Intercepts
A listening post monitoring public education and teachers’ unions.

The Christina School District, the largest in the state of Delaware, has uncovered the startling secret to why its budget is in a $13.9 million deficit:

“Audit: Christina hired too many people

“A practice of hiring staffers without the means to pay them is largely to blame for a $13.9 million budget shortfall the Christina School District has two months to fix, state analysts said Thursday.”

The audit report went on to note that the district committed 90 percent of it projected discretionary funds to paying salaries, and 107 percent of its project fiscal year 2006 tax revenues to paying salaries.

Who’s running that district? Bialystock and Bloom?

Lawsuits make my eyes glaze over — none more so than those filed against the No Child Left Behind Act by NEA and the State of Connecticut.

It’s nice to see that the brief filed by the Citizens’ Commission on Civil Rights in defense of the law spells out the key fact in the case in terms even the densest of jurists can understand:

“Through the Act, Connecticut has opted to participate in a voluntary federal program in exchange for federal funds. Such programs are common and perfectly legal.”

This is even clearer and more concise than the next best quote I have read on the issue:

“In point of fact, however, neither the parental notice requirement – nor, indeed, any of the other requirements in NCLB – are ‘imposed’ on the states in a legal sense. NCLB has been enacted on the basis of Congress’ Spending Power, and states can avoid this and other statutory requirements simply by declining to accept federal Title I funds. If the states decide to accept such funds, however, then they must also accept the conditions that Congress has attached to them.”

Who was the brilliant legal mind who wrote that?

A report by Public Policy Institute of California (hardly a right-wing outfit, so strike that usual counterattack) found that 73 percent of those surveyed supported the state’s graduation exam, and 72 percent thought that students should have to pass statewide tests in reading and math before they can be promoted to the next grade, even if they have passing grades in their classes.

Mark Baldassare, the institute’s research director, was absolutely correct explaining testing mania to the San Francisco Chronicle. “If someone sent out a notice that students were doing great, that wouldn’t be enough for people today,” he said. “They need something tangible, and they’ve gravitated to testing.”

What’s true in California is probably true elsewhere. Americans need more than reassuring words from school officials that kids can read, write and compute. They need evidence. And until something better than testing comes along, they’ll rely on that.

Fruitful day on the newsgathering front:

* The Native American Academy, a charter school scheduled to open in August, will offer Navajo language classes to middle-schoolers.

* A perennially unexamined aspect of school funding is the amount of voluntary contributions made by parents and community groups.

* Some Massachusetts schools have broken windows, bad plumbing, and overcrowded conditions. Others don’t.

* More hidden costs of K-12 schooling: about 23% of the freshmen at Indiana’s public universities and colleges require remedial courses in math or English. “We basically double pay for these students because we pay for them with public dollars in the secondary institutions and then they go and take remedial courses,” said David Holt, vice president for work force development policy at the Indiana Chamber of Commerce.

* A new study claims songbirds can learn grammar. There goes your last excuse, kids.

* Next time you hear union officials complain about poor health insurance benefits, remember that the taxpayers footing the bill for those benefits may not have coverage for themselves.

* After the Cartoon Jihad, and all the Al Qaeda propaganda about Crusaders, it’s interesting to see the reaction of Catholics to a cheesy blockbuster novel (and a soon-to-be-released cheesy blockbuster movie) that whacks away at the cornerstones of their faith.

“Aloha Airlines has offered a special one-time only one-way $60 fare for a flight from Sacramento, Calif., to Honolulu.” How fast can I get to the airport?

The New York Times reports that the Change to Win coalition contacted the AFL-CIO in an effort to create a third labor federation, one that would concentrate on politics (as opposed to the other two?).

AFL-CIO President John Sweeney rejected the plan, and publicly released the Change to Win letter in an apparent attempt to embarrass the dissident group.

A must-read for NEA and AFT members in today’s Los Angeles Times headlined Unions’ Advice Is Failing Teachers. It’s all about union-endorsed investment firms and what you get, and don’t get, for your money.

It’s important to highlight that the story was written by Kathy M. Kristof, the Times personal finance columnist. I’ve often maintained we get better coverage of NEA/AFT from labor reporters and business journalists than from education reporters.