Look, It's a Northwest Professional Educators Sighting!

I guess they really do still exist.

Cindy Omlin of the Northwest Professional Educators popped up in the Spokesma-Review this morning with one of the sillier letters she's done over the years. It's worth parsing the whole thing:

Not all teachers agree with the Idaho Education Association’s position on the education reform bills, but you’d never know it. Many teachers are afraid to speak out for fear of harassment.

I've talked with IEA staffers about the very vivid and livid arguments that have gone on involving policy. What Cindy is doing here is accusing teachers of cowardice, which isn't exactly a very good way to push your agenda.

Exclusive bargaining by IEA has transformed schools from the “free marketplace of ideas” to Big Labor’s pulpit and collection basket. Idaho’s students and educators are suffering for it.

Idaho? Big Labor? Jiminy Cricket, Cindy, have you ever even been to Idaho? Taking brickbats to the IEA, which has done they best they can in a deep red right to work state, is similar using a flamethrower to get a haircut. It's what people like Cindy do to raise money--pretend there's a monster in the closet. Be afraid!

Often, union representatives intimidate teachers to join. If they don’t, they make nonjoiners out to be selfish freeloaders. They tell them their views are harmful, offensive and anti-education. They denigrate nonunion teachers in fliers, articles and emails. They prevent nonunion teachers from communicating in school mailboxes, on bulletin boards and in school meetings about their professional association. They threaten administrators who might inform nonunion teachers of their rights and options for professional support. This unchecked bullying by teacher union representatives has solidified the NEA’s monopolistic control over public education.

Shorter: "It's bad that the selfish, arrogant, child-hating union says things I don't like. Why won't those jerks stop with the namecalling?"

The fact that Cindy uses Idaho to make her case is especially funny. Tom Luna, blatant political hack who got the Superintendents job despite never having done jack-all in education, thinks that trading teachers for laptops is perfectly sound educational policy. It's a paradise where being 50th in the nation in per-pupil funding is still too high; where being 39th in average teacher salary is a sign to go lower; where being dead last in the nation for the number of doctors means that you should slash the funding that would education, well, doctors.

Everything that is wrong about eduation reform can be seen on display in what Cindy is praising Idaho for doing. It's a concentration of power into the hands of a very powerful few who get to be above it all and sneer at those in the trenches who try to make it all work.

Our members have a variety of views on the education bills. I can assure you, however, that not all teachers agree with the teacher union’s point of view as was clearly evident in our member survey.

I see member surveys, too. As president of my local, I get it from all sides on the big issues of the day. This is part of the attack strategy, though--pretend that the teacher's union is a monolith. It's makes the denigration work much better.

Read more here, if any.

There Is No Free Money

Good article in the Spokesman Review today (link to come when I can find one) about Idaho's application for Race to the Top. Money quotes:

The grant application is due Jan. 19, and Idaho's proposal will include a plan to lift the cap on charter schools and pay teachers based on performance. These are both types of education reform Idaho public schools chief Tom Luna supports but has not been able to get approval for in the past.

"Many of the things called for in the grant are things we've been working on for some time," Luna said. "With this money we'll just be able to get it done sooner."

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The union, however, does have concerns about what happens when the grant funding runs out, Wood said, adding that she is skeptical Idaho lawmakers will be willing to pick up the tab for a pay-for-performance plan when that happens.

As a wise man (not Tom Luna) once said, "Duh."

This is one time money. It's going to go away. Any state that pushed through a merit pay plan solely for the purpose of getting this money would be a state run by idiots, because they're going to have to pay every last cent the bill themselves as soon as the RtT cash is used up.

And let's say you use some of this one-time money to pay for the work that needs to be done to make these systemic changes--any money spent is that much less money you have to run the new programs going forward.

In three years, there's going to be a lot of states looking back on 2009 and 2010 and wondering what the hell they were thinking.

Read more here, if any.

Tom Luna Isn’t a Very Good Superintendent of Public Instruction

Ah, Idaho. Where the men are men, the women cook potatoes, and Tom Luna still isn’t worth a damn.

He couldn't get his merit pay plan through a state legislature that should eat that sort of thing up.

His constant haranguing of the Idaho Education Association only helped the teachers union look sympathetic, and made him look like a tool.

The Seattle Times found something nice to say, though: 2nd and 3rd graders in Idaho will learn how to play chess.

Tom Luna: The Pawn Who Got Rooked.

Read more here, if any.