school was forced to use part of that money to cover a $3 million deficit in 2009-10, and will need more to help cover an estimated $2.5 million shortfall this year.
Lewis also claimed that the district only spends pennies on the dollar for labor costs. But school board President Thomas Owczarek countered that 80 percent of every tax dollar received by the district is spent on teacher salaries and benefits.
Rashid added that annual step salary increases for Fitzgerald teachers average between 7 and 8.6 percent. Lots of folks in the private sector would drool over that type of raise.
None of those points swayed Lewis, who insisted after the meeting, in a one-on-one interview with Rashid, that the school district can be compared to Bill Gates in terms of wealth, and has the money to spend lavishly on labor.
When Rashid continued to press him on that point, Lewis finally threw his arms in the air, proclaimed “I’m done,” and walked away from the camera.
Arch seems like a nice man, but his assignment is to twist figures so school boards believe they have a responsibility to spend every available dime on union employees. That’s a tough argument to sell, particularly with EAG folks hanging around, pointing out the absurdity of his claims.
See you at the next stop, Arch.
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July 16th, 2010
July 13, 2010
EAG-TV launches with a look at Detroit school board mess
Nobody steps forward to run for this embarrassing public body
DETROIT - Members of the Detroit school board are planning to attend tonight’s city council meeting, to explain why the board is still necessary.
They have a lot of explaining to do.
They have to explain the 40 percent dropout rate of their district, the 50 percent illiteracy rate in the city, and the fact that some graduates can’t read their own diplomas.
They have to explain subpar student scores on math and reading standardized tests.
They have to explain a recent school board president who struggled to write an understandable sentence, then was forced to resign after allegedly fondling himself in front of the female superintendent.
They have to explain why another board member, an ordained minister at that, had the gall to defend the former president’s actions and suggest he remain on the board.
They have to explain why the Aug. 3 primary election for two open school board seats had to be canceled, because nobody in this very large city filed to run.
We’re not sure there will be enough time at the city council meeting for the board to explain everything.
A reporting team from our brand new video news service, EAG-TV, visited a Detroit school board meeting last week, to get an update on the status of this very troubled public body.
EAGtv reporter Theresa Rashid watched as the board needed five votes to choose a new member, then listened as residents took turns sharing their frustrations regarding the board’s dismal performance.
Just click on the video above to watch the report in its entirety.
Despite the rash of problems in the Detroit district, Rashid found a school board still in denial, still willing to pass the buck for decades of failure.
“You’ve got to understand, for eight out of the last 10 years, this board has been under the control of either the emergency financial manager, or the state takeover board,” said Anthony Adams, the newly-appointed board president.
“Nothing like passing off the responsibility and accountability,” Rashid noted on the video, after interviewing Adams.
Adams also argued in favor of continued school board control of the district. There’s a strong possibility that Detroit voters could have a ballot proposition in the November election, eliminating the board and turning control over to the mayor.
The Detroit city council may decide to put the proposition on the ballot at tonight’s meeting.
“This is an elected body,” Adams argued. “It represents the collective will of the people.”
If a vote were taken today, we’d be willing to bet that the collective will of the people would be to dump this ineffective, embarrassing body.
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The parents aren’t impressed
One parent at the meeting told Rashid that she wasn’t a bit impressed with that she saw.
“All I heard throughout the meeting was the democratic process and democratic voting,” Bobbi Johnson told Rashid. “I don’t remember the citizens voting to say that my child wants to go to a school where there’s no bathroom stall and no tissue, and the teachers are barely coming, or are substandard.
“Really all I’ve seen in this meeting right now is a bunch of arguments, a bunch of bickering. They couldn’t even be decisive about who they wanted to be on the board.
“What are they doing? What resolutions have they made? What difference have they made for the city of Detroit? That’s what I say about the council, that’s what I say about the school board, that’s what I say about the politicians here.”
All of the above are good arguments to scrap the school board system and implement mayoral control.
Under the proposal, the mayor would appoint a school superintendent who would report to him or her. As for democratic representation, the mayor is an elected official, and voters would be able to hold him or her responsible for the state of the schools.
No mayor could possibly do worse than the school board has done for the past 30 or 40 years. This is a dire situation, and the citizens of Detroit should take drastic actions to correct it.
Nobody wants to join this club
Even if the voters don’t destroy the school board, it seems it may eventually dissolve on its own, due to a lack of interest from members of the community.
This week we received the shocking news that nobody – we repeat, nobody – filed to run for the two open seats on the Detroit school board. That forced the city to cancel the Aug. 3 primary election for the two seats.
Has anything like this ever happened before, in a school district as large as Detroit? Is it possible that no adults care enough to try to help the school district get back on its feet, or are residents simply so disgusted with the board that they can’t picture themselves joining such a three-ring circus?
“The actions of the board members have been so thoroughly discrediting, people don’t want to be associated,” said Bob Berg, a spokesman for Change for Better Schools, the group pushing for mayoral control of the district.
Berg may well be right. Two incumbent members of the board, including President Adams and Ronald Cleveland, are getting out while the getting’s good. Last year 14 candidates were on the ballot for school board seats, but none of the also-rans have turned up a year later to try again.
News reports we reviewed lacked details about how the seats will be filled. Presumably the election will come down to a race between write-in candidates, and we have to worry about the caliber of individuals who may be tempted to throw their hats in the ring with little competition.
With a little luck, the election results won’t really matter. At tonight’s city council meeting, Change for Better Schools will reportedly present 30,000 petition signatures, in hopes of getting the city council to put the mayoral control proposition on the November ballot.
The Detroit school board likes to talk about democracy and the will of the people. The way we see it, 30,000 people have spoken. We just hope the city council members are listening.
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JUST THE START FOR EAGTV
The video report from the Detroit school board meeting is just the first of many such reports that will be filed by EAGtv.
Rashid, a graduate of Wiley College in Marshall, Texas, comes to Education Action Group after a long career in television news.
Her most recent job was at WXMI-TV, the Fox television network affiliate in Grand Rapids, where she served as a general assignment reporter. Before that she served as news director for WBCK radio in Battle Creek, and as a reporter for WWMT-TV in Kalamazoo. Rashid, 44, said she decided to make the jump from mainstream journalism because she didn’t feel she was making enough of a difference.
“Local news is all about getting it first, or covering what the other guy already has,” she said. “It’s really not about changing things or making a difference. Sometimes you get that opportunity, but not very often.”
Rashid’s interest in education developed over the years as she volunteered to serve in various public schools. She said she was frustrated by the conditions in many schools, and how little some students manage to learn.
“I was bothered by the way the system works and the motivation to have kids get good test scores, rather than learning,” Rashid said. “I want to educate people about their educational choices. You give them that information and they will find a way to use it.”
Rashid joined EAG in early July, with the challenge of developing EAGtv over the coming months. We will be offering more video coverage of education issues and stories from around the state and nation as the year goes by, with the goal of hitting our full pace toward the beginning of 2011.
All of the resulting videos will be dispersed to the media, and eventually posted on EAGtv.com, a website still under construction.
In the meantime, Rashid is looking forward to traveling the nation and posing tough questions to the people who devise our nation’s education policies.
“You have to ask the questions,” Rashid said. “We’ll see who wants to answer what.”
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IS ANYBODY LISTENING TO THE MEA?
The MEA, as well as various othe labor organizations, have been making a lot of noise on behalf of their chosen candidate for governor, Lansing Mayor Virg Bernero.
In past statewide elections, the endorsement of the teachers union and other major labor organizations would have been a huge plus.
But this is no ordinary election year, and the kiss of the unions may well prove to be the kiss of death for Bernero.
Bernero is getting clobbered in the polls by House Speaker Andy Dillon, a pro-reform moderate Democrat who is hated by the MEA leadership. But even worse news for Bernero is that rank-and-file union members seem to be ignoring their leadership and backing Dillon, as well.
A recent edition of Inside Michigan Politics revealed that Dillon is clobbering Bernero among union members, 42%-13%.
Those numbers tell us that the influence of the MEA is on the serious decline. The voters of Michigan are looking for candidates who want to help the entire state, and they seem to recognize that the teachers union is mostly concerned with preserving its power and perks.
The days of the dominant special interests have passed. The people want leaders who will balance all interests and do what’s right for Michigan.
Here’s our message for Mayor Bernero: We’re sure you were excited when you accepted the MEA endorsement. But now it seems you may be keeping the wrong company, at least as far as the voters see it. With only a few weeks before the critical primary election, you may want to consider distancing yourself from Iris Salters and her gang in East Lansing, as quickly and emphatically as possible
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June 30th, 2010
After putting Wayne-Westland schools through a paralyzing strike in 2008, one might expect the Michigan Education Association to take it easy on the district.
No such luck, according to Superintendent Greg Baracy.
Just as school officials are struggling to deal with a projected $4.6 million budget deficit, MESSA, the union’s health insurance wing, has hit the district with an unexpected 17 percent increase.
Meanwhile, Wayne-Westland teachers are among the few employees in the district that flatly refuse to consider a temporary salary and step freeze.
The insurance increase will be a major headache at the worst possible time for the Wayne-Westland district. The school board had budgeted for an increase in the neighborhood of 4 percent, or about $400,000 per year. Instead they have to swallow an increase of $1.7 million, further stressing the financial situation.
“We probably would not have had to reduce some of our supply budgets or make reductions to our book budget,” Baracy told the Insider, when asked how the insurance increase is hurting the district. “We may have been able to save a job here and there.
“The bottom line is that we would have had $1.3 million less of a deficit.”
Wayne-Westland was recently forced to close six schools, and is on schedule to exhaust its cash reserves by the end of the 2010-11 school year. Meanwhile, MESSA continues to nurse a fund balance of more than $200 million.
That’s frustrating for Baracy, who believes the MESSA board (comprised largely of MEA officials) could afford to take it easy on schools this year, given the widespread financial problems. He says he’s tried to reason with MESSA officials in the past, but learned it’s a pointless effort.
“You’re talking to deaf ears,” Baracy said. “They go mute.”
Ironically, expensive MESSA insurance was the main issue in October of 2008, when teachers walked out for three days to protest the slow progress of contract negotiations. The school board wanted to curtail costs by seeking less expensive coverage, but the union wouldn’t hear of it.
When a new contract was finally ratified, MESSA coverage remained intact for teachers.
But that act of faith by the school board apparently didn’t build enough goodwill with the union. When district officials recently asked teachers and other MEA employees to accept a salary and step freeze to help curtail costs, the Wayne-Westland Education Association flatly refused to consider the idea, according to Baracy.
Every other bargaining unit, and all non-represented school employees, have already accepted a wage freeze. Only the teachers and secretaries are holding out, Baracy said.
“Until the fund balance is gone, they said they are not interested in talking about cost-containment measures.”
An editorial in a local online publication, journalgroup.com, recently summed up the Wayne-Westland situation, particularly regarding the insurance hike.
“In order for the district to truly concentrate on its mission, these unions have to allow the district to present other insurance options,” the editorial said.
“Teachers are the largest employee group and, virtually by definition, the most expensive. This isn’t about seeing that they get what they deserve, but merely a recognition of the economic situation the district is in – not to mention the state as a whole.”
In other words, wake up and smell the roses, MEA. Hasn’t the Wayne-Westland district put up with enough?
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June 28th, 2010
And these folks want a vote of confidence . . .
Bizarre Detroit school board continues to display its incompetence
Sometimes real life situations are far more bizarre than fiction.
A good example is the Detroit school board, which desperately wants to convince the courts, state legislature and voters that it should continue to govern the troubled school district.
To reach that goal, the board must overcome certain obstacles of its own making, like the fact that the city has an illiteracy rate of nearly 50 percent, students are graduating without the ability to read, and the district has become a playground for thieves that have been ripping off taxpayers for decades.
Thus far, the board’s effort to repair its reputation has fallen woefully short.
A few months ago, it became apparent, through an e-mail intercepted by the media, that board President Otis Mathis has problems writing a coherent sentence.
Now there are ugly revelations about Mathis’ more serious problems. In a recent meeting with DPS Superintendent Teresa Gueyser, he reportedly fondled himself and partially disrobed in her presence.
Gueyser, who indicated that similar behavior had occurred in the past, sent a letter of complaint to the board. Mathis reacted by submitting a letter of resignation, then attempted to reclaim his position with a promise to seek professional help.
“However, I do not need to resign in order to take care of my health,” Mathis wrote in his second letter. “In some ways, the health battle I am making will be better served by continuing on the board.”
At least one board member, the Rev. David Murray, was sympathetic to Mathis’ plea. Check out his quote, which was published in last Sunday’s Detroit Free Press.
“He’s a young man,” Murray said of the 55-year-old Mathis. “Maybe he didn’t know it was offensive to her. It’s not something I would do. He’s a young man. That’s just the way it is.”
Really, Rev. Murray? And you serve on a board that’s supposed to be serving the children of your community? It seems to us that more than one resignation may be in order.
Luckily, the majority of board members were not interested in Mathis’ return, and he appears to be history. According to the Free Press, he’s already cleaned out his personal office, his photo was removed from the walls of the DPS office building, and the board has advertised for potential replacements.
This incident, alone, is not enough to indict the entire school board, or argue for its extinction. But if we were a voters in Detroit, and had a choice between direct mayoral control of the schools (expected to be on the ballot this fall) or continued school board leadership, Mathis’ behavior and Murray’s reaction would have to be considered.
The board’s argues that the schools should be directed by elected officials. Well, the mayor is elected, and voters could hold him directly responsible for the fate of the district. And hopefully they would never have to open the newspaper and read about the mayor treating a district employee in such a sick, inexcusable manner.
It’s certainly food for thought.
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SPEAKING OF FOOD FOR THOUGHT
We at EAG are big fans of William Coale, a retired Michigan teacher, superintendent and school board member who regularly comments on the state of public education.
One of his latest essays, “Kids v. Adults … Who’s Going to Win?” is a thoughtful overview on the perils facing our schools, the desperate need for reform, and the stubbornly obstructionist role being played by the Michigan Education Association. An edited version was published in the Jackson Citizen Patriot.
Coale blasts the union (and its MESSA insurance wing) for, among other things, overcharging Michigan schools for health coverage, using insurance profits to purchase the votes of state legislators, calling for higher taxes to support salaries and benefits, causing layoffs and larger class sizes by refusing to make contract concessions, and targeting school board members for recall if they don’t vote the MEA way.
“The refrain ‘Do it for the kids’ will be heard once again across Michigan, as the MEA plans a June 24th rally at the state capitol to make an impassioned plea for more money to prop up a self-serving education system that protects the adults at the expense of our children,” Coale wrote.
“Ironically, the teachers union bills this rally as their ‘Enough is Enough’ campaign - a perfect slogan, but misdirected. Michigan taxpayers and students should adopt the phrase and demand an end to the MEA’s entitlement syndrome that is hurting our students and bleeding our taxpayers dry, during an economic downturn that challenges Michigan’s very survival.
“If Michigan is to survive and prosper, it must re-invent the educational system, which can only be done if our legislators display the courage and independence to do what’s right for our kids. If we fail our students, we fail our entire state - forever.”
We recommend giving the entire document a thorough read. It really puts the challenges posed by the union into perspective.
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A POSITIVE LOOK AT PRIVATIZATION
The online publication “Michigan Capitol Confidential” recently took a close look at the Oxford school district and its decision to privatize custodial services.
“In the Oxford Community Schools this year, the classrooms were cleaned every other day due to attrition in the unionized ranks of the custodial staff,” the story says. “Starting next year, the classrooms will be cleaned every day, they will have nine extra custodians, and the school district will save $5 million over the next five years.”
The article quotes Superintendent William Skilling as saying the district will go from paying $17 to $20 per hour for unionized custodians to $9 to $11 per hour for private contractors. The number of custodians will increase from 25 to 34 while the district will save millions of dollars, according to Skilling.
“We don’t exist as schools to be employment agencies,” the superintendent was quoted as saying. “We are going through difficult economic times.”
The article points out that the MEA, which condemns privatization, has established a “complaint box” on its website, where school employees can register their feelings about the “shoddy work done by privateers doing the jobs that used to be done by school employees.”
We wonder if MEA employees are free to use the box to complain about the private, non-union custodians who are hired to clean MEA headquarters in East Lansing? As one blogger put it, “Privatization for we, but not for thee!”
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DEMOCRATS, FREEP ARE GETTING A CLUE
The Detroit Free Press, long a defender of labor unions and all they ask for, recently published a refreshing editorial giving credit to the 16 House Democrats in Lansing who bucked MEA pressure and voted in favor of the recently-adopted school retirement incentive plan.
“The measure passed with 56 votes in total, the rest supplied by Republicans, just enough to pass in the 110-member House of Representatives,” the editorial said. “The state’s largest teachers union, the Michigan Education Association, was not pleased, and some of the lawmakers have gotten hints or outright threats that they will not get further support - be it money or volunteers to pass out literature - from that traditional bulwark of Democratic campaigns.
“It’s worth exploring how lawmakers make difficult votes like this. First, because these 16 deserve to be given credit and thanked. Second, although a legislature can’t operate if everyone’s a maverick on every issue, voters have a stake in figuring out which candidates think for themselves and have the intestinal fortitude to stand up at times to important constituencies and partisan peer pressure.”
Welcome to the reform movement, Free Press. Please keep encouraging your friends on the left to do what’s right for schools and students, instead of serving the narrow interests of organized labor.
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June 16th, 2010
June 15, 2010
“No confidence” votes are nothing more than MEA tantrums
Superintendents attacked for not giving unions all they want
The Michigan Education Association has been screaming a lot lately about “teacher bashing.”
What about superintendent bashing?
By that, we mean the MEA’s dirty little habit of trying to smear the reputations of K-12 school superintendents, just because the union is not getting its way at the contract bargaining table.
The most recent example is in the Big Rapids district, where the teachers recently adopted a resolution of “no confidence” in Superintendent Tom Langdon, a week after rejecting a tentative contract that made sense for the cash-strapped district.
According to several sources, there was no reason for the union to attack Langdon. They say he’s done an outstanding job from an academic standpoint, and is doing his best to watch out for school finances and employee interests during negotiations with the union.
Local union President Bill Banks told the Big Rapids Pioneer that the “no confidence” vote passed by a large margin, but would not say why the membership has such a problem with Langdon. He said board members would receive a letter from the union outlining the rationale.
Meanwhile, the board seems very happy with the superintendent.
As school board President Kathy Bouwman wrote in recent letter to the editor of the Pioneer, “During our superintendent’s tenure, Big Rapids Public Schools received a ‘blue ribbon’ award, the high school was named a top 20 Michigan high school by U.S. News and World Report, and the middle school was rated highly by Standard and Poors.
“We have an excellent superintendent, and he has my full support, despite any tactics to smudge his reputation because sides cannot reach agreement on a contract.”
Apparently the MEA doesn’t care if a school superintendent is on the ball or not. If he doesn’t give in to the union’s every whim, he deserves a vote of “no confidence.”
“I think it’s just a negotiating tactic,” said a source close to the situation. “I don’t think it has anything to do with his performance.”
A negotiating tactic – just like a little kid throwing himself on the floor of a supermarket until he gets what he wants. The child knows the tantrum is ugly and wrong, but for him the end justifies the means. The same goes for the MEA.
That kind of selfish, sickening attitude is one reason why the people of Michigan are getting very tired of the MEA. Anybody who doesn’t bend over backward to please the union is the enemy, and is treated with disrespect
But we believe the strategy is going to backfire, and the union will be the deserving target of public contempt.
FULL GOODY BAG
For the record, the Big Rapids district has been without a teachers contract since August. After going though the arbitration process, the two sides reached a tentative agreement earlier this year on a contact that would have installed sensible controls on insurance and salary costs for the cash-strapped district.
That means the union could keep getting expensive MESSA insurance coverage, and the school would only pay up to its self-imposed cap. The leftover costs would have been picked up by teachers.
But Big Rapids teachers have never been forced to help pay for their own insurance, and they apparently don’t care to start now.
Some union members are also reportedly upset because there was no general pay increase in the contract, and automatic annual increases were capped at $500 per step next year.
The district was forced to impose those cost savings because it’s facing a budget deficit that could be as high as $1 million next year, according to officials. As many as nine teachers could be laid off in the fall, although officials are hopeful that improved state sales tax receipts could take the edge off the cuts.
In the meantime, no new contracts talks have taken place in Big Rapids and none have been scheduled.
Langdon, for one, said he’s eager to get talks going again so the contract issue can be solved. He also said he won’t respond to the “vote of no confidence” unless union leaders provide some details about his performance that they find objectionable.
“I have nothing but respect for the teaching staff,” Langdon told the Pioneer. “The communications lines have always been open. I have always responded to e-mails in the past from staff members who raise any issues with me.
“You certainly have to make yourself available (to any issues they may have). I’d like to find out what the specifics are.”
Here are the specifics, Mr. Langdon. You and the board are not giving the union its full goody bag at the bargaining table, so now you are demonized. But don’t worry. In our book that makes you a pretty good administrator, and we know a lot of people who think the same way.
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MEA TRUTH-O-METER
We’ve long been fans of the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, a Midland-based think tank that provides useful and sometimes jaw-dropping information regarding education and other issues crucial to our state.
But we’ve also been hoping that the folks at the Mackinac Center would be a bit more aggressive when sharing their important information. After all, taxpayers don’t typically demand change until they get a loud dose of the truth.
Apparently that’s no longer a concern.
Remember the MEA’s “boxer ad,”which ran on statewide television a few weeks ago? It showed a fighter hitting a punching bag while a voiceover talked about the unfair abuse teachers are taking from state government.
Well, the Mackinac Center staff picked out the various claims that the MEA made in that ad and put them to an accuracy test. The result is a new Mackinac Center video called “Knockout Punch,” featuring the “MEA Truth-O-Meter.”
For instance, the MEA ad claimed that teachers and other school employees have shared in the sacrifices necessary to keep our schools afloat.
According to the Truth-O-Meter, that claim is false. The Michigan Department of Education says we spent 6 percent more on school employee compensation in 2008 than we did in 2006, with roughly the same number of employees and seven percent fewer students.
The ad claimed that teachers are doing more with less resources while still guaranteeing students a great education. But according to the Truth-O-Meter, schools now get 33 percent more state, local and federal revenue than they did in 1995, which is about $3,000 more per student, and that statistic considers the rate of inflation.
The ad claimed that classroom sizes have continued to rise, but according to the Truth-O-Meter, the average ratio of students per teacher in Michigan has remained pretty steady for the past decade.
The ad claimed that teachers have sustained “constant cuts” in salary and benefits, and made nearly $1 billion in concessions in the past three years. According to the Truth-O-Meter, Michigan schools paid $39 million more for labor in 2008 than they did in 2006.
In their eagerness to make their case to the public, it appears that MEA leaders told a few tall tales. Our thanks to the Mackinac Center for pointing this out in such an entertaining way.
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OLSON ON NETWORK TELEVISION
EAG Vice President Kyle Olson has become a familiar face and voice on national television newscasts and radio talk shows over the past year.
His latest appearance was Monday morning, when he was invited to be a guest on the Fox Business Network’s “Varney and Company.”
Olson was invited to comment on the proposed $23 billion education bailout bill currently in Congress, which would funnel money to schools throughout the nation, primarily to keep up with labor costs and keep teachers and other employees on the job.
Olson argued that schools spend too much on labor, and should be finding ways to cut costs and survive on the revenue they have.
“We have very big spending problems within our public schools, and this is the time to fix those problems,” Olson said. ”But instead (the unions) just want to keep spending more money and duck the problems.”
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June 9th, 2010
June 8, 2010
More state Democrats willing to challenge MEA
Democrats for Education Reform attracts 1,400 supporters since February
Harrison Blackmond has worked on both sides of the education debate.
He spent time as a staff attorney at the Michigan Education Association’s East Lansing headquarters, and negotiated labor contracts as a Uniserv director in the field.
That was early in his career.
More recently, Blackmond (pictured at right) has concentrated on improving the state’s failing education system as head of the Detroit Regional Chamber of Commerce’s education group. He’s sharpened his focus on urban school systems like Detroit, Pontiac, Saginaw, Flint and Muskegon Heights, traditionally Democratic areas that seem perpetually plagued by achievement gaps when compared to their suburban counterparts.
Early this year, Blackmond teamed with Joe Williams, executive director of the national Democrats for Education Reform, to launch a state branch of the organization, joining the ranks of education leaders in nine other states that are bucking the teachers unions that have dominated their party for decades.
Since February, the Michigan DFER has swelled to over 1,400 supporters, including several key state lawmakers. DFER is shaking up the Democratic Party in Michigan by questioning the MEA’s agenda and supporting Democratic leaders willing to do the same.
“I think that the MEA and the (Michigan Federation of Teachers) have put the interests of adults ahead of those of children,” Blackmond, the first state director of Michigan DFER, said in an interview with the Insider. “The union has resisted significant change in the way we provide education to our children.
“The only change they advocate for is more money and lower class size, and that benefits them,” Blackmond said.
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RTTT GOT DEMS ON THE REFORM WAGON
Blackmond points to Michigan’s participation in the federal Race to the Top grant competition as evidence that reform is gaining traction in the Wolverine State.
Improvements to the way the state manages charter schools, somewhat better methods for closing failing schools, and other minor reforms in Michigan’s RTTT application were a step in the right direction, Blackmond said. But perhaps more importantly, it served to inspire Democrats who are willing to part with traditional party policies and put kids first.
“I think that one thing that happened that was good is you saw a lot of Democrats bucking the teachers union. I think we saw more Democrats supporting meaningful reform than since 1994, when legislation passed starting charter schools,” Blackmond said.
“Was it enough? No. I think the reviewers found we didn’t go far enough in addressing the problem of failing schools, and we didn’t go far enough in tying student achievement” to teacher evaluations, he said.
Accountability measures, and closely related tenure laws, are issues the state still needs to tackle, Blackmond said. Michigan DFER supports “the president’s efforts to tie student performance to teacher retention and wage increases,” he said.
“We have to take a good hard look at the process and how tenure has evolved over the years,” Blackmond said. “We have to make sure we have the best teachers and leaders possible.”
Those changes will require the state to address clauses in teachers’ contracts that base layoffs, pay and just about everything else on an outdated seniority system.
“That (contract) language has done a lot to limit the ability of administrators to manage the educators in the buildings. The administration should be managing the time of the teachers, not the contract,” Blackmond said. “The union’s model … which is based on the manufacturing model, just doesn’t work in education. Education is not like manufacturing automobiles.”
Reforming the system, and injecting more accountability into the classroom, should be an effort led by Democrats, Blackmond believes, because the majority of struggling urban school systems are in traditionally Democratic areas.
Regardless of party, the bottom line is simple, he said.
“We just need to figure out a way to do what is in the best interests of our children.”
That is certainly change we can believe in.
DFER DRAWS BIG NAMES TO THE ISLAND
Last week, Michigan DFER held a reception on Mackinac Island to honor State Senator Buzz Thomas (D-Detroit) for his work in developing a new system for expanding charter schools.
The event was well attended, drawing familiar names like state House Speaker Andy Dillon (D-Redford Township), Detroit Public Schools’ Emergency Financial Manager Robert Bobb, state House Education Committee Chairman Tim Melton (D-Auburn Hills), state school board members and others.
MEA lead lobbyist Ed Sarpolus was also on hand taking note of those in attendance.
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While most conversations danced around the obvious conflicts between DFER and the MEA, the group seemed truly focused on changing the way the state educates students, regardless of what it means for the union.
“The reforms we did, even before Race to the Top was relevant, met with some resistance (from the MEA), but the one thing we are committed to is we are not going to leave kids behind in failing schools. That’s going to be the litmus test for us as to what we do or don’t do,” Dillon said in an interview with the Insider.
Dillon, who recently lost the MEA’s endorsement for governor to Lansing Mayor Virg Bernero, said “they can make their choice as to who to support, but I am going to stick with what I think is right for the kids in Michigan.”
What will it take for Democrats to move forward with strong reforms in Lansing, considering that the MEA remains such a dominant force within the party?
“With term limits, it takes making certain we hand off the baton to our successors,” Dillon said. “We are right on the merits of the issues, but we have to let people know it’s OK to challenge the status quo and push for change.
“And if you don’t, then shame on you, because you are only hurting the kids in this state,” he said. “It’s incumbent upon us to make certain … the legislators that come behind us are informed and realize you can do big, bold stuff and get re-elected.”
It is the ultimate success of those efforts, and charter schools in particular, that will determine if future legislators and education leaders will stick their necks out politically and oppose the MEA, Thomas said, shortly after he was presented with Michigan DFER’s first annual award.
“In the end (of the RTTT process) there was a lot of Democrats that still weren’t willing to make the changes that we made … to apply” for RTTT, Thomas said. “So … clearly there is still antagonism between traditional Democratic ideas and new Democratic ideas on how to educate kids.”
“When we start eliminating the achievement gap that exists between the races, between urban kids and rural kids and suburban kids, and can get at just kids, I don’t believe there will be that antagonism,” he said. “We need to focus in on results, and those people who are getting results should be rewarded, and those people not getting results should find something else to do.”
Melton, chairman of the House education committee, echoed Thomas’ focus on results, particularly from Lansing legislators. In the end, it is Michigan voters that must hold them accountable, he said.
“Every single candidate that runs for the House, all 110, Republican or Democrat, their number one or number two issue is education. Yet when they get to Lansing they put that speech in a closet and they bring it out in two years when it is time for re-election, and they don’t have anything to say they have done for education except protect the status quo,” Melton said. “If education is important, let’s make sure we hold our legislators’ feet to the fire.”
Democrats, in particular, should focus on improving public education because the majority of failing schools are in Democratic districts, Melton said.
“Democrats are the ones that have been protecting the status quo for quite some time,” he said.
We agree, Tim. And you can bet DFER and EAG are watching your committee closely.
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ONE FINE EXAMPLE
We would be remiss if we didn’t tip our hats to Ron Farrell, the veteran superintendent in the small Montabella district.
Farrell recently gained national attention by offering to give up his entire $95,820 annual salary next year to help the school overcome its financial difficulties.
As it turns out, the school board turned down the offer and insisted that it will pay Farrell something. But the superintendent, entering his 40th year with the district, still expects to surrender somewhere between $80,000 and $85,000.
Farrell insists his gesture is not meant as an example for others. He told the Insider it’s simply a gift from one grateful person to his community and employer.
“My intentions are 180 degrees from that,” Farrell said. “I don’t think superintendents are overpaid at all. I hope I have a few superintendent friends left. They’re probably thinking, ‘What is he doing to us?’”
Despite Farrell’s protests, we at EAG believe he clearly set an important example for school personnel throughout the state. We’re not suggesting anyone give up as much as he will, but there are many smaller sacrifices that would help a great deal.
Many administrators and teachers have already offered or accepted concessions, but more are needed.
More than anything, we hope national and state officials of the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers take serious note of Farrell’s actions.
If they would simply encourage their local unions to accept a one-year pay freeze, with no step increases, it would do a lot of schools a great deal of good. Thousands of teacher layoffs, as well as deep cuts in student programs, could be avoided.
We know the unions fear that if they make any concessions, they will never get back to the same level of salary and benefits. We believe the opposite would be the case. If more local unions gave up something for the greater good, their communities would probably remember their gesture and reward them later.
On the flip side, the unions’ current stubbornness when it comes to concessions will only hurt their long-term image with school boards and the public.
The time has come for the unions to be part of the solution. And they need to hurry, before more ugly cuts have to take place.
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June 1st, 2010
June 1, 2010
Education Action Group at three: Healthy and growing
But we need your help this year to keep spreading the message
It wasn’t so long ago that the Michigan Education Association mocked the Education Action Group, claiming our organization was really JUST one man - Kyle Olson- whom they derisively referred to as the “Education Action Guy.”
How things have changed as EAG approaches its third anniversary on June 4.
Our non-profit organization, based in Muskegon, now boasts four full-time staffers, including Olson, who operate a busy editorial department and an expanding video news department.
We are supported by various foundations throughout the nation, who like the way we honestly assess and address the MEA’s agenda.
While we are still very active in Michigan, we’ve been hired to expand our work into Indiana and Ohio, with more states on the horizon. We also operate two national websites, NEAexposed.com and AFTexposed.com, to keep tabs on the two most powerful teachers unions in the nation.
Besides this publication, we’ve successfully launched an online national newsletter, called the Ed Reform Review, which now has more than 15,000 subscribers. Later this summer we will be releasing our documentary film regarding the state of public education in America, by focusing on Michigan, Indiana and Illinios. Stay tuned for more information on the film.
We don’t claim to be the heart-and-soul of the school reform movement in Michigan. Reforming our public schools, and curbing the power of the unions, is a position increasingly taken by people all over the political spectrum. But we do feel our honest communication techniques have helped shine a light on the MEA and its self-serving agenda.
Michigan has finally turned the corner and come to the realization that the MEA is not the life blood of education in this state. More and more lawmakers from both parties are questioning the union’s positions and demanding that MEA leaders work with other stakeholders to help save our schools.
That has left the MEA increasingly isolated in its bid to expand its power. The union still has its share of paid political puppets, mostly in the Michigan House of Representatives, but key legislation opposed by the union has managed to find its way through both chambers of the legislature.
The recent early retirement package was a good example of elected officials working for the good of the state, not just the union.
But this is no time to be satisfied with the scant progress we’ve made. We have to keep the pressure on, and keep pushing our leaders to enact reforms that will curtail the power of the unions and allow our schools to recover, both financially and academically.
So you can count on us to continue our loud, demanding calls for tenure reform, school insurance reform and changes to the collective bargaining process. We will continue to remind voters of the union’s slimy attempts to recall honest school board members, and its continued pattern of purchasing political power with huge campaign contributions.
We’ll also continue to remind you that we need your help. So if you’re a Michigan EAG supporter, please take a moment and send whatever amount you can to help us continue our work.
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MEA AND JONES - A MATCH MADE IN HEAVEN
With all the problems facing schools today, you would think the MEA would finally start focusing on the topic that it’s name suggests.
But the MEA is much more than a teachers union. It’s a left-wing special interest group, dedicated to promoting liberal political causes that have nothing to do with education.
That’s why thousands of dollars of union dues money, paid by rank-and-file teachers, is being used to help sponsor The Michigan Summit, an annual meeting of state liberals that’s scheduled for June 12 in Lansing.
Keynoting the event is none other than Van Jones, the disgraced former environmental czar of the Obama White House who was forced out last year due to his radical utterances and associations.
Among other things, Jones was known for promoting the idea that the Bush administration staged or purposefully ignored warnings of the 9/11/2001 terrorist attacks.
He was also known for his past association with the Marxist group “Standing Together to Organize a Revolutionary Movement (STORM),” using a vulgar term in a speech to describe congressional Republicans, and for advocating on behalf of a convicted Philadelphia cop killer.
You’d think mainstream Democrats around the nation would be happy to let someone like this fade into obscurity. Instead they’re making him the highlighted speaker at an event that’s supposed to bring together elite thinkers to confront “Michigan’s biggest challenges with solutions that work for Michigan’s families and communities.”
Another sponsor of The Michigan Summit is the Granholm Leadership Fund, the governor’s personal fundraising arm. GLF recently issued a promotional e-mail, saying “Jones’ message is vital to remaking our economy so we all share in the prosperity, not just the privileged few.”
That sounds more like a statement from STORM, rather than the governor’s political outfit. Frankly we’re a bit surprised that Granholm, who has worked very hard to position herself as a pragmatic moderate over the past eight years, would openly associate with a figure like Jones.
But to each her own. With only a few unhappy months left in her unhappy tenure, perhaps the governor just doesn’t care about the company she keeps anymore.
We have no problem with Granholm and others sitting around and listening to a hardcore socialist disparage our nation and whine about its social and economic ills. This is America, and people can listen to anyone they want.
We just hope the people of Michigan, and average MEA members, will take note of the radical agenda that the teachers union is embracing and sponsoring.
Perhaps more than a few teachers would object to such foolish spending of scarce union dollars. And perhaps they should demand that their union start focusing on the goals of providing quality instruction to students and helping our schools survive the current financial crisis.
Those are the main goals of the MEA, right?
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Ironically, Wagner was endorsed by the MEA when he first ran for the Warren board, but the union turned against him when he refused to be a puppet. He was defeated by an MEA candidate in his recent bid for another term.
The MEA helped Wagner’s opponent, Sue Jozwik, raise an amazing $16,358 for her campaign, which is unheard of in school board elections. That total was more than four times the amount that Wagner raised.
Now heading into his final months on the board, Wagner is clearly stating his opinion of the MEA and the effect it’s having on our schools.
”Right now, they are hurting schools,” Wagner was quoted as saying. “The MEA will eat their young. They will sacrifice jobs to get their salaries.
”Individual teachers have said to me, ‘We will gladly take a pay cut, we will gladly pay for a portion of health care. We just want to keep our jobs.’ But the MEA’s mantra is ‘no.’
”Eventually the teachers are going to have to step to the plate and get involved in concessionary bargaining. By that time, there will be so much blood letting in terms of program cuts and kids won’t have availability of arts and sports, and all these things will be sacrificed. And then teachers will come to the table and say ‘We give.’ My question is, ‘Why didn’t you come to the table in the first place?’ “
We believe there are a lot of Wagners out there, who were elected to school boards with the support of the MEA, but later came to recognize the union as a parasite that sucks the life out of schools.
We just wish the Wagners of the world would come out and speak the truth, before they are defeated for re-election and run the risk of being dismissed as bitter losers.
We salute Mr. Wagner for his on-target analysis of the MEA, but our question is, why didn’t he say all of these things in the first place?
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May 26th, 2010
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Want an example of how much the Michigan Education Association really cares about the financial condition of our schools?
The district is clearly in deep financial trouble. It’s projected to end the current fiscal year with a $3.1 million deficit, and a $10 million shortfall by this time next year. The district’s fund balance is completely exhausted and officials are being forced to borrow about $10 million this year, just to make ends meet.
To make matters worse, MEA-owned MESSA is jacking the district’s insurance rates up for next year by 19.6 percent. An estimated 14.5 percent increase in retirement costs is another huge problem.
With all of those headaches floating to the surface, one might expect the Bloomfield Hills Education Association (MEA) to bend over backwards to help the district survive the current crisis.
But that’s not happening.
The union is vigorously opposing the district’s budget-balancing plan, which calls for a 10 percent across-the-board salary reduction for teachers (a savings of $3 million) and a freeze on step increases ($1.2 million).
The union is also rejecting the district’s plan for increased employee contributions toward insurance coverage, which would save close to $1 million per year.
Instead the union is insisting that teachers still collect their automatic, annual step raises. Union negotiators also want their president to recieve more release time to conduct union business on the taxpayers’ dime.
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What part of the word “broke” does the MEA not understand? West Bloomfield is not one of those districts where the school board and union are fighting over a reasonably healthy fund reserve. There are no savings left to fight over.
Despite the obvious financial realities, negotiations are apparently at a stalemate, and the school board recently called for fact-finding and mediation to break the impasse.
This is another golden opportunity for the MEA to demonstrate its willingness to be a partner in sharing the financial burden that our schools are dealing with.
Instead we’re getting angry reactions from a group of teachers who don’t seem to understand the financial plight of their district.
According to one district resident who declined to be identified, the teachers have started picketing outside school buildings every Tuesday and wearing matching red protest shirts every Friday.
The teachers are also reportedly putting forth minimal effort as the school year draws to a close. They are reportedly refusing to volunteer for student functions or attend graduation, according to our source. The MEA has reportedly told teachers not to socialize with school administrators or do any work after hours.
If you were a school board member, would those tactics convince you that maybe you’re mistaken, and these fine folks actually deserve step raises and cheap insurance, despite the lack of funding for such things? Or would you consider them a bunch of spoiled children who really need to be brought down a peg or two?
We’re guessing the latter.
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MEA PITY PARTIES ACROSS THE STATE
As you’ve probably heard, the MEA held approximately 40 rallies across the state yesterday, protesting the recently adopted plan to bail out the state pension system with an additional three percent contribution from teachers.
They also rallied for higher taxes, so they won’t be called on to make any concessions to keep their younger colleagues on the job.
In a call to arms directed at the union faithful, the MEA accused the state of “taxing” teachers to help save the troubled state pension system.
“The decision by the legislature and Gov. Jennifer Granholm to take 3 percent of your paychecks to help pay the state’s bills resulted is a tax,” a memo to MEA members says. “Lansing chose to simply balance the budgets on the backs of school employees.
“They chose to take more than $200 million out of the pockets of middle class, working families - $200 million that would have been spent in our communities supporting local businesses.”
At one of the rallies, in our hometown of Muskegon, State Rep. Doug Bennett, a Democrat and longtime union mouthpiece, suggested that the people of Michigan are severely undertaxed, and should be forced to cough up more, even in the current economic environment.
He reminded his audience of several hundred people that “we’re $9 billion under the Headlee amendment limit (for personal income taxes). Personal income is only down a bit – less than one percent.”
So stick it to us, right Doug?
Bennett went on to complain that unions have invested in candidates they considered friends, only to have several betray their bankrollers on the pension vote.
He said the unions should make sure they get their money’s worth out of the lawmakers whose votes they purchase at election time.
“We have to be careful to elect our friends and defeat our enemies,” Bennett said.
Unbelievable. Does the MEA not recognize that by raising general taxes, the government would also be spreading an unnecessary financial burden on most of the population – “money that would have been spent in our communities, supporting local businesses.”
The retirement bailout was not a tax. It was simply a way to help teachers remain employed, by giving their employers a bit of financial breathing room.
Schools could gain even more financial breathing room if local unions would agree to renegotiate their collective bargaining agreements and give up a few perks like overpriced MESSA insuranace, union release time, severance pay for unused sick days, automatic step increases and overage pay.
To ask the people of the state to pay higher taxes, while their schools are still forced to pay millions of dollars for unnecessary labor perks, is an insult. The teachers say they don’t want to be “taxed” any more. Well, that makes it unanimous.
Education is the teachers’ industry and it’s in deep financial trouble. Workers from other financially unstable industries have accepted concessions to keep their jobs, but that’s something the MEA leadership doesn’t believe its members should endure.
We think the people of Michigan believe otherwise, particularly when they learn how much room there is for labor cost-cutting at the local school district level.
TEACHERS ACTUALLY DOING QUITE WELL
The MEA’s argument that teachers should not be forced to give up any perks was further damaged by a report recently released by the Mackinac Center for Public Policy.
The report, authored by Michael Van Beek, says the average salary of Michigan public teachers was $58,721 in 2008-09, up three percent from the previous year. When lower-paid charter school teachers were taken out of the equation, the average salary jumped to $62,556.
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From 2000 to 2008, the average salary for Michigan teachers increased by nearly two percent after adjusting for inflation and removing the salaries of charter school teachers.
Van Beek also reported that Michigan teachers have been the highest paid in the nation since 2003, when factoring in the per capita income of the individual states. Per capita income measures a state’s economic well being and its ability to pay for public services like schools.
All of the above debunks the MEA claim that Michigan teachers have made $1 billion worth of concessions over the past three years.
The Mackinac Center also reported that the cost of insurance for teachers and other employees is a huge burden for Michigan schools.
Teachers in our state participate in roughly 300 different health plans that require them to contribute nothing toward premiums, according to a report. And the average cost of an insurance plan for teachers is about $4,400 more than the cost of an average insurance plan for Michigan families, the report said.
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FROM OUR READERS
I disagree with the Education Action Group’s message, via Kyle Olson, at the April 15 Tea Party rally in Lansing. Don’t go the Tea Party route. I would hope most of us school board members are not knee-jerk folks who are out to break the teachers union. The union can advocate for its members, give a ground-level perspective on improving the classroom, and generally strengthen the district that employs its teachers.
That said, I think the MEA has run off the rails. The priority of MEA Central in Lansing is not the children. It’s also not its individual members, or even the union locals in the districts. Its priority is self-aggrandizement. The goal should not be to crush the union in any way; it should be to somehow empower teachers to take it back. I keep hearing from teachers who question union leadership, yet feel powerless as individuals to speak up. I don’t get that. It’s their club. They question district leadership as well, but district leaders represent everyone. The union should answer to its members.
I am sure this will be viewed as “teacher-bashing,” but it’s not. I believe it’s fair to distinguish between a group of people and that group’s leaders. You can be critical of the Pentagon, for example, and still be 100% behind our troops in the field. I’ll say it again: The teachers aren’t the problem.
The people at MEA Central don’t care about individual teachers. They don’t care about local union autonomy. They certainly don’t care about local districts. They’ll throw any of you — any of us — under the bus in a second. As a current media campaign says, “Enough is enough.”
Garth Kriewall
Trustee, Port Huron Area School District
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May 24th, 2010
The Michigan Education Association continues to trumpet its “more taxes, more spending” battle cry today with dozens of local rallies scheduled across the state.
The state’s largest teachers union is mobilizing its members in an attempt to pressure state lawmakers to move on the Michigan Board of Education’s new “landmark plan” to pump another $3 billion in new and increased taxes into the failing public education system.
The new plan would be funded by a new Internet sales tax, a service tax, more local property taxes, a tax on private pensions, and a graduated income tax.
The union, apparently, believes more tax dollars will fix the state’s schools.
“Earth to the MEA: start living in reality,” said Kyle Olson, vice president of EAG. “Instead of figuring out ways to spend schools’ money better and seek sensible remedies to the crushing burden of union perks and premium health insurance, the union is demanding more money from taxpayers at a time they can least afford it.”
We at the Education Action Group (MEAexposed.com) don’t believe the state’s taxpayers should have to shell out another dime in new taxes until state education leaders and union officials prove that the dollars we already invest in schools are spent in a manner consistent with a financial emergency.
What we found is enough to make the average taxpayer nauseous.
In Troy, the school board pays its local union president roughly $130,000 in salary and benefits, even though he’s not required to teach at all. The district’s teachers union contract ensures he has full time off to conduct union business.
Next year, teachers salaries in Kalamazoo will cost the district another $1 million because of automatic, annual salary increases spelled out in its collective bargaining agreement with the MEA.
The Rochester district owes its teachers $732,032 for not using all of their sick days, a union perk outlined in its teachers contract.
Most districts also pay about 90 percent of their employees’ health care premiums, and the union pressures many school boards into purchasing coverage from MESSA, a MEA-owned insurance carrier with extremely high premiums. This year, MESSA rates increased 13 percent statewide, while other insurance carriers offered single digit increases.
The Troy district, for example, pays 100 percent of employee premiums, at an expected cost of $11.3 million this year, before the rate hike.
The fact is most of our schools could survive the financial crisis if local teachers unions would agree to renegotiate a few expensive provisions in their collective bargaining agreements.
But the MEA is standing in the way. Last year state MEA officials issued a memo to their local leaders, forbidding them from renegotiating existing labor contracts without their permission.
According to one MEA official in Saline, more than 30 school boards across the state have asked their unions to renegotiate, and the MEA has turned down all but one request.
The MEA’s stubbornness has resulted in teacher layoffs, skyrocketing class sizes and program cuts across Michigan.
State House Speaker Andy Dillon (D-Redford Twp.) has made it clear that there is no support in Lansing for higher taxes.
The MEA’s push for more education funding, most of which would go toward schools’ “obligations” to its teachers union, only further illustrates the union is out-of-touch with the communities it serves.
Today’s rallies are nothing more than an organized attempt to keep the MEA’s racket going a full speed, and prevent its members from making the sacrifices so many in Michigan already have.
“The taxpayers of Michigan should see the MEA’s propaganda rallies as little more than a delusional union trying to protect its benefits system that has long been outdated,” Olson said. ”Michigan will soon be facing the situation Greece is if we’re not careful. And the same antagonist in Greece – unions – will be marching in the streets in Michigan.
“Oh wait, that’s what they’re doing today.”
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May 7th, 2010
It’s become clear that state officials have no intention of helping schools escape MESSA’s shackles.
We have a Democratic governor and Democratic state House, and those folks collect too much MEA campaign cash to step on the union’s toes.
There are also some Republicans in the legislature who jump when the MEA barks, so it’s not entirely a one-party issue.
“There are substantial savings for public schools that can be recovered from health plans, far more than what is needed to fully fund the state budget for public schools,” Webster wrote in a recent summary on MESSA. “There is a potential savings of $425 million (perhaps more) every year, according to a study completed by the Senate. And what will the administration, Senate and House do? NOTHING.”
With no action expected from Lansing, at least this year, the issue can only be addressed at the school board level.
School boards should remember they have options, from capping the amount they will pay for any type of insurance to declaring themselves the insurance policyholder and shopping for non-MESSA coverage when their teachers contracts expire.
But those things will only happen if school boards find the courage to buck the union and do what’s best for their communities and students. It’s a tough job for local folks who aren’t trained to deal with slick negotiators from the MEA, or the slimy tactics employed by the union. But with no help on the way from the state, school boards will have to slay the MESSA monster themselves.
Webster, for one, doubts that most school boards have the guts to address the MESSA issue in a manner that will make much difference.
“Too many school boards just don’t seem to care,” Webster wrote. “The MEA and school boards just call for more monies from the state – more tax dollars to cover for the lack of responsible decisions at the local level.
“The fact that MEA premiums for July 1, 2010 will be increased is a matter that all school boards must consider, but unfortunately most will not.”
That sounds like a challenge from a man who knows what he’s talking about. We wonder how school boards around the state will respond.
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