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

In seeking to do good, they did very well indeed. Background information on Tyrone Freeman and LA’s SEIU chapter here (under “Crony capitalism #2“).

It looks like the Sidwell Friends PTA may be more politically liberal than the Obama administation itself.

Let’s lead off with a video via Jay P. Greene’s Blog, consisting of man-in-the-street interviews with Utahns, asking them basic questions about public school finance and performance:

Then move on to Vermont, where Gov. Jim Douglas is finally asking questions about spending and enrollment the state should have been addressing for at least the last seven years.

Sayeth the governor:

“I think Vermonters have to ask themselves if it’s fair to have 8 percent reductions in some critical state services when the caseload is increasing, while at the same time we’re going to have a 4.6 percent increase on average in local school spending at a time when we’re going to have 1,400 fewer kids to educate next year. We have to have an honest discussion about our priorities.”

There are a lot of things to report about the Illinois governor scandal, but Chicago Public Radio really went the extra mile.

President-elect Obama decided to post online “recommendations” his transition team has received from various special interest groups. Prominent among these is the National Education Association, which submitted 80 pages of policy, leading with “NEA should be intimately involved from the beginning in discussions on any issues that impact our members. We would like to provide input before proposals are drafted, rather than simply reacting to already drafted proposals.”

NEA’s recommendations include:

* Endorse inclusion of the principles of NEA’s Great Public Schools for Every Student by 2020.

* Support NEA’s principles for NCLB reauthorization.

* Increase funding.

* Repeal the Government Pension Offset and Windfall Elimination Provision.

* Create an Office for Public School Transformation.

* Create an Office for 21st Century Skills.

* Restore the position of Special Advisor for Teaching.

* Add representatives of teacher organizations to the National Technical Advisory Council.

* Unspecified action regarding NEA’s lawsuit against NCLB, Pontiac v. Spellings.

* Revoke the faith-based initiative.

* Revoke requirement that government contractors post a notice to employees informing them that they are not required to join a union or maintain membership in a union to retain their jobs.

* Add an amendment to the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act explicitly exempting pure public-sector unions from its provisions.

NEA also submitted a very long list of “Administration Positions Important to NEA,” including Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness, Federal Election Commission, Interstate Commerce Commission, and Department of Labor Agriculture Extension Service.

Click here to read:

1) EIA Exclusive: NEA Post-Election Analysis Reveals Congressional Strategy for 2009
2) Last Week’s Intercepts
3) Quote of the Week

I’ve got an exclusive today with all sorts of details for you to mull over, study and debate. It may take most of the day to put together, so be patient!