I often get accused of union-bashing — in particular, of bashing the Colorado Education Association (CEA). Yes, I am especially hard on CEA, its leadership and political agenda, and more relentlessly so than most.
But never let it be said that I am so mean to CEA that I would withhold from them important friendly advice. Recently a chance has presented itself to learn from a fellow National Education Association state affiliate. Given the public relations nightmare that has taken place of late with the New Jersey Education Association, I offer the following bits of advice to CEA:
- When the state government is in a budget crisis, be willing to graciously accept a one-year salary freeze
- Don’t use students as pawns in policy disputes — don’t urge students to walk out of class to protest teachers not receiving salary increases in a time of budget austerity
- Don’t hog all the seats in a legislative committee hearing room so that others (including children) who may be coming to testify have to wait elsewhere
- Discourage members from boycotting a student awards program because the popular, big-hearted local public figure who is hosting the event happens to work at a radio station they don’t like
Experience is the best teacher. After all, CEA likely wants to avoid the “astonishing fall from grace,” according to Kevin Manahan of the Star-Ledger, that NJEA has engendered in recent weeks. There is time to rebuild bridges after the bitter SB 10-191 battle, and to not make things worse Garden State-style.
Colorado teachers’ union leaders may even want to consider sending thank-you notes to their New Jersey counterparts for setting a clear standard to be avoided at all costs.
Popularity: 3% [?]
Exchanges like this one don’t help NJEA either:
http://theblogprof.blogspot.com/2010/05/nj-teacher-who-complained-to-gov-chris.html
One has to wonder if the teacher was stretching the truth or honestly didn’t know what her annual salary and benefits were worth.
Ben – Thanks for the advise to the CEA. Coming from you – a master of corporate PR – is truly inspiring. Good work for your corporate masters!!
As a member of CEA and a public school teacher of 14 years – can I offer some advise for you? How about disclosing where you (exactly how much teaching experience do you have??) and your pro-privatization, anti-public school corporate think tank (Independence Institute) gets its funding? Who exactly funds your anti union tirades? At least the public know where the CEA gets its funding – public school teachers like myself. Why not let us in on who funds your employer?
Do you think your corporate funders would think it good PR for them to be completely open about the fact that they pour millions into corporate PR and propaganda via front organizations such as the Independence Institute? Isn’t there an inherent conflict of interest between the short-sighted quarterly-profit-earnings mentality of corporate interests and the inherently long-term interests of the public’s – and thus the support of the PUBLIC school system? Further – corporations know full well that the public rightfully does not trust them to ever be honest. So corporations engage in the best PR money can buy – through mouth pieces such as yourself and the Independence Institute.
Truth is – the public trusts teachers – and not corporate interests. No wonder you bash “Teacher’s Unions” as if we’re somehow separate entities. Because even the non-members in my school and district benefit from our collectively bargained contract – not to mention the countless ways that our union supports keeping it – in fact…a profession with professional standards – which benefits students.
Oh…and by the way – Isn’t the state “budget crises” largely a manufactured one by one of your pro-corporate cronies – Douglas Bruce?
Pay freeze?? Take a quick look at how we compare to every other profession in terms of educational attainment to pay.
Students as pawns? Students concerned about the schools that they benefit from sounds like good old-fashioned democratic civic-mindedness and enlightened self-interest to me. Give those students an A!
Unions have always played a key role in organizing working Americans to be engaged in the democratic process – and thank God for that! Perhaps you should advocate for expanding the tiny legislative hearing rooms to accommodate all of us interested citizens?
The best advise – Ben (as well to those to whom you serve as a mouthpiece) – just be honest.
Andres, first of all take a deep breath and laugh for a moment. (Maybe the humor in the post isn’t as apparent as I had hoped.)
Okay… now tell me how much NJ spends per pupil on K-12 schools and how much the average NJ teacher earns in salary and benefits? And why a majority of people in one of the nation’s bluest states support the governor’s plan for a modest, one-year salary freeze? If you can’t see how NJEA is out of step on this one, I recommend you do a little homework.
If you believe you know who funds my employer (corporations), why do you insist that I disclose the fact to you? Because it simply isn’t true that we’re funded by corporations — government rent-seekers who by and large disdain a level competitive playing field and are far from the greatest champions of free markets and personal freedom. We are supported by individuals and foundations that share our basic values, and none of them give to us through automatic payroll deductions.
You’d be closer to the truth to call us “crazy” libertarians. Crazy in that we can promote things like school choice and oppose things like (gasp!) corporate welfare, working from an attic office on the outskirts of town, driving our older cars, etc. But even that label leaves something to be desired. The “anti-public school” “you hate all teachers” line is a not-even-clever-anymore device to discredit us. It doesn’t come close to reality — unless you only can imagine public education as the inviolable domain of Horace Mann and John Dewey, and unless the extent of your thinking is to uncritically accept every printed word from the CEA propaganda machine. While it’s hardly relevant, yes, I do have some limited public education teaching experience. My Education Policy Center colleague has several years’ worth.
Beware of further shallow thinking: Colorado’s budget crisis (not the plural “crises”) is not attributable to TABOR — which I presume you were referring to by invoking the name of Douglas Bruce. The Referendum C timeout of TABOR has been in effect since it passed in 2005. The Colorado Supreme Court has trampled all over what’s left of TABOR. There was something called a “recession,” don’t you know? This is not a corporate talking point. It’s reality.
Your arguments about union collective bargaining being beneficial to students is highly debatable, at best. Most research shows the impact to be mixed, neutral or negative. A couple examples:
http://www.educationsector.org/research/research_show.htm?doc_id=436576
http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/121587812/abstract
Thank you for your stated intent of offering the “best advise [sic].” But please don’t question my honesty and personal integrity — especially not with simplistic, misguided assumptions; flimsy logic; and unsubstantiated assertions. I suspect this comment was not symptomatic of your performance as a teacher: you probably are quite capable at your job. And isn’t it great you have the choice to belong to the CEA? You certainly are entitled to your opinions on all these issues we have discussed, but please be careful next time to make sure you have an open mind and genuine facts in hand.
Well Ben – I guess I don’t find your rantings against my profession (both in this article and in your prolific work here and elsewhere), public schools, and our commitment to students and the communities they come from very amusing. So – no, I won’t be laughing at your uninformed corporate talking point silliness any time soon.
You got me – forgive my ignorance. In fact, I don’t know who funds your employer – because the Independence Institute refuses to reveal who exactly funds them and – as I pointed out – it’s for good PR reasons for it’s funders. Foundations? C’mon…again be honest.
Teachers authorize automatic payroll deductions for Union dues. And it’s very efficient. Our profession is one of the only ones that allows a “right to work” type of system where non-dues paying freeloader teachers still benefit from our collectively-negotiated contract. You’re not going to try to make that into some sort of conspiracy of unions to dupe the taxpayer are you?
I think it’s shallow thinking that was behind TABOR in the first place. TABOR made sure that the budget crisis for Colorado would be inevitable as soon as the recession hit despite the suspension that voters approved in 2005. That’s exactly what (non-Independence Institute) economists have been saying in criticism of it since before its passage – in 1992. It’s Reaganomics 21st century style – “starve the (public sector) beast” and then privatize. Then mouthpieces, such as yourself and corporate think tanks such as the Independence Institute, jump in to point out that there is in fact a crisis that needs the private sector to “fix.” It’s brilliant “libertarian” politics. Oh… and TABOR will be back in effect soon as the 2005 suspension is set to expire this year.
What’s next? Are you going to try to convince us that we suffer from oppressive taxes in Colorado?
I don’t know about New Jersey – but Colorado’s per pupil funding went down by more than $600 since TABOR was passed. Average teacher salary is now 49th in the nation compared to other occupations. Colorado’s overall public school funding hovers somewhere in the 49th position compared to other states. If New Jersey teachers and public schools are better off than us in Colorado – more power to them!
Yes – teaching experience matters and is relevant. You might want to spend some more time in our schools – you’ll see the effects of budget cutting first hand. It’s tragic. The way to turn an effective teacher into an ineffective one? Give them class sizes of 30-plus students, demand higher test scores for all students regardless of ELL, SPED, or GT status on standardized tests (with questionable validity…at best), and then cut the support of PERA’s, ELL & SPED specialists, counselors, school psychologists, librarians, deans, campus supervisors, etc. etc.
A quick example. As an instructional leader at my school I’m having to answer questions by a teacher in my department about how to best teach classes of SPED students with severe needs. Why? Because she’s on her own to teach a severe needs class beginning in August for the first time in her 14-plus year teaching career. Or how about the other teacher who is facing the prospect of teaching ELL students who speak or read NO English for the first time? And with practically no ELL support. Why – no support? Because all of our ELL specialists have left the profession for better paying professions or retired largely due to cuts. Schools with these kinds of issues don’t offer much “choice” – do they?
So my arguments don’t come from CEA talking points – they come from experience as well as research.
Thanks for correcting my spelling and for putting up with my factless flimsy public school logic that pales in comparison to your clearly superior loopy corporate talking-point logic. (loopy as in almost all of your citations come from the same think-tank loops…now that’s funny.)
Andres, If I can’t disabuse you of the false notion that my employer and my job are funded by corporations, it’s not likely that I can disabuse you of your false inferences about my positions (e.g., payroll deduction is a union conspiracy …Where would I even begin?), your mischaracterization of my writings (e.g., “rantings against my profession” …Your union, perhaps; your profession, please be serious), your introduction of imaginary statistics (e.g, “Colorado’s per pupil funding went down by more than $600 since TABOR was passed” … In fact, both total & current per pupil spending increased by 24 percent ABOVE inflation between 1992-93 and 2007-08: Data all acquired from the evil corporate think tank known as the U.S. Department of Education — which also shows Colorado ranks 32nd, not 49th), or your general use of strawman arguments.
I haven’t denied, and won’t deny, the real pain many schools feel during the current round of budget cuts. But there are a lot more systemic problems — and guess what? unions aren’t responsible for many of them — that need to be addressed. Trust me (which you haven’t so far), it’s not just crazy libertarians or corporate shills who have pointed this out and are serious about wanting to address the problem.
So, what exactly is your argument Ben? You say school funding is fine – but you sympathize with our pain? Judging from your smug observations on the school cuts over the past year – I remain skeptical of your sympathy of either teachers or our students. So you’re right – I don’t trust you. Since when do Libertarians expect anybody to trust anybody else?
My “imaginary” statistics come from the Dept. of Commerce Bureau of Economic Analysis. Report can be found at: http://www.bea.gov/regional/sqpi/
The drop of $600 is relative to the national average and was between 1992 and 2006 which is specific to the years that were directly impacted by TABOR. Spending relative to other states during the same time period makes sense. Whether spending was above inflation or not is beside the point – Ben. Measuring spending relative to inflation only makes sense to wackos like Doug Bruce when we’re talking about actual impacts on both things like class sizes and teacher salaries – unless your goal is to destroy the public sector in general. IF that’s the case you all are doing a bang up job…keep up the good work! Between Doug Bruce and you folks over at the Independence Institute – we’ll be completely privatized in no time! “Back to the factories and work camps kids!”
Speaking of strawman arguments…If you’re implying that teacher salaries have somehow created the school budget crisis – you may want to re examine the teacher salary stats. Yes, our salaries rank in the vicinity of 49th compared to average salaries in other professions compared to other states – which also comes from the Dept. of Commerce. Oh – and because our salaries are set via a collectively negotiated contract – anybody can see what we make. Are you willing to publically disclose your salary and benefits? How about if all of the Independence Institute does so?
You’re right, though, it’s not just about unions…its also about fighting to keep a viable public sector which makes for a strong middle class-based economy the likes of which helped create the civil rights movement and for most of us to have access to things like college and home ownership which prior to the 1950’s – the decade with the largest growth in union membership in history – was practically completely unimaginable. The top income tax rate was in the vicinity of 90%! Consequently, things like public K-12 education became the norm for average Americans for the first time in US History – not because of some sort of enlightened private sector gift – but because we fought for the expansion of a public sector and a progressive tax system.
And, yes unions became politically active and got to the point where they supported Democrats without question. And they did become complacent and bloated. You know – you have a good point. Maybe we do need to change. Perhaps its time for us to go back to some good old-fashioned lean-mean union strike disruption to counter the standard corporate scapegoating of unions, civil rights organizations, among others, and “outside agitating.”
My union is the organization that fought against the cuts my district proposed as I outlined in the previous post…you can’t tell me that doesn’t have a direct impact on students. But you’re right – there are larger systemic problems that need addressing and the Independence Institute and it’s ilk are doing their best to cloud the issues.
For a complete report on the impacts of TABOR, I would urge readers to check out the report from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities at:
http://www.cbpp.org/files/10-19-05sfp.pdf
I’m sure Ben will stick to his corporate think tank loop.
A dozen responses:
1. What exactly is my argument? Here are a couple good places to start as I’ve begun to flesh out my thinking on some of these issues:
http://blog.ednewscolorado.org/2010/04/16/the-challenge-of-weaning-schools-off-federal-dollars/
http://blog.ednewscolorado.org/2010/02/11/its-time-to-face-the-fiscal-tidal-wave/
But I am committed to keeping an open dialogue, witness our exchange. I appreciate your responses to the arguments and data I introduce. Some continue to help hone my thinking — not so much when you simply lob misguided accusations about corporate funding.
2. Small-ell libertarians (not to be confused necessarily with the Libertarian Party) certainly believe in trusting other people. A market economy doesn’t function without the rule of law. Buyers and sellers who lack integrity & honesty are punished, and justly so.
3. You may need another link to the Dept of Commerce data. The charts there don’t break out earnings any further than by state and local government employees. I am interested in seeing what you’re seeing.
4. If measuring the changing value of education spending by inflation adjustments doesn’t make sense, what other measure do you propose using? How do you find greater validity in making comparisons to the national average, which is a moving target? Let’s imagine that in the last 20 years the national average of per-pupil spending dropped from $10,000 to $8,000, while per-pupil spending in Colorado dropped from $8,500 to $7,500 — meaning CO is now only $500 behind the national average as opposed to $1,500 behind. If I came on this forum and told you to stop complaining because “Colorado’s per-pupil spending went up by $1,000″ (though only relative to the national average), you (or any rational person) would have every good reason to laugh me off the stage. Please tell me how that’s any different than what you’re claiming?
5. I never made any such argument that teacher salaries created the budget crisis. Don’t know where you got that one. It may be a gesture of goodwill for public servants to accept a temporary pay freeze when so many in the private sector have taken cutbacks or aren’t working at all. But if as you say Colorado ranks 49th in this category (NEA ranks Colorado 28th in average teacher salary), what has caused unions to be so ineffective in lobbying for member pay increases?
6. Taxpayers pay your salary. You are accountable to them. They have a right to know how much you earn. I am not paid by taxpayers. I am accountable to the people who pay my salary — which, I will repeat for the final time, are not corporations. But here’s a hint: even if you leave out the generous PERA benefits, the average Colorado K-12 teacher makes more salary & benefits than I do working year-round. And I have no problem with that.
7. Who is arguing to destroy the public sector? How about just slowing the bloated growth of it in comparison to the private sector? Are you really worried about the viability of the public sector? Please consider:
a. Government has spent a greater share of US economic output in 2008, 2009, and 2010 than during any other years in its history — except from 1943-1945 (during WW2): http://www.usgovernmentspending.com/us_20th_century_chart.html
b. Colorado state government spends 85% more in real dollars per person today than it did in 1982-83 (earliest data available):
http://www.state.co.us/gov_dir/leg_dir/jbc/apphist.pdf
http://www.census.gov/popest/archives/1980s/st8090ts.txt
http://www.census.gov/popest/states/NST-ann-est.html
http://www.colorado.gov/cs/Satellite/CGA-LegislativeCouncil/CLC/1209375339625
c. From 1982 to the present, the number of local governments in Colorado has nearly doubled — from 1,694 to 3,293:
http://www.dola.state.co.us/dlg/local_governments/lgtypes.htm
http://www.i2i.org/articles/IB2007F.pdf
8. I’m interested in your argument for government expansion creating the middle class in the U.S., but it’s probably a topic for an entirely different forum. Do you also think it’s a simple answer of growing the size of government and making taxation more progressive to ensure quality universal education? What would be your real-world example to support your case? How do you explain away the last 40 years of K-12 spending vs. academic outcomes in the United States?
9. How much government is enough? How much government spending per capita is enough? How much government spending as a share of the economy is enough? What does adequate spending look like? The ball is in your court.
10. Do you recognize any difference between the operation of unions in the private sector vs. unions in the public sector? Anything at all in the dynamics that suggest a different approach to how they are overseen & regulated? Just curious … (Hint: Consult the position of FDR on public sector vs. private sector unions)
11. Once again, God bless your right to choose to join CEA or any other union or non-union you want. And more power to your union for representing its members and fighting to avoid budget cuts and preserve jobs. But for the purposes of crafting optimal public policy, what would be a good, adequate student-employee ratio Colorado should shoot for — 9:1 (1992 national average), 8:1 (2006 national average), closer to 7.5:1 (averages for Denver, Jeffco in 2008-09), or something else?
12. I’m familiar with CBPP. Should I dismiss their report out of hand because they are connected with the partisan Democracy Alliance (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Center_on_Budget_and_Policy_Priorities)? The Independence Institute has engaged in a back-and-forth policy paper discussion with CBPP over TABOR in the past. I would provide the links, but you may dismiss it all as just part of “the corporate think tank loop.”
For the most part, I have enjoyed our exchange. It is hard to be open-minded sometimes. We aren’t going to come to anything approaching full agreement here, but hopefully we can come to share a clearer context of facts.
Ben –
Inflation – as is the spurious CPI – is as much a moving target as are averages. Again averages simply make more sense. Now, to base salaries on a living wage standard would take this discussion to completely different level.
http://www.livingwage.geog.psu.edu/places/0804116000
Yup – bloated growth of government spending…on bloated private sector bank bailouts, the bloated military-industrial complex, the scam of a bloated private “health-care” system, and subsidizing the bloated energy and agri-business sectors. That we can agree on. Perhaps a simple **gasp** REDISTRIBUTION of existing resources is needed!
I would argue that unions serve the public sector even more so than in the private. We set the standard for conditions of labor for all workers in our economy – which is part of the reason why we need to fight for a professional standard (versus the outdated attitude of seeing us as daycare providers) of pay for teachers.
But…Let’s put aside the didactic and tortuous economics arguments for a moment…
It’s really actually pretty simple – to complain about terrible schools and teachers while we face the realities as I outlined before with the budget cuts and while we in Colorado remain close to the bottom in terms of education spending as well as salaries is simply not a convincing complaint. If we were near the top on those measures and we still didn’t perform – then you’ve got a convincing case.
Interestingly – we do remain at or near the bottom in overall education spending as well as teacher salaries compared to others states and yet we do continue to often perform rather admirably.
http://www.cde.state.co.us/communications/download/PDF/20100324naep.pdf
Do our public schools have serious issues with equity and responsiveness especially to poor and communities of color? Yes – as does our society. Do we continue to segregate higher versus lower track classes based on race and social class. Yes – often due to the very persistent and vociferous demands of parents of those “upper track” students.
If you presented any room full of public school teachers (or parents for that matter) with your student to “employee” ratio numbers – they would laugh you out of the room (or threaten to lynch you). Optimal public policy? We’re not a business and we’re not producing goods.
Which employees do you suggest that we simply do without in our public schools?? We spent some time during one early release day in recent weeks actually going over what secretarial, janitorial, and security duties – among others – we teachers might want to take up (on top of our regular teaching duties which will now include more students per class) – due to the fact that many of those employees who currently perform those duties are being laid off with the budget cuts.
A survey was taken of community members and staff throughout the district and it was determined that if larger class sizes “needed” to happen – they should occur 1st at the high school level, then middle school, elementary last. Ok…makes sense – elementary teachers have it pretty rough – agreed. However – it’s surreal given our existing class sizes at the high school level. Perhaps “College Readiness” should now include learning how to wean information from a traditional university-style lecture hall pedagogy where students turn in one assignment at the end of the “class” with their student number on it – name not necessary. Seriously – I’ve had these kinds of discussions with colleagues.
No offense – but believe it or not I don’t particularly enjoy this kind of blog thing. I enjoy having the freedom to do what I think I’m pretty good at – engaging young people ways to solve real-world problems.
Nothing personal – I know you’re just doing your job – but I still believe that the corporate PR work (yes those foundations you reference funnel lots of corporate money into the manipulation of the “market place of ideas”) you do with organizations such as yours make it difficult if not impossible for us to do ours. But – if it’s any consolation – you’re good at it.
I just wish the media would do it’s job – to expose the manipulations or “context of facts” of the public discussions that you, the Independence Institute, and other “think tanks” engage in. Isn’t it a sad state of affairs that I can get more info on Tiger Woods and the latest dog or cat rescue from major local media than on state education policy and/or issues?
The living wage link…
http://www.livingwage.geog.psu.edu/states/08/locations
The Independence Institute gets money from the Castle Rock Foundation (Coors money), Koch (Industries) Trust — who knew beer and oil mix?
So, Ben you win. Corporations don’t pay your salary. But without them, you wouldn’t have a salary at all from Independence.
I also noticed that Koch funds something called the Institute for Humane Studies and Independence promotes the IHS. I gotta say, when I discovered that the curiously named “humane” studies are all about, I had the best laugh all day.
[...] Governor Chris Christie for his courage, common sense and commitment in taking on the powerful teachers union lobby in his state. Consider the nearly five minutes watching this video time well spent (H/T Matt [...]
Sorry Ed, your information is out of date. DPS does not require an opt out. And I don’t see what Chris is whining about, it has always been thus. Other pols have corporations with billions after their hides.
While I have chosen not to join the union and in this small way side with you Ed, did you know that “The National Labor Relations Act, as amended, allows unions to require that non-union members pay agency fees to cover collective bargaining costs and prevent free rider problems. The Supreme Court has ruled in a number of cases that requiring non-members to pay agency fees is both constitutional and legal, provided a number of conditions are met.”?http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Davenport_v._Washington_Education_Association Wiki or not, it’s in the NLRA.
So, it’s not like the big bad union is forcing teachers to join like some thug organization. And, it seems to me the unions have a real issue about collective bargaining and other things non-union teachers get even though they do not pay for the representation. I will agree it’s a thorny legal and ethical issue but I come down on the side of the 1st Amendment and my right to tell the union to shove it until they engage in serious reform.
jj, The information is up-to-date. It does not say that DPS is one of the districts with a union dues equivalency opt-out policy. It is going on in some other districts as listed on the Ed Is Watching post.
I am familiar with the basic tenets of the NLRA & with the Davenport decision, and what you have stated is accurate. However, NLRA does not have jurisdiction over unions in government workplaces. That is a matter of state law. Davenport allows states (in the specific case, Washington state) to provide greater protections of individual teachers’ free speech rights. In other words, there is nothing legally prohibiting the Colorado legislature from enacting a law that makes the union opt-out provisions illegal in state government, school districts, and/or other local governments.
[...] I’d like to think the New Jersey lady’s story is just another example of the bad PR track record of the New Jersey Education Association, and that their counterparts in Colorado learn the lesson and decide to steer [...]