In an odd twist on the issue of teacher privacy, Peter Murphy of the New York State Charter Schools Association is reporting that charters in New York won another?judicial victory last week when state's highest court rejected an attempt by the New York State United Teachers (NYSUT) to obtain payroll records showing the full names, titles, corresponding salaries, and home addresses of all teachers in six Albany charter schools, which are not unionized.
The court ruled that NYSUT's ploy to use the Freedom of Information Act for its unionizing constituted an unwarranted violation of privacy:
It appears ? that NYSUT seeks the teachers' names as a convenient mechanism for contacting prospective members.? Although NYSUT certainly possesses a right to seek dues-paying members, it may not rely on FOIL to achieve that end.
?Peter Meyer, Bernard Lee Schwartz Policy Fellow
