NEW YORK STATE NYSUT flexes political muscle Union gets most of what it wanted in state budget BY MICHAEL GOOT Gazette Reporter
The New York State United Teachers, one of the state’s most powerful unions, got almost everything it wanted in this year’s budget. The union, with more than a half-million members, was able to defeat proposals to reduce the amount of foundation aid to local school districts, cut BOCES aid, and won passage of a measure prohibiting school districts from denying tenure to a teacher based on student test results. NYSUT aggressively pursues its agenda in Albany. Since 2007, it spent more than $2.1 million on lobbying, including more than $500,000 on 12 full- and part-time lobbyists, and more than $700,000 in campaign contributions. That was enough to rank NYSUT as the top spender in 2007-08 of all lobbying groups in the state, according to the New York Temporary State Commission on Lobbying. Two other education advocacy groups — United University Professions, a labor union representing 34,000 public college and university employees, and the United Federation of Teachers, another lobbying group — ranked second and third on the list, respectively. Susan Lerner, executive director of Common Cause/NY — a nonpartisan organization that advocates for clean elections and ethical standards for elected officials — said it’s not unusual for teachers’ unions to be active players in the political scene. “There are people that would argue, ‘they’re in [government] pitching for the kids’ and there are other people who would argue that ‘they’re in there pitching for their members,’ ” she said. Lerner believes there is too much of a “pay to play” atmosphere in state government, where money yields favors and influence. But that’s true of both business and labor, and of both political parties, she said. Common Cause advocates for public funding of campaigns and restrictions on campaign contributions made by lobbyists during the legislative season. Terry Weiner, professor of political science at Union College and a Niskayuna School Board member, said one of the reasons why the union has such influence it that has so many members and they are distributed in each county in the state. “They constitute a political force that has to be reckoned with and that has an enormous impact on state politics,” he said. Weiner said the union’s influence has grown dramatically since the 1950s and 1960s when it sought to improve wages for teachers relative to New York professionals. Instead of just focusing on working conditions, however, the union has taken the lead in other educational policy initiatives such as reducing class size and raising standards. NYSUT President Dick Iannuzzi defended the number of lobbyists on the payroll. “We have a really solid core of probably a thousand local leaders, who know how to pick up the phone and [stay] in touch with our legislators and [let] them know what is important,” he said. He noted that the more than $6 million raised for lobbying all came from voluntary contributions from members, not from union dues. The union was not able to accomplish all of its goals in this budget session; higher education funding is less than last year’s level, which Iannuzzi said was “totally unacceptable.” Some critics have accused the union of being an obstacle to education reform initiatives, such as merit pay for teachers. Iannuzzi said the union is not totally opposed to some form of performance pay, but he is not sure what criteria people would use to decide that some teachers are meritorious. Also, the union opposes use of test scores to determine tenure or merit pay. “There is no connection between a student performance exam and what you would be looking for to define a quality teacher,” he said. “It’s simply not a instrument that was designed to evaluate a teacher’s performance. It’s like using a vehicle emissions test to decide whether or not the brakes work on a car.” Contrary to being an obstacle of change, Iannuzzi said the union has probably been more of an agent of reform than anyone else. “I would point to all of the work that NYSUT has done itself on addressing the achievement gap,” he said. The union has invested massive amounts of time, energy and resources into this initiative to help raise the education level of students in low-income areas to match those of wealthier communities, Iannuzzi said. In the fall, the union held a conference on the topic as part of its effort. “Very often the simplistic response, especially from the School Boards Association, is that the union is in the way, and that response is generally their way of rolling up their sleeves and coming to the table to work collaboratively to make things happen,” he said. David Albert, spokesman for the New York State School Boards Association, said most of the time NYSUT and his organization are on the same side of the issues. “We’re both looking to improve instruction, get higher graduation rates, advance public education in general,” he said. Both also oppose tax caps. One issue where they disagree is teacher tenure. The School Boards Association believes that the local school boards should have discretion in deciding who gets tenure and be able to take into account factors like whether the teachers are involved with extracurricular activities after school or provide mentoring. The School Boards Association believes the “one size fi ts all approach” of having the Board of Regents establish a statewide criteria for tenure will not work. The association also wants schools to be able to use student test scores as a criteria. “We don’t think that testing should be the sole criteria for granting tenure, but we think that school boards ought to have the ability to use that as one of the criteria,” he said. Kajal Lahira, distinguished professor of economics at the University at Albany, said tenure is an important issue. Since teacher salaries are relatively low, minimizing the risk that teachers would be let go is important. Lahira said the union has worked aggressively to restrict efforts to impose tax caps. “It hurts schools since the school’s major expenses is teacher salary,” he said.
Carl Strock THE VIEW FROM HERE Carl Strock can be reached at 395-3085 or by e-mail at carlstrock@dailygazette.com. Legislature obedient to unions, again
Let’s see what our state legislators accomplished in their flurry of budget bills last week, besides what you have already read about. One thing is, they made it virtually impossible for non-union contractors to work on public construction jobs of any size or consequence. From now on, if your town or city or school district wants to build a new gymnasium or salt garage the work will have to be done by trade unions. That was accomplished under the guise of reforming the muchdisliked Wicks Law, which requires separate contracts for each distinct part of major construction jobs and which local governments and school districts say drives up costs. The Legislature increased the dollar amount at which those requirements kick in and made a big deal about it, touting it as a great reform, but said nothing about the meat of the matter, which is that local governments, state agencies, authorities and school districts will now be able to get out from under the Wicks requirements altogether simply by signing a “project labor agreement,” guaranteeing all work to the trade unions. For backup, the new legislation also requires that contractors have apprentice-training programs of at least three years’ standing, following the union model, and that they have a history of “harmonious labor relations,” which are two additional ways to lock out non-union workers. The apprentice requirement is especially cute, given that Gov. Spitzer, at the behest of the unions, last year suspended recognition of any new apprentice programs, meaning that you’ve got to have one, but you can’t get one. It was a complete giveaway to the trade unions at the expense of the 74 percent of the construction workforce that is not unionized in New York state and will almost certainly drive up building costs simply by limiting competition. And of course it comes to you courtesy of legislators who swear up and down they want nothing more than to put a lid on your property taxes. With only 26 percent of the construction workforce in New York state unionized, you can see the power of organization. The 26 percent is capable of wagging the Legislature; the 74 percent is left out in the cold, wondering why they cannot work on big government construction projects. We pay taxes like everyone else, they say. But too bad for them. Another thing our legislators accomplished is, they again locked in existing health benefits for retired teachers and thereby made it impossible for your local school district to save money in that department. They do it every year — they pass a bill extending this immensely expensive guarantee. Under their law, school districts are “prohibited from diminishing the health insurance benefi ts provided to retirees” unless they diminish the benefits for active employees equally, meaning it will never happen, since no union is going to agree to any loss of benefits for its active members. And since health insurance is a major cost for any school district, and lifelong insurance for retirees is a large component of that cost, you can see that this legislation effectively ties the hands of your local school board if it ever endeavors to save money. Why does the state Legislature do this? What business is it of the state’s what kind of insurance your local retired teachers get? Why don’t they simply leave it to local school boards to negotiate as they see fi t? I hope you are not so innocent that you really need an answer to that question. It’s because NYSUT (New York State United Teachers) spends $2.8 million lobbying and contributing to the legislators’ reelection campaigns, that’s why. If NYSUT wanted a bill to guarantee its members a lifetime supply of chocolate mousse, the Legislature would pass that too, and they would pass it unanimously, without debate, just as they pass everything the unions hand them. Your local assemblymen and senators can send out all the mailers they want about how they’re fighting to cap your property taxes, but when it comes to legislation that actually affects your property taxes, like these two pieces of legislation here discussed, they are united against you, every time. The health insurance bill, by the way, was sponsored by Sen. Hugh Farley of Niskayuna, and it passed unanimously. Think about it. “These mysterious root causes of high, school expenditures — here’s one laying right out in plain sight, and it passed without debate,” said E.J. McMahan, of the Empire Center, a conservative-leaning study group, who tells me copycat bills are in the works guaranteeing similar protections for retired members of other public-employee unions, and those bills are likely to pass, too. Of course, they will pass. Whenever one group of government employees gets a goody, all the others want the same goody and feel they are persecuted if they don’t get it. The Legislature does not hold hearings on these matters, does not debate them, does not advertise them. It whisks them through by acclamation, often buried in so-called language bills, and the press, I’m sorry to say, pays little attention. If it does pay attention, it simply parrots official propaganda and calls a bill “Wicks reform,” for example. That is why it’s in your continuing interest to read this column — so you will get the genuine skinny. As a further benefit, you may post a comment on my blog, “Strock Freestyle,” at dailygazette.com, at no charge, and I challenge you to find a better deal than that.
Re June 21 letter by Mr. Donald Erdman [“Teachers’ pensions already fat enough”] criticizing teachers’ pensions: Sir, I would suggest that you and I (I’m a retired teacher) have much more that unites than divides us. You contributed to your pension fund when you were in-service. So did I. Your employer contributed a portion of your salary to that pension fund. So did mine. And like you, my benefit and the contribution my employer made (less than 2 percent) on my behalf, was obtained as the result of negotiations during which we gave up other benefits. My pension monies went into a secured pension fund currently invested at 104 percent, so none of your money is being used to support my pension, only the agreements your representatives have negotiated with your current school district employees. I wonder if your pension is so secured or is a pay-asyou-go fund. In either event, the price I pay for the product your company produces carries a cost, part of which pays for your pension, just as the price of the teacher product, your schools, carries a cost which you pay for in taxes. I might add that I pay taxes also, and I, too, wish they could be less. The basic fact, however, is that both of us obtained our pensions through negotiations, fairly conducted with our respective employers. In my case, thousands of my fellow educational retirees live on pensions of $15,000 a year, many less than $10,000 a year because of the “fixed income” problem all retirees face and to which you referred. Perhaps this is true for your colleagues as well. So, Mr. Erdman, I would suggest that we have much in common and, as a consequence, should be working together to advance some common goals. First, we need to be cautious about the misinformation put forth by unscrupulous columnists. Second, in a time of ever-increasing efforts by employers to reduce costs, we must support each other’s efforts to preserve and protect our benefits. And finally, we must work together to add “cost-of-living” adjustments to all our promised pensions, and to ensure each of the retirees who built our schools and our businesses, a retirement lived in dignity. WILLIAM SCHULTZ Scotia
Bill, you forgot one thing, the higher the teachers can get their salaries the higher their pension. In the private sector the company and union decide what a fair increase is when it's time for a contract. With the teachers union it comes out of the residents pockets in the form of higher taxes and in this economic climate it's getting harder every year to come up with the already high school taxes.
CAPITOL New teachers rush to lock in better pension benefits BY MICHAEL GORMLEY The Associated Press
Prospective full-time teachers are scrambling to get into the current state pension tier before a reform measure designed to save New York taxpayers billions of dollars takes effect New Year’s Day. The change adopted earlier this month means new hires will receive less generous retirement benefits than teachers vested under the current pension plan — unless they followed the teachers’ union guide to lock into the richer plan. Teachers joining after Jan. 1 will have to pay 3.5 percent of their salary toward their pension for as long as they work. Currently employed teachers pay 3 percent for the fi rst 10 years of service, then pay nothing. As of Tuesday, 3,198 workers had joined the pension system this month under the more generous tier — about three times the number who joined a year ago, according to data from the state Teachers Retirement System. “It’s astounding,” said E.J. McMahon, director of the Empire Center for New York State Policy, part of the fiscally conservative Manhattan Institute. “Those teachers will all cost 30 percent more than they would have.” He said the extra costs for the state and local school districts will amount to millions of dollars, but the actual expense will depend on a variety of factors, including the performance of pension fund investments. The new tier was created to reduce taxpayers’ cost of public employee pensions, which have been getting more expensive each year. ........................>>>>...............>>>>.................http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....r01401&AppName=1
Finally the legislators education is kicking in........WTF took so long.....their teachers should be ashamed of them that it took that long to use their math skills and History skills and economics skills......
If P then Q
............................GET OFF MY BACK...............................
...you are a product of your environment, your environment is a product of your priorities, your priorities are a product of you......
The replacement of morality and conscience with law produces a deadly paradox.
STOP BEING GOOD DEMOCRATS---STOP BEING GOOD REPUBLICANS--START BEING GOOD AMERICANS
CAPITOL Paterson faces formidable foes Governor tangles with teachers' union on 2 fronts BY MICHAEL GORMLEY The Associated Press Michael Gormley is the Capitol editor for The Associated Press. He can be reached by e-mail at mgormley(at)ap.org.
Gov. David Paterson is heading into the new year taking on Albany’s most powerful special interest on two fronts that will test the influence of the teachers’ union and put $700 million in federal funding on the line. Paterson is fighting a lawsuit and biting rhetoric from the New York State United Teachers union, two school administrators’ groups and the state School Boards Association. They sued to keep the state from delaying 10 percent of aid payments due in December that Paterson had ordered as part of wide-ranging cost-control measures to keep the state out of fiscal crisis. “It’s almost like children who start screaming and pulling the covers over their head to make the monsters go away,” Paterson told The Associated Press. “Well, they can scream all they want and pull the wool over their eyes, but the public sees the monsters of the lack of cash and the monsters of unavailability of credit are here, and someone is going to have to be the adult force that comes into the room and gets rid of the monsters,” he said. “And the only way to do that is to practice a new culture of governance called discipline financing.” Few governors have taken on the teachers’ union and its labor allies and none can say they won. The New York State United Teachers union, with more than 600,000 members, has emerged as Albany’s most powerful lobbying force and one of the biggest campaign contributor to lawmakers of both parties. Its ability to get out the vote among its members and to staff telephone banks for and against candidates are major factors, especially in legislative elections. But Paterson, who has struggled with low poll numbers and long ago lost the support of public worker unions, also plans to take on the teachers union by trying to lift the cap on the number of charter schools, which the unions and other school funding advocates oppose, to get a better shot at up to $700 million from the federal “race to the top” program to improve public education. He said the state will need to lift the cap of 100 charter schools in January or likely lose out on the cash. ....................>>>>..................>>>>............http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....r01600&AppName=1
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