Public Education Research, Analysis and Investigations

July 27, 2009

Indiana AFT Affiliate to End No-Raid Agreement with ISTA. Sources within both teachers' unions inform EIA that the Indiana Federation of Teachers (IFT is a branch of the AFT American Federation of Teachers) will opt out of the no-raid agreement it currently has with the NEA-affiliated Indiana State Teachers Association. The decision removes impediments to persuading current ISTA members and locals to switch unions and join IFT. ISTA has a host of financial problems and is under an NEA trusteeship. (read all state monies go to the national's coffers) IFT is only about one-tenth the size of ISTA, but could make a significant dent in the wake of the larger union's $40 dues increase coupled with staff layoffs and consolidation of regional offices. (CTA is about to do the same to us) Under normal circumstances, any battle would be strictly a Hoosier State affair. NEA and AFT have a national no-raid agreement, preventing either from lending assistance to the combatants. However, with an NEA trustee handling all of ISTA's finances, it's hard to see how the national unions can avoid knocking heads over the issue. A further complicating factor is the presence of the long-established Indiana Professional Educators, a non-union teachers' association. Outside of the NEA board of directors rubber-stamping the trusteeship during its meeting in San Diego prior to the opening of the representative assembly, the Indiana situation was not discussed on the convention floor, nor was it discussed in the state caucuses, if the delegates I spoke to are any indication. In the coming year, they may wish they had been let in on the secret. NEA and Private School Educators. At the 2008 NEA Representative Assembly, delegates approved New Business Item 79, which directed the union to "study the potential impact of opening Active membership to private school educators." A special committee examined the issue and presented its findings to the 2009 RA delegates.The report deals mostly with internal issues and contains no recommendations for a policy change, but it does have a couple of interesting paragraphs worth passing along: * "Although the size of the K-12 private school employee workforce is at the present time relatively small, that may not be the case in the future. Because of advances in technology, alternative financing arrangements, and other innovations, the way in which the nation's children are being educated is changing, and the line between the public sector and the private sector is becoming increasingly blurred. The emergence of 'virtual' elementary/secondary schools in some states, and the nationwide push for more charter schools (which the United State Department of Labor has asserted – incorrectly, we believe – are private sector entities for purposes of the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act), are illustrative. Allowing K-12 private school employees to become NEA Active members would provide the flexibility necessary for NEA to deal with the foregoing situations and other situations that cannot now be fully anticipated." * "A desire to avoid LMRDA coverage is at least one of the reasons why some forty state affiliates do not at the present time seek to organize and represent any private sector education employees – even those who currently are eligible for NEA Active membership." * A Dose of Reality. Chances are you won't be seeing a list like this in the future.