<HTML><HEAD></HEAD>
<BODY dir=ltr>
<DIV dir=ltr>
<DIV style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">
<DIV>Great job, Nick. I know that both the IEA and NEA have lost members
over the past year, three reasons being given: </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>1. Teacher union members are leaving the profession and often teacher
non-union members are hired to replace them. Oftentimes newly graduated
teachers don’t make the decision to join the union in right-to-work states
(Idaho) until a year or two into their teaching, when they come to realize
joining is a wise move. Idaho teachers are making less now than they did
two years ago, as salaries were frozen both vertically and horizontally on
salary schedules throughout the state and the state monies sent to districts for
salaries have diminished about 19%. Some teachers have decided to save
money by dropping their union membership. While I think it’s a foolish
move in light of the need for Idaho teachers to stand together, some just feel
it’s their least harmful option. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>2. Tom Luna has been pushing alternative teacher certification and
districts are now using those teachers as replacements for teachers who are
retiring or leaving the profession or the state. As a group, these teachers tend
to be older, have money coming from another source such as retirement from
another career, and don’t tend to be as collaborative as those who come through
teacher education programs. (There are studies to support this
statement.) Certainly many of them will become fine teachers, but instead
of learning about how to teach in college classrooms, they learn to teach as
they teach. They are supposed to have mentor teachers working along-side
them, but as burdened as teachers are today, that mentoring often gets short
shrift. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>3. And because it’s such a stressful profession more teachers are
tending to leave the classroom for other careers (which may be as stressful, but
have better pay.) The paperwork when one has special education students,
504 students, the self-evaluation plans, documentation required for No Child
Left Behind, are really important, but so very time-consuming. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>4. There have been fair-share agreements in some Idaho school
districts, where non-union members were required to pay fees to the union to
cover bargaining costs, but I’m not sure about their status at this
time. Certainly the loss of fair-share will increase the number of
non-members. Teachers who don’t understand the critical need for
professional unions aren’t going to pay for services they can get for
free. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Sue </DIV>
<DIV
style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none">
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt tahoma">
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV style="BACKGROUND: #f5f5f5">
<DIV style="font-color: black"><B>From:</B> <A title=ngier006@gmail.com
href="mailto:ngier006@gmail.com">Nicholas Gier</A> </DIV>
<DIV><B>Sent:</B> Wednesday, October 03, 2012 1:11 PM</DIV>
<DIV><B>To:</B> <A title=vision2020@moscow.com
href="mailto:vision2020@moscow.com">vision2020</A> </DIV>
<DIV><B>Subject:</B> [Vision2020] Demonizing Teachers and Their Elected
Leaders</DIV></DIV></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV></DIV>
<DIV
style="FONT-STYLE: normal; DISPLAY: inline; FONT-FAMILY: 'Calibri'; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: small; FONT-WEIGHT: normal; TEXT-DECORATION: none">Dear
Visionaries,
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>As promised my radio commentary/column is on the Luna bills and
Vandersloot's vicious attack ads. Next week's radio address will cover the
Luna bills in detail, but everything is not included in the full version
attached.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>I conclude my column with the observation that the Idaho Federation of
Teachers proposed a Master Teacher plan 30 years before Tom Luna did, but the
SBOE did not even give us the courtesy of a response.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Sue: I asked Penni if the IEA was going to respond to the loss of
membership in the NEA. In my long version I speculated about one reason:
restrictions in some GOP states on "fair-share" agreements. I know that
public employee unions have lost thousands of members in Wisconsin because
non-union employees no longer had to pay for the costs of collective bargaining,
usually about 90 percent of unions dues determined by a judge or labor
board. This is a widely accepted (at least in progressive states) option
to the union shop in the private sector.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>This column will be adapted as an add that will run in Idaho major
newspapers after I get a legal opinion about using union dues in this
fashion. Seems to be a "Go" after Citizens United, right?</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Yours for teacher solidarity.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>Nick</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>
<P style="TEXT-ALIGN: center" class=MsoNormal align=center><B><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: georgia,serif">DEMONIZING TEACHERS AND
THEIR ELECTED LEADERS</SPAN></B></P>
<P
style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; MARGIN: 3.95pt 0in 12pt; VERTICAL-ALIGN: baseline"
align=center><SPAN style="FONT-FAMILY: georgia,serif">By Nick Gier, President,
Idaho Federation of Teachers, AFT/AFL-CIO</SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: georgia,serif">
A full page ad entitled “Unions Declare War on Idaho Kids!” has appeared in many
Idaho newspapers. It was paid for by right-wing agitator Frank L.
Vandersloot, Dutch for “from the ditch,” which describes the nature of ad quite
accurately. </SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: georgia,serif"><BR></SPAN></P>
<P style="TEXT-INDENT: 0.5in" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: georgia,serif">Vandersloot charges that
teacher unions “fought Governor Scott Walker’s educational reforms in Wisconsin.
The kids won. The unions lost.” This conclusion is a tad premature. </SPAN></P>
<P style="TEXT-INDENT: 0.5in" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: georgia,serif"><BR></SPAN></P>
<P style="TEXT-INDENT: 0.5in" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
class=apple-converted-space><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; BACKGROUND-COLOR: white; FONT-FAMILY: georgia,serif">On
March 30 U.S. District Judge William Conley ruled against a provision of
Walker’s bill that required, just as Idaho now does for teachers, that public
employee unions hold bargaining elections every year. This is a burden
that no democratic system has ever imposed.</SPAN></SPAN></P>
<P style="TEXT-INDENT: 0.5in" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
class=apple-converted-space><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; BACKGROUND-COLOR: white; FONT-FAMILY: georgia,serif"><BR></SPAN></SPAN></P>
<P style="TEXT-INDENT: 0.5in" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
class=apple-converted-space><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; BACKGROUND-COLOR: white; FONT-FAMILY: georgia,serif">Then
on September 14 Dean County Judge Juan Colas ruled that Walker’s bill deprives
public employees of their “rights of free speech, association, and equal
protection.” </SPAN></SPAN></P>
<P style="TEXT-INDENT: 0.5in" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
class=apple-converted-space><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; BACKGROUND-COLOR: white; FONT-FAMILY: georgia,serif"><BR></SPAN></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN class=apple-converted-space><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; BACKGROUND-COLOR: white; FONT-FAMILY: georgia,serif">
Vandersloot wants us to believe that teachers have finally realized they have
been duped by union “bosses” in Washington, D.C. A survey K-12 teachers
done by the think-tank Education Sector</SPAN></SPAN><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; BACKGROUND-COLOR: white; FONT-FAMILY: georgia,serif">
found that 81% believed that they “would be vulnerable to school politics or
administrators who abuse their power” without union contracts.</SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; BACKGROUND-COLOR: white; FONT-FAMILY: georgia,serif">
</SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; BACKGROUND-COLOR: white; FONT-FAMILY: georgia,serif">
In a recent appearance in New York City Mitt Romney brushed off a comment by a
parent and school board member, who reported that parents supported the union by
3-1 over Mayor Michael Bloomberg. In Chicago thousands of parents marched
with 50,000 union members in support of the Chicago Federation of
Teachers.</SPAN><SPAN style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: georgia,serif">
</SPAN></P>
<P style="TEXT-INDENT: 0.5in" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: georgia,serif"><BR></SPAN></P>
<P style="TEXT-INDENT: 0.5in" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: georgia,serif">A McKeon & Associates
poll of registered Chicago voters showed that 47 percent supported the strike
while 39 percent opposed. Only 19 percent said Mayor Rahm Emanuel, Obama’s
former Chief of Staff, said that he was doing an above average job addressing
the teachers’ issues. </SPAN></P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; TEXT-INDENT: 0.5in" class=MsoBodyText2
align=left><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: georgia,serif">Vandersloot and his ilk
spit out “union bosses” as if they were dictators with devious control over
millions of teachers and school boards. Labor unions, however, are some of the
most democratic organizations in the nation. All unions gain their right to
represent workers by a majority vote of the bargaining unit. </SPAN></P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; TEXT-INDENT: 0.5in" class=MsoBodyText2
align=left><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; TEXT-INDENT: 0.5in; FONT-FAMILY: georgia,serif">Instead
of dictates from D.C., union members also decide for themselves whether to
withhold their services.</SPAN><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; TEXT-INDENT: 0.5in; FONT-FAMILY: georgia,serif">
</SPAN><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; TEXT-INDENT: 0.5in; FONT-FAMILY: georgia,serif">Over
the years they have held fewer and fewer strikes. </SPAN><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; TEXT-INDENT: 0.5in; FONT-FAMILY: georgia,serif"> </SPAN><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; TEXT-INDENT: 0.5in; FONT-FAMILY: georgia,serif">The
number of work stoppages in the nation’s 16,000 school districts fell from 271
in 1975 to 15 in 2004.</SPAN><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; TEXT-INDENT: 0.5in; FONT-FAMILY: georgia,serif"> </SPAN></P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; TEXT-INDENT: 0.5in; BACKGROUND: white"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: georgia,serif">The National Education Association (2.2
million members), the American Federation of Teachers (1.5 million members), and
millions of parents are not happy with Obama’s continuation of Bush Era
policies, which place far too much emphasis on test scores and pit states
and schools districts against one another. </SPAN></P>
<P style="TEXT-INDENT: 0.5in" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: georgia,serif">The Washington (D.C.)
Teachers’ Union (AFT) has now succeeded in reducing the percentage that test
scores count in teacher evaluation from 50 to 35 percent. The NEA-AFT union in
Los Angeles has convinced its board that test scores will no longer be used in
teacher evaluation. In stark contrast Idaho law now requires that lump sum merit
pay appropriations be sent to school districts solely on the basis of test score
improvement.</SPAN></P>
<P style="TEXT-INDENT: 0.5in" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: georgia,serif"><BR></SPAN></P>
<P style="TEXT-INDENT: 0.5in" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: georgia,serif">In 1983 the National
Commission on Excellence in Education issued a report entitled “A Nation at
Risk.” As the new president of the Idaho Federation of Teachers, I went on a
state-wide speaking tour and committed my union to education reform. </SPAN></P>
<P style="TEXT-INDENT: 0.5in" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: georgia,serif"><BR></SPAN></P>
<P style="TEXT-INDENT: 0.5in" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: georgia,serif">The IFT offered a Master
Teachers Plan in response to the report’s call for merit pay. Master Teachers
would be responsible for curriculum development and mentoring new teachers and
would receive substantial salary increments for that work. The State Board
of Education failed to respond to our plan, even though we introduced the
concept of Master Teacher 30 years before Superintendant Tom Luna
did.</SPAN></P>
<P
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; TEXT-INDENT: 0.5in; MARGIN: 3.95pt 0in 12pt; VERTICAL-ALIGN: baseline"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: georgia,serif">I urge voters to ignore these vicious
attacks on teachers and repeal the Luna Laws by voting “No” on Propositions 1,
2, and 3.</SPAN></P>
<P
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; TEXT-INDENT: 0.5in; MARGIN: 3.95pt 0in 12pt; VERTICAL-ALIGN: baseline"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: georgia,serif">Nick Gier is President of the Idaho
Federation of Teachers, AFT/AFL-CIO.</SPAN></P>
<P style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; TEXT-INDENT: 0.5in; BACKGROUND: white"><SPAN
style="FONT-FAMILY: georgia,serif"></SPAN> </P>
<P style="TEXT-INDENT: 0.5in" class=MsoNormal><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: georgia,serif; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"></SPAN> </P></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<P>
<HR>
=======================================================<BR>List services made
available by First Step Internet,<BR>serving the communities of the Palouse
since
1994.<BR>
http://www.fsr.net<BR>
mailto:Vision2020@moscow.com<BR>=======================================================</DIV></DIV></DIV></BODY></HTML>