Lots of people seem to be waiting for some sort of response from the AFT to Mike Antonucci's report last week on the secret tapes of union staffers about internal problems and the union's seeming disconnect with its members.

Here is why the AFT doesn't need to offer a response of any kind: It is a private organization. It isn't accountable to bloggers, reporters, the public, etc. It is only really accountable to its dues-paying members, who by-and-large could care less what the union does -- which is sort of one of the issues that the union's consultant was poking around I guess.***

If you were running the AFT, would you offer a public response? I wouldn't. I'd deal in-house with whatever needs to be dealt with and move forward. That seems to be exactly what they are doing.

*** Of course there is a small band of teacher unionists who follow the happenings of their union very closely and with tremendous interest, but as one of the AFT officials who was interviewed by the consultant hinted at, a significant chunk of teachers don't know whether they belong to the NEA or the AFT.