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

Best wishes to all of you this Thanksgiving Day. I’m making my traditional dinner: turkey with chile recado (I substitute habaneros and red jalapenos for the chilacas). Try it. Thanksgiving dinner will never bore you again.

Leo Casey at EdWize has finally discovered the secret of America’s conservative proponents of education reform: they’re a bunch of commies.

Brilliant! Here’s another secret Leo hasn’t uncovered yet.

Ana Beatriz Cholo of the Associated Press called me the other day. She was working on this story and asked me to comment. I decided I didn’t really qualify to fill the role of defender of traditional Thanksgiving values, so I told her the story “wasn’t up my alley” and referred her to a number of conservative family organizations. She evidently hooked up with Concerned Women for America.

Today the story is spread over more than 115 newspapers and the top of the blogosphere.

Did I screw up? Maybe. But when you step outside your area of expertise, it’s a slippery slope.

The Christian Science Monitor examines the projected enrollment miscalculations in Florida (for the consequences of such miscalculations, see yesterday’s communiqué).

Declining enrollments are affecting districts up north as well. Bucking the trend are Milwaukee’s voucher schools, according to the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel.

Key quote:

“If the voucher program alone were considered a school district, it would
be the sixth-largest district in Wisconsin, behind Green Bay and ahead of
Appleton, according to the state Department of Public Instruction.”

Item #6 in the November 20 EIA Communique’ is incorrect. The opening at the North Carolina Association of Educators is for executive director of the union’s Retired School Personnel Division. NCAE Executive Director Colleen Borst will remain in her position. EIA apologizes for the error.

Click here to read:

1) Is NEA Reading Its Own Research?
2) AFT Says United Teachers of Dade = Double Plus Good
3) NEA and Florida Affiliate Sue Breakaway Local
4) Teamsters Awarded Victory in Fort Wayne
5) Hide Your Wallets
6) Opening in North Carolina
7) Alabama High Schoolers Embrace EIA’s Mission
8) Thanks for Responding
9) Last Week’s Intercepts
10) Quote of the Week

Susan Ohanian has a plan to rid the U.S. of the No Child Left Behind Act. And it will only cost $71.40 per person. If it doesn’t work, you can keep the petitions.