Many have remarked upon the double standard that operates in American education when judging the regular school system versus proposed reforms in it. The school establishment insists that would-be reformers prove in advance that their change will work perfectly with no adverse side effects, while the regular school system gets away, seemingly forever, with working badly and producing much collateral damage. Reform ideas are thus held to a lofty standard, the unchanging system to a far lower one. (Indeed, a strength of the No Child Left Behind act is its requirement that ALL schools make their results public and face the accountability music.)
Recent weeks have brought to light another vivid example of double standards at play in U.S. education. I refer to the Washington Teachers Union scandal. It seems that the former leaders of the huge teachers union local in the nation's capital looted its treasury of some $2 million over a seven-year period. Yet I don't hear the public-school establishment demanding immediate corrective action in the specific case plus broad reforms designed to assure that nothing of the sort can ever happen again anywhere. No such demands are audible. Indeed, the silence on this front is deafening.
Now consider the response we always see when someone messes with the finances of, say, a charter school. This hasn't happened often but, when it has, outrage has rolled across the education landscape like a tsunami. We hear loud calls from teacher unions, school board associations, ed schools, etc. for urgent action to impose new rules and red tape on all charter schools, not just the malefactors. "If we don't rein in this entire category of activity," goes the cry, "great harm will be inflicted on America's children."
Why is the Washington Teachers Union case not similar? Yet in this instance there is no outrage. Sure, the FBI and U.S. Attorney are beavering away. Criminal indictments may follow. But where are the denunciations from America's leading public educators and their agents and political allies? Where is the cry for new protections to be imposed on all teachers and union locals? Why the silence?
You know why. The establishment protects its own. The last thing it wants is any basic rearranging of the ground rules. While it may not condone illegal behavior by individuals, it treats such things as regrettable aberrations in a basically sound set-up, not fundamental flaws in the arrangements themselves. When "outsiders" misbehave, however, the response is no mere wrist slap for the miscreants. It's a full-scale attack on the policy arrangements that let outsiders enter the arena in the first place. But not when the perps are union leaders!
So far as I can tell, the National Education Association - usually so trigger-happy - has been a silent bystander to this episode. So has nearly everyone else. Reported The Washington Post on Sunday: "Those who might have raised red flags did not speak out until the money had vanished: the WTU's parent, the American Federation of Teachers; the union's own three-member board of trustees; its 21-member executive board; its membership; and U.S. Labor Department regulators."
The AFT's internal controls and accountability systems turn out to be staggeringly weak - and yes, that would be the same national union that recently urged a moratorium on charter schools because they're insufficiently accountable and because those who monitor them are too lax. Talk about lax: The AFT ostensibly requires each of its locals to conduct a complete internal financial audit every two years, yet the Washington Teachers Union hadn't done one since 1995. Asked to comment, an AFT spokesman told reporters that the union "would consider tightening its oversight."
To be sure, the national union tipped off the FBI in the first place and secretary-treasurer Edward McElroy claims to be "outraged" by "alleged abuses." But imagine the AFT reaction if, say, a charter school or for-profit EMO went seven years without an audit, even if there were no evidence of malfeasance: the unions would not settle for mere voicing of outrage. They would demand legislative and regulatory redress. They would probably insist that some governmental authority be placed in charge of the auditing function, required to conduct these audits on a regular cycle and obliged to make public their results.
What happened inside the Washington Teachers Union was no momentary lapse. "According to an FBI affidavit," Education Week reports, "there is 'probable cause' to believe that the three officials embezzled money, committed tax, mail, and wire fraud, and laundered money" over a seven year period, even as office phone bills and rent went unpaid. All this within shouting distance of AFT national headquarters.
A forthcoming book by Peter Brimelow estimates U.S. total annual teachers' union dues payments at a staggering $1.25 billion. Yet I don't see anyone urging legislation to ensure that these huge sums are properly looked after, to safeguard teachers from the misdeeds of their leaders, or to require that the unions' books - and audit results - be exposed to the sunshine.
Meanwhile, the Washington Teachers Union has applied for a quarter-million dollar bank loan to replenish its coffers. The District's teachers will have to repay that loan - with interest. They will repay it from dues withheld via payroll deduction - i.e. by the school system - using funds supplied by taxpayers.
Where is the outrage over this squalid episode? And over the double standards that apply in American public education and among those who purport to lead it?
