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

The architects of California’s ban of junk food in the schools are slowly coming to the realization that passing a law isn’t the same as altering human behavior. Key quote from the San Francisco Chronicle story:

“If we had banned candy bars, the manufacturers would have said, ‘This isn’t a candy bar, this is a brownie. If we had banned brownies, they would have said, ‘This isn’t a brownie, it’s a cookie.’ If we had banned cookies, they would have said, ‘This is bread.’”

The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review looks at teacher turnover from a different angle. Despite the alarmist headline, the story actually has nuance you rarely see in journalism on the subject.

Key excerpts:

“The turnover has had limited effect in the region, even as districts have to absorb a wave a baby-boomer retirements, local administrators said. The glut of fresh-from-college teachers and experienced area natives looking to return make this a buyer’s market for districts, which still receive hundreds of applications every summer for every opening, administrators said. The problem for some schools is that they’ve become stepping stones.”

“Young teachers will tell you, ‘I’m going to give you five years, and then I’m moving on,’ ” said Donna M. Belas, principal of the Cornell School District’s single building, which houses all the district’s grades. “They’re very open about that.”

“Our students were upset by it,” Belas said. “You have to explain it to them, It’s not that they didn’t want to work here. They have their own career needs.”

“The state has such a wealth of young teachers that many districts in Allegheny County have long offered incentive packages to get the most experienced, highest paid teachers to retire early so they can be replaced with teachers at entry-level salaries.”

I was part of a roundtable on Capital Public Radio yesterday discussing teacher retention in California. The featured guest was Ken Futernick, the good-natured author of a study I lambasted back in April.

No fireworks, and I don’t think I was making much headway until the end, through an assist by prospective teacher Rob Braddock, who called in to say that despite the shortage rhetoric, he’d been all over the state trying to find a teaching job. It was priceless.

If you’ve got an hour to kill, the program’s podcast is posted on the Capital Public Radio web site. Just click on the “Listen to Archive” button.

Blogger.com claims it has identified the source of its publishing problems. We’ll see. In any event, thank you for your patience while this is sorted out.

The officers of the British Columbia Teachers Federation (BCTF) decided they didn’t like an article in their own publication about last April’s staff strike and lockout, so they ordered a recall of all 50,000 copies.

BCTF President Irene Lanzinger accused the staff of planting a biased story. “They snuck it in in an underhanded sort of way and produced the magazine,” she said. Staff union president Anita Chapman called the decision an “incredible overreaction” and a “huge example of censorship.”

In order to pay the additional cost, the union will produce only six issues of the magazine this year, rather than the usual seven.

Click here to read:

1) More NEA State Affiliate Money Headed to Utah
2) What’s in a Name?
3) And Who Will Grade Them?
4) Kozol Diet Watch
5) Last Week’s Intercepts
6) Quote of the Week

A Republican state legislator wants to make all of New York’s public school teachers state employees.