SCHOOLS: Stand up to the union

The teachers' union is attempting to control our local Coeur d'Alene School Board. The candidates were sent a letter by the local teachers' union, the Coeur d'Alene Education Association, asking them to be interviewed.

The union's April 11 letter to the candidates stated, "Candidates who earn a recommendation may receive critical organizational and financial support, and have access to a network of members willing to volunteer time and expertise to assist with campaign activity."

A written questionnaire included questions such as "What should be the relationship between the District Administration and the Coeur d'Alene Education Association?" and "What is your position on using student performance in teacher evaluation and pay for performance?"

The unions also conducted the survey last election cycle, and I suspect this has been going on for years. The NEA distributes a handbook to instruct the local unions on how to seek out, coach, support and finance school board candidates friendly to their agenda. It is an extremely effective campaign guide used across the nation by teachers' unions.

This influence may explain why their Collective Bargaining Agreement gives the local teachers' union a role in performance evaluations of school principals, and why our tax dollars pay for the union president's cell phone. It may explain the two days per school week, the union president is allowed to be absent from the classroom for union business and receives full pay for 38 of those days. Of course, substitute teachers also have to be paid to cover for the union boss' absences, and the kids' education suffers as a result. It may also explain the continuation of a failed school curriculum if it is favored by influential union members interested in ideology over quality.

I now may understand why both the Coeur d'Alene School Board Trustees and the union bosses express a close and friendly relationship with each other. It seems that the union may have been negotiating with its own hand-picked school board members. This may explain the present board's disregard of public input and solicitude for union input.

Therefore I plan on voting for the candidates who refuse money, community organizing and endorsements from the teachers' union.

Please note that I am a retired teacher and former union member concerned about who controls our schools and our tax dollars.

ANN SEDDON

Coeur d'Alene