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

After a budget impasse that went on for, like, 947 days, the California state legislature finally agreed on a $103 billion spending plan last week. Everybody hates it, but the California Teachers Association hates it most of all.

On September 15, CTA called on lawmakers to reject the plan because it “cuts $3 billion from public education this year and makes the budget situation even worse next year. It relies on borrowing money from the lottery and future state revenues in order to close the $15 billion budget deficit. And it gives the governor new powers to cut education funding in the middle of the school year.”

On September 16, after the legislature approved the budget, CTA called it “a disaster for students, public schools, colleges, health care and other vital services. It does nothing to solve the state’s structural deficit and sets California up for the same budget problems next year.”

On September 19, the union stated that the budget “cuts $3 billion from public education this year and never restores those funds. It gives the governor new powers to cut funding for some education programs mid-year, undermines Proposition 98, the minimum school funding law, and will certainly guarantee that the amount California spends on its students remains locked at the bottom nationwide.”

CTA also warned that it “will be looking into all options available to ensure that our budget process better serves California students and their right to a quality education.”

Now Capitol Weekly reports CTA held an emergency board of directors meeting yesterday “to craft new political strategies that may include a ballot initiative and a freeze on spending for Democrats.” Also to be discussed are suggestions for vocabulary for more irate press releases.

Click here to read:

1) Oregon Education Association Staff Strike Enters Second Week
2) From Union President to Voucher Supporter
3) Obama Optimist Sees Education Glass Half Fuller
4) Last Week’s Intercepts
5) Quote of the Week

I’ve been beating the drum about flat or declining K-12 enrollments for a long time, and it’s starting to seep into the public consciousness, mainly because of places like Detroit, Cleveland and now, Washington DC. But if you think this is just a localized phenomenon affecting troubled urban areas, think again.

If there has been one place in the entire nation immune from falling enrollment, it has been Clark County, Nevada, which has sported explosive growth over the past decade. Today, a small story in the Las Vegas Sun informs us that because district officials correctly projected a 0.8 percent growth for this school year, there will be no employee layoffs.

If Las Vegas came that close to layoffs, is any district safe?

The Cleveland Plain Dealer reports public school enrollment in the city has fallen to its lowest level since 1894.

In the comments section, one reader who claims to be a Cleveland public school teacher responds. I repost it here exactly as it appears there:

As a proud teacher for the CMSD I would like to give the readers an idea of what our children see on a daily basis. I am assuming most of you have not ever seen someone be killed right in front of you, our kids have. I bet most of you feel safe in your homes at night when you lay in your beds, our kids do not. As adults, we often struggle with juggeling a career and parenthood, and our students struggle with single parenthood and remaining a good student. Many of our students come hungry, are abused, raise themselves and sibblings, and much more. I am a union member who is all for evaluating teachers on how well they make connections with students, conduct their classrooms, present interactive lessons, but not how well a student does on one day of test. I would love to be “paid what I am worth” as on response said. I have a BA and two Masters degrees and I work everyday with students many of the readers who run from if they saw them in their neighborhoods. How much is that worth? I am at school each day with these kids and if I was not, they would be on a bus on their way to your towns…which would be fine with me…would it with you? I am not asking for more money, I am asking for social service help and help for my studnets to deal with the very tragic things they see daily. I don’t care if we have 120,00 students or 10 these kids deserve the help they are desprately crying out for.

We all make mistakes, and an Internet comment is not exactly a formal letter, but if you want to persuasively argue about public education, you should at least make a better attempt at proofreading. I count 15-18 spelling and grammatical errors in that paragraph.

Perhaps this teacher’s students really are walking through battlefields to get to school. Is the trip worth it?

Warned you about it on September 8 (see item #2). Now the professional staffers of the Oregon Education Association - occasionally joined by the support staffers, which is another story entirely – are walking a picket line outside of OEA headquarters.

Go to the EIA homepage and click on the photo to see video of picket line speeches by staff union officers. Among other things, they are keeping track of which OEA officers and reps are crossing the picket line.

Intercepts will return on Friday, September 19. In the meantime, talk among yourselves.

In yesterday’s bulletin (see item #3), I mentioned a sentence in Joel Packer’s blog that read:

“Training for pso (sic) they have the skills and knowledge to assist teachers in improving student learning.”

I surmised the missing word was either principals or paymasters, but Joel e-mailed to let me know it was “paraprofessionals.”

Thanks, Joel!