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

Detroit school officials are in a panic because next Wednesday is the day the state counts the number of students enrolled to determine the amount of state funding each district gets. And, due to the illegal 16-day teachers’ strike, enrollment is roughly 25,000 students below projections.

It’s a measure of just how much of a mess Detroit is in that people can’t decide whether this is actually true, or a manipulation of the numbers by various players in order to apply political pressure.

Daniel Howes of the Detroit News nails it with his assessment. After noting that since 1994, Detroit’s enrollment dropped 23 percent, but its per-pupil revenue increased 94 percent, Howes spells it out for everyone involved:

“No work means fewer students. Fewer students beget less money. Less money
promises fewer jobs. Those are pretty powerful economics, which overwhelm all
the picket signs, finger-pointing and administrative begging now under way, just
days from the dreaded ‘count day’ that determines state funding.”

UPDATE: Something is rotten in the state of Michigan. Where did the 25,000 students go?

Tim Smart is an Oregon public school teacher. He’s also a major in the Army National Guard. He’s not a bad reporter, either. Read how he has applied his classroom experience to his work in Afghanistan.

Teachers in Saginaw, Michigan, are learning something new today about their contract. Whether or not they keep their jobs will not depend on test scores, evaluations, satisfaction surveys, peer review, or even general likability.

It will depend on the last four digits of their Social Security numbers.

The district will lay off 10 teachers, but there are 26 new teachers tied for last on the seniority list. So, in accordance with the contract, the tie must be broken through the use of the teachers’ Social Security numbers. The employees with higher numbers are let go. Teachers with lower numbers keep their jobs.

This is not an aberration. EIA has highlighted similar provisions in contracts all across the country, from San Diego to Anchorage to Christina, Delaware. Using Social Security numbers may be unique to Saginaw, as most other places draw lots, hold a lottery, or use a teacher’s birth date (born in January, you stay; born in August, you’re out of a job).

We can argue all day about teacher training and quality, but some parents in Saginaw will be forced to deal with the fact that their children’s teacher was chosen arbitrarily years ago by the Social Security Administration. If we’re going to select by chance, put all the low-seniority teachers in a game of Texas Hold ‘Em for the job.

I’m willing to be proven wrong, but let’s just say I’m very, very skeptical.

School Me!, the education blog of the Los Angeles Times, has a partly serious, partly tongue-in-cheek chart to map out the chances of various candidates for the job of superintendent of the nation’s second-largest school district.

The blog sets the odds for former President Bill Clinton at 1000-1, Bill Gates at 1001-1, and ManBearPig at 1400-1.

But one of the serious candidates listed is Adam Urbanski, president of the Rochester Teachers Association, well known for being a maverick in the world of teacher union/management relations. According to School Me!, Urbanski was a finalist last time the LA supe job was open (which was news to me, I admit).

This isn’t quite as odd as it seems upon first glance, because Urbanski is the director of the Teacher Union Reform Network, a group with close ties (financial and otherwise) to Eli Broad, who is deeply involved in the Los Angeles education establishment.

I doubt if Urbanski will get the job this time either, but the district could charge admission for contract negotiations with Urbanski on one side of the table and United Teachers Los Angeles President A.J. Duffy on the other. They could discuss the proper role of unionism.

The Repository of Canton, Ohio, reports that Michael Billirakis, member of the NEA Executive Committee, resigned his seat on the board of the Ohio State Teachers Retirement System, effective immediately.

Billirakis was charged last month with two counts of conflict of interest and two counts of filing a false disclosure statement by the Ohio Ethics Commission. He is accused of accepting gifts from firms who had business with the retirement system board.

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EIA Exclusive: Affiliation Dispute Lifts Curtain on Wisconsin Teacher Union Politics