The in box: How the dues are being used in Massachusetts.

Fred,

I know you follow other states and their Associations. Here’s some from Massachusetts, where things may sound familiar.

About a month ago there was an “All Presidents” meeting for local Prezzes to meet with MTA elected leaders, by vote of the Annual Meeting of Delegates. The elected state leaders hate these meetings, because Presidents do things like talk to other Presidents. I know because I was one of those Presidents for fifteen years, which is why we needed an NBI to have such a meeting.

The meeting was pretty well attended, but lots of “other folks” also showed up: Board of Directors people, in-district lobbying people, hangers-on and apparatchiks. You know the type. At the beginning, the Presidents asked to amend the agenda to allow them to actually speak, and hear from other Presidents. This was not allowed to happen.

The discussion was over the evaluation system from “NEA”, which you may have seen, entitled “Transforming Teaching” (apparently because the title “Sleeping With the Enemy” had already been used by a movie), and MTA’s “model language” which the MTA leadership had settled on in discussion with the state education officials and “other interested parties”.

About a week later an email came to superintendents of district schools from their leader, Tom Scott of Mass. School Superintendents’ Association (“massa”…no kidding). We know this because any number of those local Presidents had the email waved in their faces by their Superintendents. Scott said, “It is worth noting that in a conversation with Paul Toner, MTA (Mass. Teachers Association, our union) President, he indicated meeting over the weekend with 185 of the MTA local Presidents. He asserts that their conversation supported the use of the model CBA. There was significant sentiment from MTA members that they would prefer to adopt the model in most cases.”

“Their conversation?” They weren’t allowed to speak. Toner knows what the members want, you see. By osmosis. He certainly didn’t want to muddy the waters by actually asking people what they think. Full disclosure: I ran against him two years ago for MTA President on a platform of “listening to the members”.

When one local President confronted Toner, he denied the statement and said he’d get a “corrected email” sent out from Tom Scott. None has arrived. None will. I’d bet my house he DID say what the email says. Superintendents all over the state are now telling local bargaining teams that “your MTA” approves of that evaluation language. That feeling of having your knees removed is happening to locals all across the state.

-Paul Phillips