The expenditures fall into broad categories of community outreach grants, charitable contributions, and payments for services rendered. In this list, EIA has deliberately omitted spending such as media buys, or payments to pollsters or consultants that have no obvious ideological component. The grants range from $3.15 million to America’s Families First, down to smaller grants to organizations such as People for the American Way, Media Matters and Netroots Nation.

Here is an alphabetic list of the 121 recipients of NEA’s contributions, with relevant web links. All of these were paid for with members’ dues money (the union’s federal PAC is a separate entity funded through voluntary means):

400% Is Too High – $50,000

AFL-CIO – $2.2 million ($1.2 million member communication research and strategy, $1 million legislative policy development)

AFSCME – $20,000

American Rights at Work -$10,000

America Votes – $1,721,000

American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education – $74,000

American Constitution Society- $10,000

Americans United for Change – $30,000

America’s Families First – $3,150,000

Center for American Progress – $25,000

Center for Economic Organizing – $25,300

Center for Law and Education - $25,000

Center for Tax and Budget Accountability – $20,000

Center for Teaching Quality – $318,848

Center for U.S. Global Leadership – $10,000

Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association – $50,000

Class Size Matters – $25,000

Clergy Strategic Alliances – $21,000

Coalition for Our Communities – $700,000

Coalition to Save Our Constitution – $25,000

Committee for Children – $10,000

Committee for Education Funding - $19,913

Committee on States – $60,000

Communities for Quality Education – $1 million

Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, Inc. – $170,000

Congressional Hispanic Caucus Institute – $55,000

Council of Chief State School Officers – $50,417

Council of State Governments - $19,750

Democracy Alliance – $85,000

Economic Policy Institute - $255,000

Education Commission of the States – $60,000

Education Writers Association – $11,500

Educator Compensation Institute - $25,000

Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate – $200,000

Employee Benefit Research Institute – $7,500

Everybody Wins DC - $8,000

Excelencia in Education - $15,000

Fair Districts Florida – $800,000

FairTest – $35,000

Gay Lesbian and Straight Education Network – $7,500

Global Institute for Language and Literacy Development – $18,000

Good Jobs First - $15,000

Great Lakes Center for Education Research and Practice – $250,000

Health Care for America Now! – $125,000

Hip Hop Caucus Education Fund – $10,000

Hispanic Institute – $50,000

HOPE (Yes on SQ 744) - $1,500,000 ($1,758,000 last year)

Human Rights Campaign – $5,000

Idahoans for Responsible Education Reform – $157,000

Initiative for Responsible Investment – $5,000

Institute for Educational Leadership – $5,000

Jobs with Justice – $10,000

Jump$tart Coalition for Personal Financial Literacy – $11,700

Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law – $40,000

Leadership Conference on Civil Rights – $10,000

League of United Latin American Citizens – $70,000

Learning First Alliance – $22,800

Lincoln Center Institute – $75,000

MediaMatters – $100,000

Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund – $10,000

Midwest Academy - $5,000

NAACP – $25,000

National Action Network – $60,000

National Association for Asian and Pacific American Education – $5,000

National Association for Equal Opportunity in Higher Education – $17,500

National Association for Multicultural Education – $5,000

National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials Education Fund – $12,500

National Black Caucus of State Legislators – $5,500

National Board for Professional Teaching Standards – $10,000

National Coalition on Black Civic Participation – $22,500

National Conference of State Legislatures – $40,946

National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education – $400,373

National Immigration Law Center – $5,000

National Indian Education Association – $19,900

National Jewish Democratic Council – $5,000

National Labor College – $17,881

National Pan-Hellenic Council – $50,000

National Parent Teachers Association – $6,250

National Professional Teachers’ Organisation of South Africa – $10,000

National Public Pension Coalition – $135,000

National Women’s Law Center - $10,000

Netroots Nation - $24,999

New Democratic Network – $15,000

New Organizing Institute - $10,000

New Teacher Center – $333,834

North Carolina Citizens for Protecting Our Schools- $200,000

One Nation/TIDES – $250,000

Parent Teacher Home Visit Project - $10,000

Partnership for 21st Century Skills - $45,000

Patriot Majority PAC – $200,000

People for the American Way - $128,050

Pew Charitable Trusts – $5,000

Phi Delta Kappa International – $50,000

Progress Michigan – $10,000

Progress Now – $125,000

Progressive Future – $100,000

Progressive Majority – $46,625

Project New West – $333,498

Rainbow PUSH Coalition - $5,000

Rebuild America’s Schools – $60,000

University of Colorado Boulder Sponsored Project – $250,000

Republican Main Street Partnership – $20,000

Ripon Society – $10,000

Robert Russa Moton Museum – $50,000

Rock the Vote – $80,000

Saving First Things First – $50,000

United for a Fair Economy – $12,000

United for Missouri Priorities – $250,000

University of New Hampshire Institute on Disability – $25,000

U.S. Action – $80,000

U.S. Global Leadership Coalition - $15,000

U.S. Hispanic Leadership Institute – $31,004

Voter Activation Network - $71,900

VoteVets.org – $270,000

WAND Education Fund – $15,000

Washington, DC Martin Luther King, Jr. National Memorial Project Foundation – $167,336

Washingtonians for Education, Health & Tax Relief – $750,000

Will Steger Foundation – $10,276

Win Minnesota Political Action Fund – $50,000

Women’s Voices, Women Vote – $50,000

Youth Service America – $20,000

Many of the largest donations from NEA headquarters went to state ballot initiative groups, but these do not constitute the sum total of the national union’s spending on state political measures.

For example, the national union sent millions of dollars directly to state affiliates to fund various activities, including $1.4 million to the Wisconsin Education Association Council during the height of its collective bargaining battle in the state legislature.

In another case, NEA sent $800,000 to Fair Districts Florida, in addition to $250,000 last year, but also sent $500,000 to the Florida Education Association PAC, and another $851,000 in financial assistance to FEA, outside of its regular UniServ subsidy.

This year spending reflects a greater interest in broad labor issues than in years past, spurred by events in Wisconsin, Ohio and elsewhere.

For further information about the extent and purpose of NEA’s political spending, you are best directed to my 2010 article for Education Next, titled “The Long Reach of Teachers Unions.”

All of these figures were culled from NEA’s disclosure report for the U.S. Department of Labor.

This year, the Massachusetts Teachers Association wanted to nominate actor Matt Damon and/or his mother, Dr. Nancy Carlsson-Paige, who is a professor at Lesley University and an education advocate. Damon famously spoke at the Save Our Schools rally in DC last July.

The New York Times and the Washington Post report that Dr. Carlsson-Paige has rejected the nomination on behalf of herself and her son, because of what she calls a “collaboration” between NEA President Dennis Van Roekel and Teach for America. TFA, according the Post‘s description, “recruits newly minted college graduates who are not education majors and gives them five weeks of summer training before placing them in classrooms in high-poverty schools. Recruits are asked to commit to only two years of teaching.”

The collaboration consisted of an editorial co-written for USA Today by Van Roekel and TFA founder Wendy Kopp that listed three ways to improve the teaching profession.

This was apparently too much for some union activists, who accused Van Roekel of sending “mixed messages” about teacher training. You know we’ve reached the point of no return when the president of the national teachers’ union can’t pass Matt Damon’s ideological purity test.

10) “That’s what you’re deciding on today – about whether or not you want to inject yourself into the individual, private decisions that employees make about their money.” – Kevin Watson, a lobbyist for the Florida Education Association, on a bill in the state legislature that would require unions to get written authorization from members in order to use dues for political purposes. (March 21 Florida Times-Union)

9)  ”The governor has selected some of the smartest policy thinkers in California. They’re experienced, they’re thoughtful and they’re largely independent minded, with the exception of the CTA staffer.” – Bruce Fuller, professor of education at UC Berkeley, commenting on Gov. Brown’s appointment of California Teachers Association lobbyist Patricia Ann Rucker to the state board of education. (January 8 Los Angeles Times)

8“In the 30-some years we were part of the (American Federation of Teachers union), we never had to use their services. There were never any grievances that warranted that. We really – and I’m going to be honest – never really got much out of it.” – Becky Seitz, former president of the AFT affiliate in North Cape, Wisconsin. (December 10 Journal-Times)

7)  “It appears that budgeting errors were made. It’s not good fiscal sound practice to spend more money than what you have coming in.” – Broward Teachers Union communications director John Ristow. (December 6 NBC-TV Miami)

6)  “It makes perfect sense to me that students in the Education Department of a university would have the highest GPAs because they are being taught by trained educators. I would expect the lowest GPAs to be among the math and engineering students because mathematicians have still not figured out how to teach math.” – Educator and author Nancy Illing, commenting on a story about grade inflation at teachers’ colleges. (June 10 Teacher Beat)

5)  ”The fact that we have so many private schools is detrimental to the public school system.” – Shirley Parola, a retired teacher, speaking at an education reform forum in Hawaii. (May 5 Honolulu Star-Advertiser)

4)  “Sixty-seven is kind of advanced.” – California Teachers Association spokesman Frank Wells, commenting on the plan by 73-year-old Gov. Jerry Brown to raise the public employee retirement age to 67. (October 30 Bloomberg)

3)  ”I disagree with him completely that our system is broken. It’s not our system, it’s the preparation of our kids these days. For my school, is it my fault that students come to me in the eighth grade and read at a second grade level?” – Ruby Caliendo, a middle school teacher in Nevada, commenting on Gov. Brian Sandoval’s budget address. (January 25 Las Vegas Sun)

2)  ”Even Jesus needed an executive session with his disciples.” – Bruce Cole of the Colorado Springs Education Association, explaining why the union doesn’t want teacher contract negotiations conducted in public. (March 9 Colorado Springs Gazette)

1)  “If you want to divide that $240,000 into the amount of hours spent, I think you would find that the per hour was probably not much at all, considering the work that had to be done.” – Former National Education Association President Reg Weaver, explaining why he deserves his $242,657 annual pension from the state of Illinois. (October 23 Chicago Tribune)

Over the last two calendar years, NEA has lost almost 139,000 total members, and more than 169,000 total members over the last three years. Since its ranks of retired members have been growing during that span, it understates the union’s losses among working education employees.

While NEA has instituted extraordinary measures to bring its budget in line with reduced revenues, the membership losses will require an additional $9.5 million in cuts at the national office.

Fewer members also means fewer dollars flowing to the national union’s ballot initiative/legislative crises and media funds, but the $10 per member increase approved at NEA’s convention last July insures that those accounts will contain more money than ever before.

The Seattle School Board is considering relaxing its ban on unhealthful food in high schools amid complaints from student governments that the policy has cost them hundreds of thousands of dollars in vending-machine profits over the past seven years.

But board members now acknowledge they probably went too far. The restrictions, which are more strict than the now-crafted state and federal nutrition guidelines, allow only products such as milk, natural fruit juice, baked chips and oat-based granola bars.

Perhaps not surprisingly, many students are not particularly interested in those items.

In 2001, before the junk-food ban was passed, high-school associated student body (ASB) governments across the city made $214,000 in profits from vending machines, according to district data. This year, they’ve made $17,000.

Well, there’s a shock. In a television report on CNN they interviewed a few students who said they were simply either bringing their own treats to school or running out at lunch or during study halls to the store down the street and buying them. Gee… ya think? So the end result was just that they cost the student government a ton of funding with no real change in dietary habits.

Keeping children healthy is important. It involves a lot of personal choices involving not only what and how much they eat, but how much physical activity they get, as opposed to sitting in front of the television or a video game. And who do you suppose has the real power to influence those choices? At one time in the far distant past I seem to recall that parents were responsible for that, not the school or the government. And if the parents fail at that job, Seattle has demonstrated once again that the rest of the “village” is completely incapable of it.

We now have some indications of what NEA has been doing with the additional time. To begin with, the union cleverly melded its organizing in support of Obama’s latest edu-jobs legislation with organizing for Obama himself in 2012. Though the bill itself has little chance of passage, it does serve the purpose of emphasizing where the President and NEA align, rather than where they differ.

The union devoted the fall to identifying potential Obama activists from among its members in 16 states, presumably those NEA considers to be battleground states. They are: Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Missouri, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Washington and Wisconsin. Along with this recruiting, the union’s PAC has a “Educators for Obama” web site where volunteers can sign up.

NEA is already spending time monitoring the Republican debates and issuing “Just the Facts” reports on issues that arise.

The union is also ramping up its Strategic Federal Initiatives, described as a cross-departmental unit that focuses on the White House and federal agencies and “connects NEA’s legislative, policy and political resources in order to coordinate and leverage our work with the executive branch.”

Important as it is, the Presidential election is only one of many elections in 2012, and the union must identify its preferred candidates for Congress and state legislatures. The selection is the purview of the NEA state affiliate, and the California Teachers Association has its criteria for choosing the perfect candidates:

* “Consistently votes according to NEA recommended positions, contacts NEA for information or questions, attempts to bring others along and takes leadership on NEA bills by being a sponsor, co-author or author.”

* “Consistently is available to NEA staff and leaders.”

* “Consistently is available to NEA staff and leaders at the district office. Calls local leaders before endorsing in local races, attends local NEA and coalition events.”

* “Consistently speaks positively about NEA, public education and unions. Participates in NEA press events and attends NEA functions in DC and in the districts.”

* “Leadership of the Senate or House of Representatives. Actively assists with “behind-the-scenes” activities to support NEA policy.”

The union pays special attention to friendly incumbents, categorizing their election in “tiers” in order to prioritize its support. A “Tier 1″ office-holder is “a candidate who is running for re-election in the same house of the legislature or in Congress and has evidence of all of the following in their CTA assessment: good voting record, access to CTA staff and leaders at Capitol, access to CTA staff and leaders in the district, ongoing communication with CTA, and leadership in state legislature/Congress or party.” A “Tier 2″ candidate would exhibit three of those characteristics, and a “Tier 3″ would exhibit none.

In California as of this writing, only two Congressional incumbents from California rose to the level of Tier 1 – Lois Capps (D-Santa Barbara) and Xavier Becerra (D-Los Angeles).

The NEA message will focus on Obama’s retention of public sector jobs, while downplaying or avoiding where the union differs with the President on many education issues. On education, we can expect NEA to devote considerable resources to lambasting GOP proposals.

Perhaps the next edition can provide kids with a full accounting of the Occupy-related illnesses, vandalism, rapes, deaths, and other criminal violations — and a related pop quiz on John Nolte’s Occupy arrest rap sheet.

The kids deserve the whole truth. The teachers unions’ Alinsky brigade won’t give it to them.

However, while Scholastic continues its love affair with OWS, it also has a hypocrisy problem (yes, go figure).  Seems Scholastic senior editor, Natalie Smith, who wrote this OWS puff piece dated well after this gem of a photo, conveniently forgot that her company is a $1.9 Billion publicly-traded company on the NASDAQ exchange.  Smith writes:

The Occupy protesters argue that large companies like those on Wall Street are making too much money while millions of Americans are struggling just to put food on the table. The protesters say they want average Americans to have more job opportunities and share in companies’ prosperity. They want their voices to be heard.  (emphasis mine)

What Smith fails to report is that Scholastic is in quite good shape financially:

In fiscal 2011 operating income was $100.7 million on revenue of $1,906.1 million, primarily reflecting lower sales of educational technology relative to a year ago, when the Company benefited significantly from the federal stimulus program, as well as increased strategic spending on digital initiatives in the children’s book business. Free cash flow was $120.5 million, which exceeded net income, compared to $171.6 million a year ago, which reflected that year’s strong educational technology sales. The Company also returned $176.4 million to shareholders in the form of share buybacks and dividends in fiscal 2011.

Last year we celebrated the 90th Anniversary of the founding of Scholastic. From the launch of a single classroom magazine in 1920, Scholastic has grown to become the world’s largest publisher and distributor of children’s books and a leader in educational technology and children’s media.

Ah, yes, the sweetness of a capitalistic economic system, vision, ingenuity, and success.  Scholastic has been able to grow due to the very capitalistic system OWS condemns.  It’s mind-boggling, to say the least, how Scholastic can support a movement that validates and teaches children class warfare, lawlessness, and lewd behavior.  But then again…

Reynolds talks about the dilution of the worth of a bachelor’s degree even while the price has risen exponentially. Something’s got to give.

But there’s no real incentive for institutions of higher learning to back off the price. Why? Because government has chosen to subsidize those prices by taking over the student loan business.

Sound at all familiar?

With no penalty for raising the price, colleges and universities continue to do so knowing full well that whatever they stick the student with that requires a loan they will get upfront. And if the the student defaults, we, the taxpayers, get stuck with the bill.

One of the big complaints about the Wall Street bailout from both sides of the political isle had to so with “privatizing profits and socializing debt”. That’s precisely what the current government loan program does as well.

Reynolds makes the argument that colleges and universities should be on the hook for the debt. After all they’re the institutions providing the product. Tying the price of the product to the worth of the product is such an old fashioned concept isn’t it? Instead this new-fangled way of doing business has led to bubble after bubble which the uninformed then try to pin on “market failure”.

In fact it is a government takeover of a market. There is no competition, no incentive to revisit pricing, no reason to worry about default. Charge whatever you like, make an outrageous profit and if the loan fails, stick the taxpayers with the cost.

Nice crony capitalist system if you can arrange it, huh?

We all know exactly how it will end up … with a big “pop” and a bunch of surprised politicians asking “how could this have happened?’

And the first words out of most of their mouths?

“Market failure”.

And what does that usually mean?

More government intrusion and control.

Then the cycle repeats.

Among them was the apparent reimbursement out of union dues for campaign contributions made by 26 “employees, board members and their relatives.” This is, needless to say, illegal. The Broward State Attorney’s Office and the Florida Elections Commission were notified, and both agencies opened an official investigation.

Members of BTU’s executive board accused union president Pat Santeramo of not only being complicit in the reimbursement, but also covering up a $3.8 million budget shortfall and accepting salary overpayments. Santeramo retains support among some board members, leading to infighting over corrective measures.

Santeramo blamed the budget shortfall on the union’s decision to absorb dues hikes from the national and state affiliates, rather than pass them on to the members. He also cited “a four year battle with an anti-union superintendent and school district trying to destroy this local.”

BTU accepted AFT’s offer of an outside financial manager to straighten out the local’s money troubles. AFT pledged to underwrite the cost of the manager’s services. Santeramo also promised to establish a PAC regulation training program for union officers, which presumably would instruct them that giving people union dues to donate to politicians is not only wrong, but could send you to jail.

Four executive board members moved to have Santeramo expelled, and was able to have a vote scheduled for December 7. They wrote:

In conclusion, along with the board, our members will consider it disgraceful that a president, of a teachers’ union, was able to mismanage and misappropriate funds without the board’s knowledge, and still be allowed to stay in office.

Since Santeramo shows no inclination to resign, the chances for an internal power struggle on top of criminal investigations prompted AFT to appoint an administratorship over the local.

BTU is an affiliate of both NEA and AFT, through the merged state affiliate the Florida Education Association. But, as has been past practice, NEA has let AFT take the lead with its former locals, and the FEA continues to take a back seat. In this case, FEA claims it “has little authority to leverage investigations or audits.” But it did trot out its spokesman to recite:

“This is an allegation that’s [been] brought against one individual or a small group of individuals. That shouldn’t be viewed as a representation of unions. It’s important that teachers have a voice.”

Of course, the whole point of the brouhaha is that teachers didn’t have a voice in their own union, and that Santeramo is more than “an individual.” He is the head of one of the largest teacher union locals in the nation, and is an AFT vice president to boot. The four BTU board members took their responsibilities more seriously:

Unlike anyone in the State of Florida, Pat’s actions have put in jeopardy the entire union movement and everything unions stand for. The word of what he has done as the president of BTU has spread throughout the state. All those who know about what happened are waiting for the Executive Board to do their elected duty – what is best for all unions and the members. Our members must have confidence in their elected leaders if we are ever truly to move forward and have any kind of future. The decision is inevitable and the longer the Executive Board fails to take the action on behalf of the members, the more damage will be done to the BTU and potentially all unions.

Whatever Santeramo has done, he is actually the least reprehensible recent BTU president. He took over the position in 2001 after his predecessor was charged and plead guilty to attempting to entice a minor into a sex act and sending child pornography over the Internet. He was sentenced to 48 months in prison. And Santeramo’s actions are small potatoes when placed aside those of Pat Tornillo.

Maybe it’s something in the South Florida water.

But while NEA has little experience in cutting costs, the union is highly skilled in applying cash and resources to its immediate priorities. For the next year and beyond, those will be political actions designed to turn back the tide of collective bargaining measures in the states.

NEA hasn’t been stingy with campaign grants for state ballot initiatives and legislative battles, yet is still sitting on a war chest of nearly $26.6 million for the 2011-12 school year alone. When coupled with the resources of its state affiliates, there is zero chance that anyone, anywhere, will outspend NEA on a political campaign.

The state affiliates are acting in the same fashion as NEA. The California Teachers Association suffered a 4.2 percent loss in active membership even before the latest round of layoffs. The loss of revenue prompted CTA to sell off three of its 35 regional resource centers. Yet the union budgeted $3.9 million for its media fund, maintained its $36-per-member initiative fund and its $20-per-member “advocacy” contribution, and recently approved a $2 increase to the union’s candidate PAC. CTA currently collects $18.45 per member in PAC money. Unlike federal PACs or PACs in many other states, California PACs are allowed to deduct contributions from paychecks along with union dues, so that objecting members have to request a refund.

Democrats control all the levers of power in California, so it is not entirely clear where CTA plans to spend this money, though it is well-positioned to launch a tax increase campaign, and may also seek to temper Gov. Brown’s more radical ideas.

All of which suggests that however beleaguered NEA may be in the current political climate, the practical effects will be mostly felt internally, through staff and program cuts on the fringes of the union’s normal activities. Those counting on reduced membership leading to weakened political campaigns are in for a rude awakening.

NBC New York reports that the new sex education curriculum, which will be mandatory for middle and high school students next spring, will provide a frank and comprehensive grounding in the birds and the bees that will be customized according to age group.

Middle school students will receive “risk cards” that rate the safety of different sexual activities, among them, the New York Post reports, “intercourse using a condom and an oil-based lubricant,” mutual masturbation, French kissing, oral sex, and anal sex.

High-school students get to go on field trips. These will include a visit to the neighborhood pharmacy, where they will compare and contrast condoms in terms of brand, price, and features such as lubrication. Others will research and map out a route from school to a clinic that provides birth control and STD tests. You just can’t tell when an emergency visit might be in the cards for your honor student.

While the city Department of Education hastens to point out that the curriculum “stresses that abstinence is the best way to avoid pregnancy and STD/HIV,” it will also feature a fair amount of role playing. One lesson focuses on just saying no, while another entails “negotiating condom use” with a partner.

Best of all, the Post writes:

Teens are referred to resources such as Columbia University’s Web site Go Ask Alice, which explores topics like “doggie-style” and other positions, “sadomasochistic sex play,” phone sex, oral sex with braces, fetishes, porn stars, vibrators and bestiality.

In case you were wondering, the classes will be coed. No word on whether students get to choose their homework partner and, if so, whether they will have a chance to specify cup size, length, and the like. In the meantime, think of the many rich opportunities for cross-disciplinary study afforded by the curriculum (“If Mary fakes two orgasms every hour and John has three real orgasms every two hours…”).

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NEA will send, and partially fund, the deployment of up to 100 staff volunteers from the union’s Washington, DC headquarters to Ohio to participate in the ballot referendum campaign. These employees are in addition to staffers recruited from other NEA state affiliates and, of course, the employees of the Ohio Education Association.

The NEA employees will begin arriving in Ohio this Friday, and contingents will operate through Election Day. EIA is unaware of any previous effort of this size, encompassing nearly one-fifth of NEA’s DC workforce.

What makes this undertaking truly unique is that the union will also provide meals, hotels and transportation for friends and family members of these employees, provided they also volunteer to work on the Issue 2 campaign.

It is not clear at this time whether these in-kind contributions are part of, or in addition to, NEA’s $5 million commitment to the referendum’s defeat.

The 2002 play, the book for which was written by Tim Acito, with additional lyrics and material by Alexander Dinelaris, is set in a fictional high school. It was, however, a recent performance at a real school, Hartford Public High, that generated headlines.

The Hartford Courant reports:

Members of Leadership Greater Hartford’s Quest, a program for professionals that develops leadership skills, put forth ‘Zanna’ as an anti-bullying community service project that helps lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and questioning youth.

In a partnership with the nonprofit True Colors, one Quest team raised $10,000 to show the musical three times at Hartford High this month. The Knox Foundation and the Samuel Roskin Trust at the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving gave sponsorship money. Students from area high schools and Trinity College are the actors.

In one scene in the play two males of the species exchange a brief kiss. The scene was obviously meant to raise the consciousness of audience members. But when the play had its debut at Hartford High last week, the scene instead raised the blood pressure of some in attendance.

The Courant notes that

a piercing clamor rang through the auditorium. There were screams and loud voices and a bit of feigned or real disgust. Dozens of students, mostly male and a few in their Owls football jerseys, hurried out of their rows and walked out. A few jumped over seats to leave.

Before the day was out, one parent had stormed into the main office with a Bible, pointing out portions that condemn homosexuality as a sin. Others took their teenage children out of school early.

According to the Courant David Chambers, principal of the school’s nursing academy, had informed his students ahead of time there might be same-sex affection in the play. Some had asked to be excused, and Chambers had considered—but then rejected—the idea of sending home an opt-out letter.

Chambers is said to have hoped the play would help his students develop a sense of empathy toward gays and lesbians, or at least exposure to “that which makes them uncomfortable.”

“Our kids are not there yet,” he is quoted as saying.

But some evidently are. Oneida Fernandez, a 17-year-old law and government student, is quoted as saying, “To me, people are people. We’re human beings.… I don’t discriminate.”

Another, Dineily Vargas, told a reporter:

I think it opened a lot of people’s eyes.… This school never really had anything like this happen. I’m still happy. It was wonderful.

The only part I hated, was when some people left.

This story raises all manner of questions. Chief among them is where a school’s responsibilities to its students and to the community at large begin and end. There are also see clear-cut First Amendment issues here. Anyone with answers is welcome to weigh in below.

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According to its latest figures, NEA has lost 100,000 active members since the 2009-10 school year. Active members are working teachers, certified staff and education support employees – not students or retirees.

Officially released numbers from 2009-10 showed total active membership at more than 2,866,000. The union’s active membership at the start of the 2011-12 school year stands at just over 2,766,000 – a decrease of about 3.5 percent.

The reductions will require some interim cost-cutting measures at NEA headquarters until permanent budget adjustments can be implemented next month. It bears noting, however, that these measures have no effect on the national union’s Ballot Measures/Legislative Crises Fund, which is a segregated account for political action at the state level.

The $5 million comes from the national union’s Ballot Measure/Legislative Crises Fund, which was doubled in size by vote of NEA’s delegates in July. This contribution is in addition to the estimated $5 million the Ohio Education Association dedicated to the referendum campaign, funded by a $54 special assessment the state union imposed on its members.

EIA predicted the matching contribution back in April, and expects there to be a large presence of NEA national staff and UniServ directors from other states in Ohio over the next month. NEA believes a victory in Ohio will enable the union to turn the tide against efforts elsewhere to restrict collective bargaining.

Both men also went on to articulate who the real enemy is. Here is Obama:

We are at war against terrorist organizations that have distorted Islam or falsely used the banner of Islam.

Maybe a Georgia school curriculum developer would have done well to read past the first sentence in either president’s remarks before creating an assignment that glorifies two of the more controversial tenets of Sharia law. (h/t The Blaze)

According to the Marietta Daily Journal, the overarching purpose of the assignment was to teach Campbell Middle School students about the pros and cons of school uniforms. Among the materials distributed to them was a letter from a woman that extols the virtues of Sharia law:

My name is Ahlima and I live in Saudi Arabia. … Perhaps two differences Westerners would notice are that women here do not drive cars and they wear abuyah. An abuyah is a loose-fitting black cloth that covers a woman from head to toe. I like wearing the abuyah since it is very comfortable, and I am protected from blowing sand. … I have seen pictures of women in the West and find their dress to be horribly immodest. … Women in the West do not have the protection of the Sharia as we do here. If our marriage has problems, my husband can take another wife rather than divorce me, and I would still be cared for. … I feel very fortunate that we have the Sharia.

One of the students’ parents found the lesson plan problematic, especially a line from the assignment that read, “I understand that some Westerners condemn our practice of polygamy, but I also know they are wrong.”

The parent, Hal Medlin, told station WSB-TV:

It’s promoting or positively depicting their belief that polygamy is fine, if that’s what they believe. But I don’t know how you could possibly state that and not have any kind of disclaimer that this is what these people think, but not necessarily what all of us believe.

In defense of the materials, their creator, Sharon Coletti, replied:

This particular sequence is a two-day social studies lesson. [Students] read this letter and then examine stereotyping. The next lesson is a compare and contrast on the role of women in the Middle East. Yes, the Muslim girl stereotypes Western women, but are there ways we stereotype Muslims? I have no idea what the objection is.

It’s important for kids to have some empathy for other people in the world. … [Emphasis added]

Ah, the E word! You had to be wondering when that would emerge as a part of the equation.

The Daily Journal notes that in the wake of the objections, the material was adjusted. In particular, the portions on the utility of slavery and the stoning to death of non-believers were stricken. Ha, just kidding! There were no such topics in the lesson. The scary part, though, is that there could have been.

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While their representatives conduct contract talks with WEA management, WEA employees have decided to continue working, although they have been engaging in various job actions. Those not directly involved with the Tacoma strike are “working to rule,” which means performing only those tasks that are explicitly stated in their collective bargaining agreement and not putting in extra time on their own.

The major staff contract issues appear to be pensions and retiree health care – the costs of which have plagued other NEA state affiliates for years.

Staff union issues have recently come the forefront in Wisconsin, but two dozen NEA state affiliates have been, or soon will be, in negotiations with their staff unions over new contracts. Since most states are experiencing declining membership and revenues, there may be more labor strife of the type currently on display in Washington.

There is no doubt, as we discussed this morning, that the decision by Elmhurst College in suburban Chicago to include a question (even voluntary) on it’s incoming freshman registration is severely misguided.

The problems with such a decision are numerous:

1. It violates the principles of the original Christian mission of the school. This is being laughed off of course as it has been with Harvard, Yale, and Princeton, but it is true nonetheless.

2. It draws uneven comparisons with legitimate “minority” status that might be helpful for the college to be aware of. How many times must African Americans draw attention to the obvious that genetically disposed skin color is not comparable to the issue of desiring to sleep with someone–whatever the orientation may be.

3. It further divides a school over an issue that should be relatively invisible to the issue of learning. It further separates students one from another based on random allocations of answers on the registration.

Elmhurst is hearing today from Alumni and donors over it’s poorly thought through silliness.

Let’s hope they listen!

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Texas has challenges. The record speaks for itself. Lots of other states have challenges too. But there is a lot of hard work that needs to be done in Texas and a lot of children who need a chance to get a great education.

Far too few of their high school graduates are actually prepared to go on to college. I feel very, very badly [sic] for the children there.

Putting aside the secretary’s grammatical infelicity (after all, he’s only Sceretary of Education), his criticism is baseless.

In an article in “TIME,” Andrew Rotherman, head of a nonprofit organization aimed at improving educational outcomes for low-income students, challenges Duncan’s claims. Writes Rotherman:

Overall, Texas students scored right around the national averages in reading and math on the NAEP [National Assessment of Educational Progress ]. And according to an Aug. 17 report by the group that administers the ACT college-admissions exam, Texas high school graduates only narrowly trail national averages for college readiness. True, the national averages aren’t great, but Texas is right there with the pack. So why is Duncan dissing the Lone Star State?

But Rotherman’s criticism of Duncan doesn’t stop with the Ed Secretary wrong-headed assertions about Texas schools. Rotherman further states:

[Texas’s] minority students outperform minority students in Chicago, albeit by smaller margins. And with a high school graduation rate of about 73%, Texas may be slightly below the national average, but it’s doing a lot better than Chicago, which only graduates about 56% of its students.

Any why is that relevant? Because in Duncan’s previous life, hewas head of the Chicago school system.

After presenting his facts, Rotherman asks why Duncan is “dissing the Lone Star State.” The question is coy. I’m confident that the author knows that the state’s chief executive is running for the job currently held by Duncan’s boss. The attack on Texas schools is nothing more than a thinly veiled attack on Rick Perry. And a bogus one at that.

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Evidently state level investigations into Georgia public schools are nothing new, but the new revelations of the attempt to defraud test score results merely for enhanced funding status from the Federal Government–in my mind–should be a RICO complaint, with secondary charges of theft.

The majority of the nation doesn’t know that investigators have turned up a hatched-scheme in which Union bosses coordinated efforts with public education officials. Further that 44 of 56 school districts in the Atlanta Public Schools system strategically convinced Superintendents, Principals and teachers to cheat–primarily by going back and erasing answers on tests and replacing them with correct ones–in order to have a higher means score for the No Child Left Behind funding qualifications.

The evidence is overwhelming.

• 2100 Interviews…
• 178 educators involved…
• 38 principals involved…
• 80 confessions to the schemes…
• 800,000 documents as evidence…

And if the cheating is bad… then the cover-up should be counted twice as damning. Beverly Hall the Superintendent for APS was awarded recognition during the decade which the cheating was at it’s height. Her deputies were brought into the scandal and eventually teachers “grew to fear” for their jobs and well being if they did not play along:

The special investigators’ report describes years of misconduct that took place as far up the chain of command as the superintendent’s office. The report accuses Hall and her aides of repeatedly tampering with or hiding records that cast an unflattering light on the district.

In one case, Hall’s chief Human Resources officer Millicent Few “illegally ordered” the destruction of early, damning drafts of an outside lawyer’s investigation of test-tampering at Atlanta’s Deerwood Academy, the report said.

Another time, Few ordered staff to destroy a case log of cheating-related internal investigations after The Atlanta Journal-Constitution requested it, the report said. Few told staff to replace the old log with a new, altered version. When the district finally produced the complaints, the investigators wrote, it illegally withheld cases that made it “look bad” — either because its investigation was poor or because wrongdoing received minimal sanction.

Few also made false statements to the investigators, the report said.

The cycle of intimidation, corruption, fraud, and reward was at play for the better part of 10 years.

The Associated Press

The improved scores and seemed improvements of the children had caused others to point to APS as a model for how to base other inner city/large urban schools systems should operate.

Now the biggest question to be answered is just how many of the 178 deserve to do the perp walk right into prison?

I’m Kevin McCullough and that’s how I “Binge Think”
And I wrote the book that told you why he couldn’t!

UPDATE: My listeners responded…>

I thought we were through with World War II references after Saturday, but in his farewell speech ousted executive committee member Len Paolillo compared NEA to the Royal Air Force in the Battle of Britain.

It made me think of General Anthony McAuliffe – “Nuts.”

Still, it was clear that NEA is preparing for war. In his goodbyes, executive director John Wilson sought to rally the troops by reminding them that “CEO salaries are obscene.”

We also have a pretty good definition of what is considered obscene – it must be something above the $357,870 Wilson made last year advocating for underpaid teachers.

But not advocating for all teachers. We’ve recorded time and again union ambivalence and sometimes outright hostility to charter school teachers – even ones who belong to NEA. Add to that list teachers who got their training from Teach for America.

Delegates directed their union to oppose TFA contracts “when they are used in districts with no teacher shortage.”

Boy, it’s funny how quickly that NEA-hyped teacher shortage crisis disappeared (but not from their web site).

Still, the important business of the union was accomplished. There was a successful vote for an additional $20 million for the union’s political issues fund, to be spread around the necessary states, and NEA raised over $1 million in PAC money during the convention (bringing its fundraising year total to more than $4.1 million) – earmarking $48,740 for NEA director Shelly Moore, who is running in one of the Wisconsin senate recall races.

The delegates sent 18,500 messages to Congress during the convention – coming in a distant second to spam for generic Viagra.

I think we have moved past the stage of a “battle of ideas” or even debates about the best public policy. This is a raw political struggle of weapons, ammunition and troops in the field. NEA has the factories going and can never be dismissed in a battle of brute strength.

But as history shows, the biggest armies and the largest bombs don’t guarantee victory.

Background here.

Today the delegates approved the endorsement by a vote of 5,414 to 2,102 – or 72-28%. The margin of victory easily exceeded the 58% requirement to pass.

It also exceeded the 63-66% window I predicted yesterday and, frankly, isn’t much of a drop-off from the union’s endorsement vote in 2008, when Obama was able to secure only 79.8% of the delegate vote – a historic low for NEA.

The mood in the hall for the last few days indicates quite a few delegates held their noses while pulling the Obama lever, but that vote counts the same as that of the enthusiast.

It’s an unfortunate situation for teachers’ unions that they need Obama more than he needs them. His relative indifference to their agenda doesn’t seem to have hurt him among the general electorate, or even among Democrats. When Neil Abercrombie starts cutting teacher salaries, it’s tough to paint NEA’s woes as simply a right-wing plot.

In a similar vein, the delegates easily approved the new policy statement on teacher evaluation and accountability, which was also supposed to generate heavy resistance from the floor on account of including, for the first time, the use of student standardized tests as an indicator of a teacher’s “contribution to student learning and growth.”

That provision was essentially bowdlerized at the start of the convention when an additional sentence was added that reads:

Unless such tests are shown to be scientifically valid and reliable for the purpose of measuring both student learning and a teacher’s performance, such tests may not be used to support any employment action against a teacher and may be used only to provide non-evaluative formative feedback.

NEA’s officers have determined, and repeatedly reassured the delegates, that there currently is no test that fulfills these requirements.

You can add this to the list of things that NEA supports, but doesn’t really believe exist – like good charter schools, Republicans who support public education, and workers who freely choose not to join a union.

There are still dozens of new business items, amendments to the federal legislative agenda, and resolutions to be introduced and debated. But the headline moments are out the way, and most of the rest will be mopping up.

I’m glad it was defeated, mainly because I don’t think dropping 25 teachers from altitude on enemy artillery emplacements would produce the desired result.

Speaking of dropping bombs, Earl Wiman’s speech was so effective it got him elected to the NEA executive committee. He actually defeated an incumbent, which is very rare at this level of the union. But his real achievement is restoring reductio ad Hitlerum to the orator’s toolkit. Bravo!

Tomorrow delegates will take up the debate of NEA’s new policy statement on teacher evaluations (scroll down), vote on the Obama endorsement and the doubling of the assessment to the union’s Ballot Measure/Legislative Crises Fund, and continue to whack away at the new business items.

The election results should be announced shortly after noon.

The good news is Biden’s speech was very well received by the delegates who managed to make it inside the hall in time. Biden told the delegates he had read NEA president Dennis Van Roekel’s keynote speech from yesterday (smart move) and said he “could not find a single, solitary assertion you made in that speech that I don’t wholeheartedly agree with.” Biden also astutely borrowed the same tone and rhetoric, and avoided any bones of contention.

The other bad news is that preliminary indications are he didn’t change too many minds regarding the union’s early endorsement of Obama. I haven’t heard word of a single state affiliate that recommended not to endorse early, but tomorrow’s vote is a secret ballot, and delegates have occasionally been contrarian once those curtains are drawn.

Still, you don’t read this stuff in order to hear me waffle, so my prediction is a victory for the early endorsement, but not much over the required 58%. Let’s say between 63 and 66 percent. It would also be a margin that would allow both sides to claim a sort of victory, but still worry about it.

And while delegates continue to relentlessly bash Arne Duncan, a measure that would have required NEA’s officers – in the event of an early endorsement – to “strongly and clearly inform” the President of the need to listen regularly to public school educators on all matters of education policy, was defeated.

A new business item that directly called for the removal of Duncan as Secretary of Education was also defeated.

In addition, a call to boycott Koch industries and Georgia Pacific was referred to the union’s executive committee without a position from the delegates either way. It was clear from the debate that some delegates knew nothing about the Koch brothers, some knew a little, and some knew quite a bit.

Traditionally, the NEA executive committee rarely institutes a boycott, and I feel confident predicting they won’t institute one this time.

It will be slow going for the next couple of days. There are already 63 new business items, with more on the way. I believe 37 of them are from California, and a lot of those are from Oakland. Keep that in mind as I mention some of these in future posts. Reason #3,476 why California isn’t like where you live.

However, my favorite so far – NBI 46 – came out of Michigan. Not because of the subject matter, which is ginning up constitutional amendments for collective bargaining rights – but because NEA estimates it will cost the union $300 million to try it.

Well, back to work. Apparently I’m missing the flash mob, too.

Included in the charges were two counts of heavy focusing, four counts of failure to recognize, one count of felony myth-perpetuating, and a misdemeanor count of weighing in.

The delegates convicted Duncan on all counts, and approved the measure.

Later on, NBI 8 came up for debate. It sought a middle ground among factions within the convention hall arguing for and against approving the NEA board of directors’ early endorsement of President Obama for re-election in 2012.

The delegates will vote on the endorsement by secret ballot on the 4th. The endorsement requires 58% of the vote to pass.

The item proposed a mail-in ballot from delegates next January. It was defeated, but not until there was some debate over the early endorsement.

A little background is necessary. It was in NEA’s mind back in 2007 to endorse a presidential candidate a year before the election, and not wait until July of election year, when traditionally the nominations have been all but wrapped up.

But NEA’s timing was bad. It sought to speed up its endorsement process during the one election cycle when two candidates – Obama and Hillary Clinton – split the Democratic Party right down the middle.

Unable to choose between the two, the union hemmed and hawed and stalled until Obama had clinched the nomination, then endorsed him. Of course, they fully supported Obama in the general election, but I don’t know of a single political analyst who has claimed that NEA was uniquely instrumental in the Obama victory.

Fast forward to today, when the stars seem to finally align for NEA. They have a Democratic incumbent president with no primary challenger, and a host of Republicans they believe will send them back to the day when Pleistocene Man had to teach his children to hunt and fish without the benefit of a state pension.

Except many delegates are not thrilled with Obama and his Secretary of Education. Oh, they’re pretty happy about the money he’s disbursed to save their jobs, but he’s too pally with the education reform wing of the Democratic Party. So they’re trying to come up with a compromise between kissing his rear and telling him to go to hell.

Some of them think they’ve hit upon the solution: getting rid of Duncan. Duncan’s scalp is to be the price of an early endorsement.

But if they think that’s going to happen, they’ve misread Obama, and not for the first time. Here’s something I wrote after last year’s convention:

So here we are, not quite at the stage of open warfare between NEA and the White House, but headed down that road. Neither side shows an inclination to back down. In Congress and in statehouses, the clarity of its Professor Wagstaff stance will benefit the union. Obama and the Democrats will need NEA activism in what promises to be a challenging election year.

But when it comes to public and media relations, NEA’s entrenchment is disastrous. If the union rails against an Obama administration, it signals that it can’t work with anyone short of a hand puppet. An “us against the world” battle cry works wonders for union activism, but it’s problematic because “the world” has a lot more votes.

The teachers’ unions don’t like to be attacked, but what they are really worried about is being ignored. If we ever reach that point, then we’ll know the political climate has truly changed.

Tomorrow, Vice President Biden is scheduled to appear before the delegates. Whatever he says, it won’t reassure the delegates about the general direction of the Obama administration.

Will Obama effectively ignore NEA? Will he win anyway? And if he does, what then would his second term bring to public education? It’s hard to paint a happy picture for the union in national politics under these circumstances.

The atmosphere still resembles a political party convention, with speeches, confetti and deafening music, including the new NEA theme song, “Standing Strong“:

“Standing strong, standing tall. Standing up for what is right and true, NEA is standing up for me and you!”

Coming soon to a Chevy truck commercial near you.

It is customary for the mayor of the host city to welcome the delegates, but since the mayor is Rahm Emanuel, NEA prudently got hold of Illinois Gov. Quinn instead. After the delegates adopted the standing rules for the assembly, it was time for NEA president Dennis Van Roekel’s keynote speech.

“The NEA will not let extremists colonize public education for their own ideological ends,” he said.

Oh wait, that was from Bob Chase’s keynote speech in 1998.

“In some states, testing mania is quite literally devouring whole school systems like some education-eating bacteria.”

No, that was from Chase’s 2000 speech.

“We have had meetings with members of the President’s staff, and with the Secretary of Education, and despite our best efforts there seems to be a continued lack of acceptance of the professionalism and the expertise that this organization brings to the table.”

Oops, that was from Reg Weaver’s 2004 speech.

“The union movement created the middle class, ended child labor, championed public education and gave working men and women a strong voice. Plain and simple, you can’t have a middle class without unions! We need unions.”

No, that was Van Roekel’s 2009 speech.

This year, Van Roekel wanted to send a message to “all of those union-busting, greedy CEOs and their political pals.” The union is “standing strong.” (“Oooooh, like a rock!” wails Bob Seger.)

“Our country is not for sale to the highest political donor or the wealthiest corporations,” he said.

Who would that highest political donor be, anyway?

There were also speeches for all the candidates for NEA higher office. The loudest and most positive crowd reaction was for Earl Wiman, the former president of the Tennessee Education Association who is running for a seat on the NEA Executive Committee.

Wiman began by comparing Hitler’s rhetoric about labor unions with that of today’s politicians.

Some may accuse Wiman of being excessive, but I criticize him for failing to say what he really meant. There’s no reason to mention Hitler in such a context unless you really believe you’re going to be rounded up and mass-murdered in gas chambers as part of a megalomaniacal plot to engulf the planet in a world war. If that’s what you mean, just say so.

Eventually we will get to new business items (NBIs), including NBI C, or, as I prefer to call it, “The 13 Reasons We Hate Arne Duncan,” or NBI 9, which plans to tear the cover off the Great Soybean Conspiracy. (And it’s about time, I say.)

That’s what National Education Association Secretary-Treasurer Becky Pringle called the situation in which the union finds itself this year. It won’t come as a surprise to readers of this blog that NEA has a $14 million budget shortfall, or that it has lost more than 39,000 active members. Pringle stated that the deficit is closer to $17 million due to increased costs to the union’s legal services program, which subsidizes each state affiliate’s attorney referral program and other litigation-based actions for individual members.

Plus, Pringle said, “We have to assume we haven’t hit bottom yet.”

What might surprise you, given NEA’s aversion to staff reductions in the public schools (to the point where California just passed a law under cover of darkness to save teachers’ jobs even without the money to pay them – a move pioneered in Detroit and Los Angeles), is that the union plans to partially cut the deficit with $4.8 million in staff reductions.

Asked how many staffers would be lost, Pringle replied, “about 20.” If anyone in the audience did the math, that’s $240,000 saved per staffer, which tells you all you need to know.

Who knew Ms. Pringle could be such a fiscal hawk? She described to the delegates present how difficult it was to make budget cuts, since each program had a constituency arguing to protect it. She declared, “I will not support an increase in dues” to close the budget gap because “our members are hurting.” And she detailed the budget committee’s work on staff costs, saying, “We’ve worked to reduce benefits.”

Indeed, Pringle’s words are coming out of the mouths of school board presidents across the country.

There were also indications that while there may be red states and blue states, the only color that matters is green.

NEA Vice President Lily Eskelsen spoke excitedly of receiving funding for NEA’s English Language Learners program from Western Union.

Pringle defended NEA’s business relationship with Bank of America, saying the union has been able to exert influence over the bank in the area of credit card rate hikes for members, and saving the union money on electronic fund transfers for dues.

Then there is this ad for Target, on the back of the NEA Representative Assembly program book:

It’s reasonable to argue that these corporate relationships don’t affect the union’s mission – except that’s a difficult argument to make in light of what NEA director Dawn Shephard Pope said in response to a question about why the union contributes so much money each year to advocacy groups.

She said those grants are made “in order to advance our mission.”

If it’s a good enough reason for NEA, why wouldn’t it be good enough for Western Union, Bank of America, Target and AT&T?

I’ll have all the details in the next post about NEA’s strategic plan and budget for the coming year, but I think I may have identified where the problem lies – it’s in the new math. Take a look at this slide from the NEA budget committee hearing:

It shows the assumed membership numbers for each category in the budget adopted in 2010 for use in 2011-12, and the assumed membership numbers today, to be used in a modified 2011-12 budget. You’ll note that each line-item is the same, save for the projected difference of 60,000 active teachers.

Then how does the total membership add up to 9,211 more members?

I’m pretty sure this was just a PowerPoint screw-up, since the money numbers cited reflected a 60,000-member loss.

The rest of the numbers, as you’ll see in the next post, are not so easy to fix.

Each year the bureau publishes a comprehensive report on public school revenues and expenditures. Coupled with education staffing statistics from the U.S. Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics Common Core of Data, it gives us a fundamental picture of the finances and labor costs of the American public school system.

The latest Census Bureau report provides details of the 2008-09 school year, as the nation was in the midst of the recession. That year, 48,238,962 students were enrolled in the U.S. K-12 public education system. That was a decline of 157,114 students from the previous year. They were taught by 3,231,487 teachers (full-time equivalent). That was an increase of 81,426 teachers from the previous year.

This is not new information. We knew last October that the entire public education workforce – teachers, principals, administrators and support workers – grew by more than 137,000 employees during the recession.

What the Census Bureau numbers add to that information is that we almost replaced every lost student with a new employee.

Twenty-seven states had fewer students in 2009 than in 2008, but 16 of them hired more teachers.

Per-pupil spending rose 2.6 percent, and spending on employee compensation (salaries and benefits) rose 2.3 percent. The United States average for per-pupil spending was $10,499, with 25 states spending more than $10,000 per student.

Annual statistics of this type are useful, but figures can fluctuate from year-to-year as school administrators try to match staff levels with enrollment. Long-term trends tend to flatten some of the spikes, and I have constructed a table of the 50 states that examines enrollment, hiring and labor costs over a five-year period (I will eventually update figures for each of America’s more than 13,000 school districts).

From 2004 to 2009, student enrollment increased a cumulative 0.7 percent, while the K-12 teacher workforce increased 6.5 percent. Per-pupil spending increased 26.7 percent (about 12.5% after correcting for inflation). Spending on education employee salaries and benefits increased 27.5 percent.

It’s an odd enterprise that reacts to fewer clients by hiring more employees. The day of reckoning was postponed, but finally arrived this year. Unfortunately, there was no rapture to accompany it.

ALBANY (AP) — The powerful New York State United Teachers union is severing its cooperative relationship with the state Education Department because it embraced Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s teacher evaluation proposals.

Richard Iannuzzi of the New York State United Teachers union says the Cuomo proposals backed by state schools Chancellor Merryl Tisch on Friday will hurt education as well as teachers.

Well, I’m sure this was predictable. What are those dastardly Republicans up to now? Let me guess… they not only want to take away collective bargaining, but they plan on making all of the teachers live on a diet of thin rice gruel and tap water until performance improves, right?

Cuomo recommended a potential doubling of the importance of student test scores and performance and more rigorous classroom observation of teachers in the evaluation system being considered by the state Board of Regents.

The system would replace seniority to determine which teachers face layoffs.

Well, we certainly can’t have a system where evaluations and results actually impact layoffs and hiring, can we? Oh, and by the way… Cuomo is a Democrat, for those in other parts of the country who haven’t been keeping score.

Is it any wonder that people have been rising up against the teachers unions and parents are wondering precisely what it is that they’re getting for their tax dollars? The proposals from Cuomo look positively tame compared to anything coming out of Wisconsin, and yet the teachers union is “cutting ties” with the state department of education before they’ve even been implemented?

Welcome to the new frontier. It’s a wave which is washing up on shores as far away as New York and beginning to affect elected Democrats. Buckle up. This may be a bumpy ride.

UPDATE: The state Board of Regents has clearly heard the protests from the teachers union. In response, they’ve quickly moved into action… to roll out the new evaluation system even faster.

A few months before the first phase of a teacher- and principal-evaluation system is scheduled to take effect, the state Board of Regents is changing some of the rules.

Regents voted 14-3 on Monday to fast-track the timeline for rolling out the new system. Student growth and performance will now be factors in evaluations.

The system was supposed to take effect this fall for math and English teachers in grades 4 through 8, as well as their building principals. Everyone else would be evaluated in fall 2012.

Oh, dear. Am I reading the news or the script for a new alternate reality film?

This year the union decided to honor the 14 Wisconsin Senate Democrats who fled the state rather than debate and vote on the governor’s collective bargaining bill.

It is believed to be the first multi-week sojourn to the Tilted Kilt ever to result in an award from a major national organization.

EIA created a table, now posted on its web site, that lists the financial figures for NEA and each of its 53 “state” affiliates (50 states plus the directly affiliated Federal Education Association, which represents NEA teachers overseas and on military bases, the University of Hawaii Professional Assembly, and the Utah School Employees Association). The numbers include each union’s total revenues, dues income and the amount devoted to employee compensation.

The statistics do not include the income of any of the union’s 14,000 locals, whose totals would range from the significant (for example, the $3 million annual revenue of the San Diego Education Association) to the nonexistent, in the case of small affiliates that collect no local dues.

NEA and its affiliates are all tax-exempt organizations. If they were defined as a charity, they would rank no worse than 13th in the nation – well ahead of the American Cancer Society, Habitat for Humanity, and the Nature Conservancy. Their one-year income exceeds the entire endowments of all but 43 charitable grant-making foundations, including the Broad Foundation and the Heinz Endowments (and close to the Annenberg Foundation).

The figures show that only a handful of affiliates felt the early effects of the recession. NEA national saw a 2.7 percent increase from the previous year, and some affiliates had double-digit increases in revenue. However, there were signs of financial troubles ahead.

The California Teachers Association and others saw significant declines in revenue, almost entirely due to poor investment returns. In the case of CTA, dues income actually exceeded “total” revenue because of investment losses.

Increased liabilities for employee compensation caused additional worries. The numbers in the table include not only salaries and benefits for current teacher union staff, but set-asides for their pensions and post-retirement health care. In most cases, the growth in the amount devoted to these purposes greatly exceeded the increases in income.

It would be ironic if the union’s own labor costs forced it to make dramatic budget reductions or dues hikes. NEA and its state affiliates combined currently spend more than $820 million on some 7,000 employees (the number of retirees is unknown). In five states (Illinois, Indiana, Mississippi, Oregon and Washington) dues income failed to cover the costs of employee compensation.

After the widespread dissemination of the California Teachers Association’s list of “potential activities” planned for its May 9-13 protests and occupation of the state Capitol, the union has severely edited the list, posting a new one on its CAstateofemergency.com site.

Gone from the original list are plans to picket legislators’ homes and target their businesses. Gone is the idea to “follow targeted legislators for the entire day.” Gone is having students and parents picket school sites and camp there overnight.

No more co-opting of the earthquake/fire drill. No more closing of major arteries into cities. No “Refrain from Shopping Day,” dyed red hair or ”labor-union flavored ice cream” from Ben and Jerry’s.

However, CTA still thinks it’s a good idea to “Call parents to tell them how their child is doing and then talk about the budget cuts and invite them to attend the rallies.”

The union has set up a web site of material for activists at CAstateofemergency.com. The documents include the handout I posted earlier, plus a 10-page list of “potential activities” the CTA State Council dreamed up. The State Council consists of more than 700 elected union representatives from all across the state. I’ve also posted this document on the EIA web site.

The “potential activities” include:

* Target the businesses of  legislators in their home districts.

* Circle the offices of “problem legislators.” Target them with various actions.

* Picket/rally in front of legislators’ offices/homes.

* Follow targeted legislators for the entire day.

* Have students and parents do informational picketing for one hour outside their school site.

* Have parents and students camp in front of schools all night.

* Have teachers being laid off contact parents and other CTA members.

* Make phone calls on Parents’ Day. Call parents to tell them how their child is doing and then talk about the budget cuts and invite them to attend the rallies.

* Refrain from Shopping Day. Show the value of educators and other public employees and the economic contribution they make to local communities by refraining from shopping one day.

* Throw monopoly money in the toilet to show that all our money is going down the drain

* Publish a list of companies that are not paying their fair share of taxes. Send letters to these companies and the media and picket their offices. Withdraw funds from banks that are not paying their fair share. (Editor’s note: CTA is a tax-exempt organization.)

* One-day boycott of Microsoft and other corporations that are pushing failed education reform efforts.

* Turn fire/earthquake drill into crisis response drill to the budget cuts (involve students and the community)

* Attempt to close a major artery into town/cities

* Have celebrities involved in the demonstrations

* Dye hair red or wear red wigs

* Homeless encampments of students and teachers as they can afford a place to live

* Have people participate in a run across the state with a torch (like the Olympics)

* Statewide “A Day with No Teachers”

* Pay for everything with $2 bills to show true impact of teachers

* “Lights Out Day” during the week where educators teach in the dark

* Protest at an MLB game. Everyone wears a matching shirt and sits in one section. Have scoreboard acknowledge their presence (i.e., “pink-slipped teachers seated in section ___”)

* Work with organization like Ben & Jerry to have them create a labor-union flavored ice cream that can be sold at the rallies and in stores

Approved unanimously by the union’s 800-member State Council, the plan is designed to “force legislature to pass tax extensions” and “educate and convince communities to change tax structure and achieve tax fairness in order to achieve adequate, stable and ongoing funding for public education and essential public services.”

The “State of Emergency” plan – posted for your examination on EIA’s web site – calls for various protest actions over the five-day period:

“The week begins and ends with a group of educators (with others invited to join) taking over the State Capitol.” (emphasis in original)

Each day will have a different focus – from lobbying legislators, to “letters home” to parents, to “Refrain from Shopping Day.” On Friday May 13, regional protests will also be organized throughout the state.

First note that the average annual salary in 2010 for active working educators enrolled in the system was $64,156. The next table states that the average retirement benefit paid out in 2010 was $4,256 per month. That’s $51,072 annually. In other words, the average retired teacher in California made more than the average working teacher in 28 states, according to the salary rankings published by NEA.

The final graph in the report provides the big picture. While the value of the pension system’s assets has increased fairly steadily over the past nine years, the accrued liabilities have grown non-stop during the same period, leaving the fund at 78% of full coverage. What’s more, CalSTRS operated on an assumed annual return of 8 percent. Last year, the pension board lowered that expectation to 7.75 percent, which means projections for the future will show even more of a gap.

Last year, the CalSTRS CEO warned that returns of 20 percent annually would be needed to fund all pensions. Without further increases in revenue or cuts in benefits, the system could be completely broke in 35 years.

The reasons are not hard to understand. NEA has enjoyed substantial membership and revenue growth during the decades-long decline of the labor movement. It is now the largest union in America and by far the largest single political campaign spender in the 50 states.

But after some 27 years of increases, NEA membership is down in 43 states. The union faces a $14 million budget shortfall, and the demand for funds from its Ballot Measure/Legislative Crises Fund is certain to exceed its supply. Even the national UniServ grants, which help pay for NEA state affiliate employees, will be reduced this year.

In the past, NEA has routinely faced challenges to its political agenda, mostly in the form of vouchers, charters and tax limitations. But the state legislative and gubernatorial results in the 2010 mid-term elections emboldened Republicans for the first time to systematically target the sources of NEA’s power, which have little to do with education and everything to do with the provisions of each state’s public sector collective bargaining laws.

Hence the Manichaean battle in Madison. There has been a virtually non-stop expansion of the scope of public sector collective bargaining over the past 35 years. If the tide turns, it may take a lot longer than 35 years to get those privileges back.

“We are at war,” incoming NEA executive director John Stocks told the union’s board of directors last month, outlining a plan to keep NEA from joining the private sector industrial unions in a slow, steady decline into irrelevancy to anyone outside the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee. And like any good war plan for an army under siege, it allows for a defense-in-depth while preparing for a decisive counterattack.

The first line of defense is to stop anti-union legislation at its point of origin. The Wisconsin Education Association Council tried to head off Gov. Walker’s bill with its “bold reforms” campaign. After the bill was introduced, there were massive rallies, sit-ins, and Democratic senators fleeing the state, along with various other parliamentary maneuvers.

The second line of defense is judicial. In Wisconsin, the public sector unions have already stalled the implementation of the collective bargaining bill through court order. But that isn’t the only place. NEA successfully blocked a new law preventing its Alabama affiliate from collecting dues through payroll deduction. Even if these court battles fail, the time consumed will enable NEA to prepare its third line of defense, which is electoral.

Recalls are not out of the question, but it’s more likely that NEA and other public sector unions will seek to ride an increase in activism and a perception of GOP overreach into large victories in 2012. Whatever hostile laws slip through the first two lines will be eliminated by new majorities of union-friendly Democrats.

While arguably weaker than in years past, NEA is still a political powerhouse, and will not be content with lying against the ropes, being pummeled by Republicans. Union officers are smart enough to recognize that the best use of its resources is in the states, rather than in Congress and the White House. Rommel once observed that “the battle is fought and decided by the quartermasters before the shooting begins.” NEA will see to it that its state affiliates are supplied with all the ammunition they need.

Despite its budget shortfall and freeze on executive pay, the national union is flush with cash, and aims to double the size of its political war chest. The bulk of this money will go to the state affiliates, though the national union will have a larger hand in how it is disbursed.

We can expect the state affiliates to spend most of it opposing unfriendly bills and initiatives, but with more money available, there will still be plenty left to fund measures like the proposed capital gains and income tax hikes in Massachusetts.

The need to modify the budget to accommodate reduced revenue actually works in NEA’s favor in a crisis. Just as with government budgets, reductions in NEA budgets tend to cause squawking from the recipients of those funds. In today’s atmosphere, the union will be able to reallocate money to its foremost priorities with little pushback from internal constituencies.

NEA’s growth in membership and political influence over the years has been accompanied more recently by increasingly bad press. In response, the union will be “building a new external narrative about NEA as dedicated to improvement of the profession, student success and social justice.”

Historically, NEA has been slow to embrace new technologies, but the new external narrative requires prominence on the Internet and social media. The NEA message will naturally appear in all its publications – electronic and otherwise – but with a need for rapid response there will be emphasis on the union’s Education Votes web page and its associated Facebook and Twitter outlets. We will also see a greater presence by NEA’s officers in the blogosphere.

Accompanying NEA’s PR strategy will be new research on pensions, tenure and teacher evaluations, collective bargaining and, of course, funding.

Finally, NEA recognizes that its success or failure relies on feelings of solidarity from AFT, private sector unions, and parents. It will downplay differences on side issues in order to gain support on its priorities.

Whether NEA can do all – or any – of these things is an open question. My own judgment is that the union is better as an immovable object than an irresistible force. It is much more likely to successfully stymie its opponents’ initiatives than it is to successfully prosecute its own course of action.

Ultimately, the Republican governors, lawmakers and activists have their work cut out for them. They will be met with defiance, roadblocks, stalling, foot-dragging and subterfuge for as long as these proposals work their way through the legislative process and long after they become law. In the end, NEA may help elect friendly politicians who will restore their lost powers and revenues.

But the same tactics that may gain such victories will negatively affect the union’s public image. Win or lose, NEA’s actions will “build an external narrative” that no PR strategy can alter. The outcome of NEA’s war is still very much in doubt, but that battle has already been decided.

Ronald Reagan was the last president we had who didn’t graduate from an Ivy League school like Harvard or Yale, and the highest levels of government for much of the nation’s history have been filled with Ivy League grads. But that doesn’t seem to influence the thinking of most American Adults.

In fact, only three percent (3%) say individuals who go to Ivy League schools are better workers than those who go to other schools.

Joyner’s first beef with this analysis is that there is very little correlation between the perceived qualifications to be the Commander in Chief and what sets one up to be a “good worker,” and that’s a fair complaint. But he also delves a bit deeper into the general value of a college education for job seekers. In particular he responds to the survey’s findings that, “an overwhelming majority of Americans (81%) said that people learn more practical skills through life experiences and work after college rather than in college.”

I’ve got a PhD and could have told you that before starting grad school. College is only tangentially about teaching practical skills; it’s about preparing the mind for a life of learning.

Whether it’s a cultural backlash against a presumed “intellectual elite” run amok or a response to economic conditions, perceptions of the university system have clearly shifted. A good part of that likely comes more from the latter (fiscal worries) than the former. Last year the average debt carried by college grads rose to $24,000, with many of them still facing a brutal employment market which found too many of them flipping burgers rather than working in their chosen field of study. Alarm bells were being sounded several years ago over the fact that tuition costs had doubled over the last decade while wages had remained stagnant.

And it’s important to note that the average costs and debt cited include far, far more people who went to lower cost state and local colleges. The ones laying out higher prices for big ticket degrees frequently found themselves in even more daunting circumstances.

Many in the next generation of workers will be so debt-burdened that they will have to delay home purchases, limit vacations, even eat out less to pay loans off on time.

Kristin Cole, 30, who graduated from Michigan State University’s law school and lives in Grand Rapids, Mich., owes $150,000 in private and government-backed student loans. Her monthly payment of $660, which consumes a quarter of her take-home pay, is scheduled to jump to $800 in a year or so, confronting her with stark financial choices.

“I could never buy a house. I can’t travel. I can’t do anything,” she said. “I feel like a prisoner.“

The reality is that things have changed drastically since the “happy days” when people with a high school education felt they might still rise up through the ranks from starting in the mail room to become the president of the company. Employers want a college degree for most high paying positions before they’ll even let you in the door for an interview. But are those the only routes available during such challenging economic times?

Anecdotally, I’m seeing a lot more young people today staying in the local area for two years in a community college and then finishing up with two more in a state school where prices for residents can be kept down. Further, increasing numbers of financially strapped families are seeing their kids exploring the option of the military in order to get a free or vastly cheaper education upon completion of a tour of duty. Others are also skipping the college life and heading into technical schools after completing high school.

This brings us back to the disappointing fact that there are virtually no high schools left in America which include shop classes as part of the curriculum, preparing students for work in the trades. It’s apparently a near criminal act to suggest that some students may not want to get a degree, but choose rather to get a job after high school, holding open the option of pursuing a sheepskin later on through continuing adult education in the evenings.

And that’s kind of sad. Given the staggering unemployment rates facing the workforce, every possible option should probably be on the table. I personally know one young man in my town who went into an apprentice program for HVAC after high school. A few years later he not only has no lingering college debt hanging over his head, but is making enough money that he’s looking at buying his first home already at the age of 25. (In a rather ironic twist, some of his former classmates with BA degrees are coming back and asking him about job opportunities.)

Don’t come away from this with the impression that I’m saying college is useless. It’s not. But given the spiraling costs involved and the challenges facing American families, it may not be the only path for parents and students to explore come graduation time. No, you’re not going to walk into a seven figure job on Wall Street without getting that high priced, top end diploma, but how many people will realistically do that each year? It’s akin to being pretty good at basketball and pinning all your plans on making it to the NBA draft. Good work if you can get it, but real world skills and a solid work ethic are still important and will serve some people better than a string of letters after your name from “the right school.”