New Math Boosts Teacher Union Membership

The latest membership numbers from the National Education Association show 3,269,523 members as of Dec. 31, 2009 -- up 14,785 from the previous year.

The statistics conflict with an earlier report, which showed a decline of almost 37,000.

In that earlier report, Florida Education Association membership declined 3.5 percent to 125,033. But Mark Pudlow, spokesman for the FEA, says figures this year are up.

"We have 140,000 members, which includes retirees, college students who intend to go into teaching as a profession and support staff (like bus drivers) who dont work a full-time schedule and dont pay fulltime dues," Pudlow told me via e-mail.

"There were several thousand fewer employees at Florida public schools during the 2009-10 school year, as retirees werent replaced in some places and budget cuts caused other districts to eliminate teaching and support positions.

"Theres always fluctuation in membership throughout the school year, even in years when the economy is good. At the start of this school year, we did see some decline in membership, but since the first of the year were back up to 140,000 members."

Just guessing here, but I'll wager that a good share of the 103,232 phone calls and e-mails Gov. Charlie Crist received in opposition to Senate Bill 6 came from some of the above.