Reprinted from the NJEA Reporter, October 2003

E3’s executive director openly attacks teacher unions

E3 Executive Director Dan Gaby, a long-time PR man, loves to tell people he’s “an old-fashioned liberal.”

In a conversation with NJEA representatives in Camden last spring, Gaby insisted he and his organization are not “anti-union.”

Judge for yourself. Here’s the full text of a letter from Gaby published in the August 2003 issue of the American School Board Journal [bold-face emphasis added]:

“Your June issue is a perfect example of the potentially fatal blind spots dogging American public education.

“Glenn Cook’s news analysis [Up Front, “Vouchers, charters, and school choice”] speaks disparagingly of school choice. Yet further along in this same issue, Samuel Spitalli’s article “Last Resort” bemoans the horrendous, expensive process of dismissing a tenured teacher.

“When will school boards get it? Without the competitive pressure of parental school choice, they will never be empowered (particularly in urban school systems) to reverse the teachers unions’ power to impose budget-busting, policy-dictating collective bargaining agreements.

“The teachers unions will never be reasonable about tenure or any other work rules until students vote with their feet and threaten teachers’ jobs. School choice does not threaten public schools. It is their salvation.

“Dan Gaby, Executive Director, Excellent Education for Everyone, Newark, N.J.”