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

The Flint Journal ran a story about a guy with teacher certification, a triple minor and teaching experience, who can’t find a job teaching public school. Why? Because there are too many applicants.

“It’s a struggle to find employment when you have the same certification that so many others possess. But at the same time, there’s a teacher shortage when it comes to (areas such as physics),” said Margaret Trimer-Hartley of the Michigan Education Association. (Hurrah! She must have read “The Education Omelet” in Monday’s communique’ – Item #7.)

This holds true even in places with genuine teacher shortages, like the burgeoning Clark County School District in Nevada. The district reported 344 teaching vacancies prior to the start of the new school year. But of these vacancies, 180 are in special education. Only 80 are in elementary education.

These types of problems will continue until union contracts exhibit enough flexibility to allow districts to pay more to applicants in shortage areas.

Michael Billirakis of Ohio, member of the NEA Executive Committee since 2001, was charged with two counts of conflict of interest and two counts of filing a false disclosure statement by the Ohio Ethics Commission.

In his capacity as a member of the board of the Ohio State Teachers Retirement System, Billirakis is accused of “accepting and failing to disclose tickets to the Broadway show Hairspray from the Frank Russell Corporation/Russell Real Estate Advisors. Billirakis also is accused of accepting and failing to disclose tickets to a Cleveland Indians game that he got from Salomon Smith Barney. The retirement system was doing business with both firms at the time,” according to a story in The Repository (Canton – free registration required).

The charges are all first-degree misdemeanors and have a maximum penalty of up to a $1,000 fine and six months in jail.

Billirakis is the second NEA official to be charged in the investigation. Jack H. Chapman, former president of the Central Ohio Education Association, pleaded guilty in June to three counts of conflict of interest. His sentence was suspended, and he received probation, a $4,000 fine, and 60 hours of community service.

UPDATE: The Columbus Dispatch also has the story.

The story is available here. If you register at the Education Week site, you will be able to read it and download it.

My favorite quote is from CleverSpin’s attorney:

“If I left my door open, does that give someone the right to steal my TV?”

Since I viewed the report and listened to the audio files through a Google link, I can only respond: If you broadcast something to 380 million people, can you complain if one of them watches it?

The publication of the Education Week story also allows me to pass along the news that CleverSpin’s Kris Kemmerer, who conducted the interviews, was hired by AFT as the Assistant to the President for Communications.

Strangely enough, one of the recommendations in CleverSpin’s communications audit was:

“The AFT needs an Assistant to the President for Communications to coordinate the strategic message plan between Government Relations, Organizing and the constituency divisions. The position would oversee the public affairs department, digital communications department (i.e., public website, LeaderNet, Get Active, etc.), AFTCN, and all communications production (i.e., copy editing, branding, graphic design). The position would coordinate all publication editors/constituency communicators and field writers, as well as drive the appropriate vetting process.”

AFT hired Kemmerer effective August 6, the day before I broke the CleverSpin story.

Jay Mathews of the Washington Post has one of his usual excellent columns today. This one asks why education schools don’t teach methods proven to work in inner-city schools. The answer seems to be the old joke: If it works in practice, it won’t work in theory.

Click here to read:

1) Buffalo Affiliation with NYSUT in Serious Doubt
2) The Detroit Teacher Str–, Uh, Thing
3) “Who Are Those Guys?”
4) School Choice Black Market Resurfaces
5) How to Make an Easy $225,000 in Nevada
6) Teamsters vs. NEA in Nevada Probably Headed to Court
7) The Education Omelet
8) Last Week’s Intercepts
9) Scheduling Note
10) Quote of the Week

The Detroit Federation of Teachers voted to go on strike. Well, not really (more on that later today in the EIA Communique’). In any event, teacher strikes are illegal in Michigan. DFT President Janna Garrison addressed the issue yesterday.

“Just because it’s a law, doesn’t make it right,” she said.

Isn’t collective bargaining a law, too?

Leaders of the California State Senate called off a floor vote on the Los Angeles “mayoral takeover” bill. Senate President Pro Tem Don Perata said the bill will be taken up Monday, but opponents are claiming the delay is because the measure lacks the votes to pass.

The bill’s co-author, Sen. Gloria Romero, explained it this way:

“Some members wanted to have some extra time to read it, but those would be votes that would be gravy to the roll call. But as far as the votes that we need to move this out, they are there, they’re solid.”

It’s good to know that the passage of this bill is not dependent on the votes of people who have actually read it.