MEA successful at using courts to skirt FOIA law

Reform group will seek other ways to protect public's right to know

The residents of the Wayne-Westland school district deserve to know what the Michigan Education Association is hiding from them, regarding last fall’s teacher strike and the ongoing effort to recall several school board members.

But the MEA is apparently willing to use the court system and its fat checkbook to hide the truth from the public.

On Nov. 11, Kyle Olson, vice president of the Muskegon-based Education Action Group, filed a Freedom of Information request with the Wayne-Westland school district, asking for copies of recent e-mail communications that were transmitted on a district-owned e-mail account.

Olson made the request based on tips from various teachers in the district, who told him the MEA was using the taxpayer-supported e-mail account to plot strategies for last fall’s teachers strike and the subsequent school board recall campaign.

As Olson put it, he was simply trying to discover “what plans the union was hatching against the school district while using the district’s own resources.”

Officials of the Wayne-Westland district agreed that the e-mails were fair game under the state’s Freedom of Information Act, and were prepared to honor Olson’s request on Dec. 5.

But the teachers union was granted a special hearing on Dec. 4 to challenge the legality of Olson’s request. Judge Kathleen MacDonald subsequently issued a temporary injunction, preventing the school district from releasing copies of the e-mailed text until a full hearing took place Jan. 12.

Unfortunately, the Education Action Group, a small non-profit organization operating on a shoestring budget, can’t afford the estimated $10,000 it would cost to retain a qualified attorney to pursue the case. As a result, Olson withdrew his FOIA request with the school district Monday morning.

The MEA probably guessed that the Education Action Group couldn’t afford to press its case any further in court. If so, it was smart strategy on the part of the union, a multi-million dollar statewide organization with a team of attorneys on permanent retainer.

But how fair is the union being to the residents of the Wayne-Westland district? Don’t the taxpayers have the right to know if the union is using a tax-funded e-mail account to plot against the district’s governing body and administration?

Under Michigan’s Freedom of Information Act, most types of government correspondence and information are easily obtainable through a simple written request. The law was designed to prevent public officials from hiding the details of their operations from the taxpaying public.

Yet somehow the teachers union has managed to wiggle around that law by outspending the truth-seekers in court.

But the union’s temporary victory can’t erase the unanswered question – what information is contained in those e-mails that the union so desperately wants to hide? And if there’s nothing to hide, why not honor the intent of the Freedom of Information Act and release the e-mails for all to see?

We at the Education Action Group are willing to bet the union is trying to conceal the true nature of the Wayne-Westland teacher’s strike last October, and the current recall effort against the school board members.

The union insists that the strike was related to class size, and the recall attempt is purely the work of citizens who are angry at the school board.

We believe the strike was an attempt by the MEA to pressure the school board into maintaining expensive MESSA health insurance coverage for teachers and other union employees.

MESSA is an insurance carrier created by the MEA, which turns over millions of dollars of profits to the MEA every year. Cash-strapped school boards around the state are trying to secure less expensive employee coverage, but the union is fighting them tooth and nail.

We also believe the MEA is attempting to do the same thing in the Wayne-Westland district that’s it’s been doing in other districts throughout the state – use the state’s recall law to remove school board members who stand up to its demands at the bargaining table, and replace them with puppets willing to vote the MEA way.

We believe the residents of Wayne-Westland have the right to know the true nature of the recall effort before deciding whether to sign a recall petition, or how to vote in a possible recall election.

In the name of full disclosure, we’re calling on the MEA to end its petty legal maneuvering and allow the school district to release the texts of the e-mails in question. Only then will voters have the information they need to make an informed decision about the future of their school district.