LOUISIANA

A close look at student achievement patterns in New Orleans shows a school system that is increasingly segregated by race, class and academic performance, according to an analysis released by the AFT, the Louisiana Federation of Teachers and the AFT-United Teachers of New Orleans.

The report, "Reading, Writing and Reality Check: An Early Assessment of Student Achievement in Post-Katrina New Orleans," finds that, under the post-Katrina system, public schools that already were deeply divided by race, class and academic status appear to be even more divided.

Also, a large drop in the reported number of special education students in New Orleans suggests that many of these children have been reclassified since the storm, and may not be receiving the services they are entitled to under federal law.

MISSOURI

Rejecting a virulent anti-union campaign launched by Centerpoint Medical Center in Independence, Mo., registered nurses there have voted for representation by Nurses United for Patient Care/AFT Healthcare.

AFT Healthcare has been organizing nurses in the Kansas City area for more than seven years. It has been a battle every step of the way, first with a local nonprofit chain and then with Hospital Corporation of America (HCA), the largest hospital system in the area.

Nurses at Centerpoint chose union representation because they were concerned about the time they were able to spend with their patients, the stress and fatigue that came from limited staffing, and having to walk long distances to get from unit to unit in the sprawling new facility.

TEXAS

Education Austin won a big victory in November when the union’s teacher members voted overwhelmingly to reject a challenge from an independent administrator-dominated organization. Education Austin, a joint AFT/NEA affiliate, is the elected exclusive consultation agent for teachers and PSRPs in the district. (In a state where collective bargaining for public employees is illegal, exclusive consultation is another avenue for employees to meet with administrators to discuss issues of mutual concern.)

A chapter of the Association of Texas Professional Educators, a low-dues organization that opposes collective bargaining, tried to win support for a new system of proportional representation that would have weakened the consultation process.

WASHINGTON

Until last year, professional and technical staff working in technical and two-year colleges in Washington state did not have the right to bargain, even though other faculty were unionized. That changed when the Legislature passed a bill, effective July 2007, to allow bargaining for 1,600 nonteaching administrative staff working at 19 colleges. In October, the 33 professional staff at Yakima Valley Community College were the first to go union, choosing AFT Washington, which represents full- and part-time faculty in most of the state's two-year colleges.