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Corrupt leadership took two big-city teachers' unions to the brink of despair and financial ruin. You could very nearly hear union foes playing taps when law-enforcement agencies swept down on the leaders of two of the nation's most prominent local teachers' unions. The Washington Teachers Union (WTU) and its Miami cousin organization United Teachers of Dade (UTD), were hemorrhaging money. The membership was indignant. The federal agents were rifling through union files to build extensive criminal investigations. Lawmakers wanted to ask the president of the American Federation of Teachers, the parent organization of the WTU and the UTD, how and why the scandals occurred. The anti-union forces rubbed their hands together with glee. The two locals would certainly survive, but critics said their power would be severely diminished.

Reports on the rally in Tallahassee, Florida on March 7, 2000 to protest Governor Jeb Bush's policy to end affirmative actions. Bush's education programs; Amount of student financial aid; Proposed budget of Bush for the 2000-01 fiscal year for K-12 education.

Details the initiative called Talented 20, which allows students to enter public universities in Florida based on their class rank. Elimination of race and ethnic background as factors in admissions; Proposal of the American Civil Rights Coalition to amend the state constitution to bar preferences; Critics on the Florida initiative.

Former lawyer for United Teachers of Dade (UTD) Elizabeth Du Fresne has agreed to pay the Miami union $340,000 to keep a dispute over allegedly pilfered union money out of court. She has admitted no wrongdoing, nor has she been charged with any crime. Union officials were pleased with the arrangement. The American Federation of Teachers has been working with local union officials to untangle a scheme that they say cost the UTD at least $3.35 million and to right its financial house since the story broke in spring 2003.

Top brass at United Teachers of Dade (UTD) stole at least $3.35 million from their constituents over the past six years, in part through business ventures set up to pilfer union coffers, a forensic examination charges. The union, whose members work for the 365,000-student Miami-Dade County, Florida, school district, immediately sent letters to those named demanding repayment, and its leaders have vowed to take legal action. The Cincinnati-based Union Institute and Nova Southeastern University in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, provided the professional development and in turn paid UTD for marketing the services to union members.

Pat L. Tornillo Jr. pleaded guilty last week to defrauding the Miami-Dade County teachers' union he ran for more than four decades and to making false statements on his income-tax returns. The union leader swindled the 14,500-member United Teachers of Dade out of $650,000 from 1998 to 2001, according to documents released by the U.S. Department of Justice on August 25. He siphoned the money, the documents say, from union coffers through an elaborate credit card scheme.

United Teachers of Dade of Miami-Dade County is losing members as the FBI and local authorities continue a financial probe following an April 29, 2003 raid on the union's headquarters. The situation is likely to worsen after revelation in the week preceding May 19, 2003, that the organization's president of 40 years allegedly used union funds to pay for shopping sprees and spa vacations. More than 260 teachers have requested that Miami-Dade County school officials stop withholding union dues in the days since news of the investigation surfaced in The Miami Herald, said John Schuster, a spokesman for the 362,000-student district.

Presents new briefs related to education in the U.S. as of February 12, 2003. Dismissal of school teacher Colin Nicholas by Collier County, Florida school board for showing students ways to put on a condom; Case filed by the organization, Advocates for Children, against New York City schools chancellor Joel I. Klein and others over their denial of a 10th grade student's enrollment; Reinstatement of a Kentucky bilingual teacher, Janice Sevre-Duszynska, after serving a prison sentence for taking part in a peaceful protest; The judgment for LeBron James in Ohio concerning a charge that he violated amateur athletics rules.

Focuses on the controversies of Broward Teachers Union election in Florida. Effort of the union to solicit a teenage girl on the Internet; Occurrence of smear campaign and election fraud; Suspension of Barry A. Silver, an English teacher at Cora Springs High School, for inappropriate contact with students.

Provides news on education in some states in the United States as of March 1, 2000. Approval of a plan in Florida that omits race, gender as factors in college admissions; Resignation of California Secretary of Education Gary K. Hart effective March 15, 2000; Teacher licensing rule in Wisconsin.

Reports that the Florida board of regents voted to ban race and gender as factors in college and university admissions. Statement issued by Keith Goldschmidt, a spokesman for the state regents; Description of the Talented 20 admissions program; Information on the One Florida plan that Governor Jeb Bush directed the state to implement.

Presents several education-related news briefs in the United States as of December 8, 1999. Approval of the plan to end affirmative action in the college-admission process in Florida; Percentage of adults who acquired school diploma.

Presents news briefs associated with education in the United States as of June 1999. Rejection of an amendment mandating the use of high school graduation test in Wisconsin; Information on a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union against Florida voucher bill.