Over the past nine months, millions of Americans have seen lavishly produced TV ads featuring African-American parents talking about school vouchers. These ads and their sponsor, the Black Alliance for Educational Options (BAEO), portray vouchers as an effort to help low-income kids. But a new report explores the money trail behind BAEO, revealing a path that leads directly to a handful of wealthy right-wing foundations and individuals that have a deeper agenda--not only supporting the voucher movement but also backing anti-affirmative action campaigns and other efforts that leading African-American organizations have opposed or considered offensive.

The foundations and individuals that are funding and helping drive BAEO's activities are detailed in a new report by People for the American Way Foundation (PFAWF).

Foundations and individuals that provide key financial support to BAEO include the Bradley Foundation, which has provided grants to local opponents of affirmative action and provided nearly $1 million to researcher Charles Murray. Murray is co-author of the 1994 book The Bell Curve, which suggests that African Americans are intellectually inferior to whites.

Milton Friedman, whose foundation is a high-profile supporter of BAEO, supports voucher programs that would make taxpayer dollars available to all families, even the very wealthy.

"Whether its leaders recognize it or not, BAEO is serving as a tool for some very extreme groups that do not have the best interests of African Americans at heart," says the Rev. Timothy McDonald, chair of the PFAW's African-American Ministers Leadership Council. "Our community deserves to know the truth about the people who are funding BAEO and the destructive agenda they have for African-American families."

For more information on "Community Voice or Captive of the Right? A Closer Look at the Black Alliance for Educational Options," visit the PFAW Web site at www.pfaw.org/issues/education and click on the BAEO report in the left-hand column.

Leaders of the Toledo Federation of Teachers and administrators of the Toledo public schools were honored at a luncheon in Washington, D.C., Dec. 13, 2001, by the Institute for Government Innovation at Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government for the district's first-of-its-kind peer review process for teachers. The Toledo peer review program was one of five programs nationwide to receive the distinguished Innovations in American Government Award; earlier, the district was among 15 finalists for the award.

The initiative also won a $100,000 prize to help spread the word about its groundbreaking efforts to citizen groups and government agencies. Under the Toledo Plan, veteran teachers mentor new and/or failing teachers to ensure that students receive a top-quality education from top-quality educators. This collaborative approach changes the traditionally confrontational culture of the teacher/administration relationship. Both the union and management govern the peer review process, eliminating clashes over teacher competence that plague so many school districts. The plan "reorders roles and responsibilities to ensure a quality teaching staff," says Francine Lawrence, president of the Toledo Federation of Teachers. The program was also featured in the November 2001 issue of American Teacher (www.aft.org/publications/american_teacher).

A group of AFT employees who helped organize staff fundraisers in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks traveled to New York City on Nov. 29 to formally present one of the first tangible benefits of the AFT Recovery Fund.

Staff at five New York City schools that had been relocated after the disaster had one immediate request--copying machines--so they wouldn't have to use the already strained resources of their host schools. As a result, a portion of the recovery funds were used to lease copying machines for these five schools for the balance of the school year.

In addition, on Dec. 4, AFT president Sandra Feldman presented checks to the families of the three Washington Teachers Union members who were killed Sept. 11. The three teachers, along with three of their students, were aboard the plane that crashed into the Pentagon. The envelopes given to the families of Sarah Clark, James Debeuneure and Hilda Taylor contained checks from the AFT Recovery Fund, the NEAFT September 11 Fund and the AFT Accidental Death Insurance program.

"We want these families to know that, in the AFT, they have a caring community," AFT president Sandra Feldman said. "No amount of money can ease the loss of a loved one, but we do hope to ease some of the financial burden that this tragedy has caused."

Led by AFT chief of staff Ron Krouse, the headquarters staffers split into small teams to visit the schools: P.S. 89 at J.H.S 22; I.S. 89 at I.S. 70; P.S. 234 at the former St. Bernard School; Manhattan Academy of Technology and P.S. 2; and the High School of Economics and Finance at Norman Thomas High School.

Although providing copying machines might at first have seemed somewhat mundane in the face of what these schools and their staff and students had endured, it became clear that they were the perfect gift.

AFT secretary-treasurer Edward J. McElroy has been elected to the 54-member executive council of the AFL-CIO. McElroy, who has served as secretary-treasurer of the AFT since 1992, was elected to his first term as an AFL-CIO vice president by delegates to the federation's December convention in Las Vegas. AFT president Sandra Feldman was re-elected to her position as an AFL-CIO vice president.

In November, McElroy was elected unanimously as chairman of the board of the AFL-CIO's Department for Professional Employees (DPE). Members of the board praised McElroy for his leadership and skill in union building. "Unionism and the protections we must provide our members rarely have been more vital to this country," McElroy says. "We have a responsibility to the nation's working men and women who keep this country strong and growing. I am honored to lead the DPE, and I will work to cultivate its tremendous potential for growth and guide it in the critical work it does for all of America's professional workers."

The DPE is a coalition of 21 AFL-CIO-affiliated national unions, representing more than 4 million professional, technical and administrative workers around the nation. McElroy was a vice president of the DPE prior to becoming its chairman.