STP Not the Only Organization Bucking the Teacher Union
STP is one of only a few groups putting out a weekly newsletter and the only group that has a massive email list and tracking pixels that report back on who opens their copy, what time, what day, and the number of opens all in graphical form. Tracking who clicks on what links included in the story and counting the number of times a particular newsletter is opened by the list member tells us a lot. We might see 50 opens of a particular newsletter, likely one or two by the recipient, the rest of the opens are from people they forwarded the newsletter to, and even then the pixel system records about one third of the opens due to limitations of the system.
That is important because yes we print the dirt and have fun doing it, but the larger purpose is to educate the legislators that open the newsletter. Voters or activists aren't our target, the legislators are our target when we write a story. But it is invigorating to see other groups picking up the pressure on the teachers unions and growing stronger and more effective as they abandon the traditional relationship model of lobbying. ROPE is one of those groups that has become far more effective in recent years by pushing back instead of going along.
Last week the ladies at ROPE did a good story on fact checking the lies put out by the teachers and their unions. Well worth the time to read and they support pretty much what we have been saying for years; not a taxation problem but a spending problem.
