Question 1: You mentioned that NEA and AFT members don't have access to the statistics you used in your remarks. How did you get this information?

Answer -- Ms. Haar: The NEA has an extensive line item budget, but none of those figures came from the budget. They actually come from a financial document that is distributed at the NEA convention only to delegates who attend, not to the general membership. And, those figures came only from the contingency part of the budget. The NEA traditionally puts about $1.5 million per year into a contingency budget, and it is from that budget that the executive committee decides which political activities to fund. The line item budget for the donations is scattered throughout the budget and it is very hard to come by. It happened that I've been at the NEA convention and asked for that information and that's how I received it -- but only because I asked -- not because it was readily available.

Question 2: We hear about intimidation by teacher unionists. Do you have evidence of this?

Answer -- Mr. Kirkpatrick: I'm going to make an additional comment to some of the examples I gave earlier. There's one from Colorado. One of the strong supporters of an initiative there several years ago, Kevin Irvine, Fort Collins (1991 Colorado Teacher of the Year). He was so harassed by his fellow unionists, and received physical threats to himself and his family, that although he continued teaching, he has long since had an unlisted telephone number. But he did not back down. So much for union democracy. He was not speaking form the union. He was speaking as a teacher, but he happened to be the most recent teacher of the year, and his views carried some weight, so they tried to shut him up.

Question 3: You remarked that Al Shanker was unusually candid several years ago when he made the comment, "When students pay union dues, the union will represent students." Was he often this candid?

Answer -- Mr. Kirkpatrick: A few years ago, when he was asked about internal union operations, after he finally pushed [David] Selden out as president in 1974, he was accused by somebody saying "You're engaged in power politics," to which he responded, "What other kind of politics are there?"

Question 4: What is the effect of current teacher certification laws?

Answer -- Mr. Liebmann: That's been a major effort, the effect of which is to totally fence out liberal arts graduates, even if they jump through the hoops and take education courses somewhere. It becomes a totally closed shop.

Let me make it clear -- in order to become a certified teacher in Maryland, you now have to have 30 credits in education, whereas it used to be 18 credits. It's now increased, and that means you must have a full year of useless education classes in order to qualify for certification in Maryland.

Furthermore, there is a disincentive for teachers to take classes in their subject matter. To advance in their careers, teachers are likely to take courses preparing them for administrative positions. Again, these are education courses, not subject specific courses. One could be the president of the most prestigious university in the country, and not be qualified to teach in a public school in Maryland. Alternative certification routes would make great strides toward opening the field to some of the most qualified people.

Question 5: Is there any effort to develop a national organization such as the PTA now has, for the independent parent groups?

Answer -- Ms. Haar: While this is not likely to happen anytime soon, I believe that an advantage to organizing these groups to be nationally recognized could give them an opportunity to speak for their parent members. As it is now, the PTA claims to speak for "parents," but clearly PTOs do not share the same liberal social agenda of the PTA.

As independent, autonomous parent groups or parent/teacher organizations, each PTO operates only within an individual school. At the same time, however, it does not have a unified dues structure such as the National PTA and the NEA and AFT require. In other words, no PTO pays dues to a state or national hierarchy. In fact, some PTOs charge no dues, even at the local level, believing that no parent should have to pay a fee to discuss issues of concern about his/his child in a meeting held at school.