Summer 2006

Table of Contents

From The President

Primary Elections

Long-time Republican Legislators Backed by the ISTA Political Machine Defeated

NEA and AFL-CIO Move to Merge

As a public school teacher, do you want to be part of the AFL-CIO labor union and have to pay dues to it?

That’s exactly what the National Education Association (NEA) union bosses have in mind for teachers who are members of state affiliates like the Indiana State Teachers Association and their local affiliates around the state and nation.

Under a new agreement reached between officials of the nation’s largest labor unions, local affiliates of the NEA teachers union will now be able to join the AFL-CIO labor union.

The bosses of the nation’s biggest unions have made it clear that the primary purpose of this move is to increase their political power. The AFL-CIO’s political organization and money will be working in conjunction with even bigger union treasuries at the NEA.

AFL-CIO Expenditures By Category 2004-2005.

The AFL-CIO spent $49.3 million or over 25% of it’s budget on politics and lobbying in 2004-05.

Propping-up the AFL-CIO’s dwindling membership is another major objective. Media reports estimate the deal could increase the AFL-CIO’s membership by over a million members. NEA President Reg Weaver has reportedly estimated that 2,000 NEA locals will join the AFL-CIO. Your local association could become one of them.

This couldn’t come at a more important time to bail-out the AFL-CIO after the unprecedented break-away of a number of blue collar unions and roughly one-quarter of its membership. That cost the AFL-CIO hundreds of millions of dollars a year in lost dues and political power.

With ISTA/NEA dues now exceeding $600 per year, public school teachers are paying significantly higher annual dues than blue collar union workers. Teacher dues will bring badly-needed funds to bailout the AFL-CIO unions.

The agreement even won the support of the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), which has long been a part of the AFL-CIO. The AFT needs the NEA’s help to save the AFL-CIO labor unions.

How much it will cost for NEA locals to join state and local AFL-CIO affiliates will be worked out, but clearly NEA teacher member dues are going to be increased and transferred to the AFL-CIO as part of this deal.

An analysis by Mike Antonuci of the Education Intelligence Agency indicates that huge amounts of money are involved. If the AFL-CIO’s own constitutional rules on costs for affiliated unions are used and the one million member projection is reached, within five years over $100 million a year will be transferred from teacher paychecks to the AFL-CIO labor unions.

"This is a very, very serious development for public school teachers," explains IPE President Jane Ping. "The NEA is showing its true colors as a labor union and teachers will pay big to prop-up the AFL-CIO labor unions."

A 1998 attempt by the union bosses to merge the NEA and the AFT (already an AFL-CIO union) failed when the plan was rejected by delegates to the NEA union’s annual convention. Reportedly, a key concern was that such a merger would jeopardize the NEA’s important image of being a "professional association," instead of a labor union.

For anyone left who might have believed this deception, the NEA’s true nature, objectives and activities as a labor union should now be crystal-clear. Children are no longer the priority for the NEA union.

There is more to this story. As radical and out-of-touch as the NEA’s annual delegates conventions are, they have consistently rejected attempts by the top union bosses at the NEA and AFT/AFL-CIO to merge. That doesn’t appear to have stopped the top union bosses in Washington. They’ve never stopped trying to merge into a super-union.

The new deal does allows the NEA bosses to tell state affiliates that they don’t have to join the AFL-CIO, but those that want to should be able to go ahead. This makes final approval likely and pushes a full-merger plan that much further down the tracks.

Like the ISTA/NEA’s "unified dues structure," the agreement allows NEA locals to join the AFL-CIO at the local, state or national level.

"This will lead to forcing teachers to pay even more exorbitant dues – this time to the AFL-CIO – at the local, state and federal levels, just like with the ISTA/NEA," continued Jane Ping.

Indiana teachers should be very concerned and stay alert for signals that their local union (or the ISTA) is preparing to join the AFL-CIO labor unions.

Change has become a "standard operating principle" for Indiana schools in the last decade. Accountability, standards, NCLB, testing, choice, and much more have all become education policy priorities in the last decade.

The pressures and demands on schools and teachers to implement "continuous improvement," planning, curriculum improvements, and a mountain of associated paperwork and new requirements have been intense.

At the same time, dramatic demographic and social changes have rocked many districts around the state.

Rapid population shifts from urban to suburban districts have strained resources in both. Huge influxes of Hispanic students, most with limited English skills, have challenged schools and teachers as never before. A growing emphasis on the special education needs of more and more students pressures schools to provide increased services. While all of this has been going on, the state’s economy took a nose-dive with the dissolution of much of its manufacturing employment base. School funding significantly increased during this time period. However, the uncertainty created by past and current governors and state legislators has made school district planning and budgeting that much more difficult.

Throw in the fact that the state still owes local schools hundreds of millions of dollars in delayed payments – balancing state government’s books at the expense of local schools and communities – our school districts and staff have had a very, very challenging decade.

Teachers – the obvious and absolute key to actually educating kids – are caught in the middle of all of this school policy turmoil.

Where do things stand on various education initiatives at the Statehouse?

Teachers on school committees. Legislation introduced by Sen. Gary Dillon (R-Pierceton) to protect the rights of independent teachers to serve on school committees stalled in the Senate this year. Unlike in year’s past, the measure was wrapped up in a bigger school administration bill that unfortunately met significant opposition from school administrators over issues other than school committee appointments.

Let your state legislators (and IPE) know if you have been excluded from a school committee because of your choice not to join the union.

ISTEP+ testing. This year’s legislative package to move the test to the spring and require a ten-year testing plan passed the Indiana House, but was eventually killed by Senate leadership under serious opposition from Supt. of Public Instruction Dr. Suellen Reed and the ISTA teachers union.

However, the State Board of Education – with a new group of Governor Daniels’ appointees – has been working to demand similar changes in the ISTEP+. Whether the Board will ultimately take action, over the opposition of Dr. Reed, time will tell.

State Board of Education. For several years, the Board has walked in close step with Dr. Reed and the Dept. of Education policy positions. However, new Board members in 2006 have been very aggressive in challenging Dr. Reed and DOE on various issues and asserting independent authority over education policy. A battle for control is underway, which may tip further with the addition of six more appointments by Governor Daniels this summer.

School choice. Legislation to provide a refundable tax credit for families in poverty to pay for costs of full-day kindergarten programs at public or private schools was defeated in the House. School choice advocates are reportedly increasing efforts in the state.

Full-day Kindergarten. Within days of the end of the legislative session, the Daniels administration indicated that funding a statewide full-day Kindergarten program would be a priority in the 2007 budget. In April, a state appellate court found it illegal for school districts to continue to charge an additional fee for parents to access full-day programs (as opposed to state-funded half-day), thereby further fueling calls for state funded full-day kindergarten.

School Funding. Last month, the ISTA filed a class action suit against the State, alleging that the public school system has been under-funded in violation of the state constitution. The ISTA union has retained a Boston law firm to argue the case and set aside $2 million in membership dues to pay initial legal costs. This is part of a national initiative to use the courts to challenge school funding, with 35 lawsuits filed against various states that are taking years to work their way through the courts.

School Accounting Practices. Introduced as a measure to encourage schools to undertake various efficiency programs such as cooperative buying, the biggest element to eventually pass requires significant changes in the way school corporations report spending. The objectives include standardizing reporting to the state and better comparisons and analyses of spending. A major initiative of the Daniels’ administration, in this area the Dr. Suellen Reed and administration are moving quickly to implement the changes.

Dear IPE member:

For anyone who had been holding on to the notion that the NEA and its state and local affiliates are "professional associations," the new giant labor unions should dispel any doubts. "Professionalism" is no longer a priority - this is about being a giant labor union.

Make no mistake about it. This new deal between the giant labor unions NEA and the AFL-CIO is a huge step towards what the union bosses really want - a full merger, including state and local associations. Teachers will pay higher membership dues to bailout the AFL-CIO.

The Indiana Professional Educators, Inc. is the state’s only professional association for teachers. We aren’t affiliated with national labor unions or political organizations. We are a voluntary membership association of educators for whom promoting our profession and quality education for the children are our priorities.

Sincerely,

H. Jane Ping, President

Primary Elections

In a major blow to compulsory unionism and the ISTA/NEA union bosses, key GOP legislators backed by the unions were ousted in their primary elections.

Senate President Pro Tem Robert Garton (R-Columbus), who has lead the Senate for the last 26 years, was soundly defeated. Sen. Garton has long-standing relationships with the ISTA union and has obstructed legislation to prevent discrimination against independent teachers in school committees.

Rep. Mary Kay Budak (R-LaPorte), a 26 year incumbent backed by the unions, was defeated by a GOP challenger by an overwhelming margin of 70-30 percent.

Summer 2006

December 2005

June 2005

February 2005

October 2004