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

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1) Many Misconceptions About NEA and Huckabee
2) Biden Sees Your Phony Statistic and Raises You 10%
3) Days of Labor Peace Coming to an End
4) Connecticut Teacher Has Movie Flashback
5) Scheduling Note
6) Last Week’s Intercepts
7) Quote of the Week

EdNews gets a top ten list of concerns in education from Washington Post columnist Jay Mathews.

I don’t usually follow celebrity news, but thanks to This Week In Education I learned that actor Will Smith plans to open a school. Smith and his wife, actress Jada Pinkett Smith, homeschool their own kids.

I have no idea what his positions are on curriculum, operations and reform, but I’m feeling pretty optimistic about his endeavor after seeing this video.

I’m puzzled that a video of Mike Huckabee speaking before the NEA Representative Assembly last July is suddenly a major edusphere topic. The clip was posted on the day it happened by EducationVotes, which is NEA’s channel to YouTube.

Yesterday it was embedded on the ironically named Breaking News: The LRC Blog with the headline “Huckabee extolling high government school salaries–incredible!”

This prompted the ironically named NewsAlert to embed it under the headline “Huckabee: Errand Boy For the Teachers’ Unions.”

At 11:54 p.m., Mickey Kaus in turn posted a link to the NewsAlert entry, noting “Today’s video: Huckabee sucks up to the teachers’ union.”

Somehow Eduwonk managed to squeeze in a final post about the video before the final six minutes of December 11 passed. Under the headline “Competition Comes to Education!” Eduwonk states, “Here’s Huckabee planting one on the NEA. Via Kaus.”

Not wanting to be left out, I submit this, my own video from the very same speech, featuring Mike Huckabee making a joke about puppy urine (starts at the 1:50 mark). For a bonus you get a look at Barack Obama’s extremely weak support of merit pay. It hasn’t gone viral yet, but this grapevine just might take it over the top.

It’s either a slow news day, or even the education writers are on strike, so we bring you this little diversion:

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1) 52,000 New K-8 Students, 42,500 New K-8 Teachers
2) Colorado Public Employees Union Hooks Up with CWA
3) Minnesota Discovers Federalism
4) Now Utah Education Association Brags About NEA Voucher Campaign Involvement
5) Shape of Things to Come
6) Last Week’s Intercepts
7) Quote of the Week