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

1. Is the bloom off the rose already?

2. Is new U.S. Senator Michael Bennet the key to card check?

3. Did you know about Detroit’s private school choice program, complete with transportation and security?

If you find useful the list of organizations that received dues money from NEA and AFT, I have some bad news for you. It’s very likely those disclosures – termed “harassment” by union officials – will be going away soon. At best, the reports will return to the days when unions disclosed lump sums under the heading of “contributions, gifts and grants” and members and the public had absolutely no idea who was on the receiving end.

Bloomberg.com has more on what we can expect on the labor front.

I’ve been router-wrestling all morning, but fixed it in time to discover that an Iowa state legislator has discovered an ingenious way to “free up tens of millions of dollars in administrative expenses that could be spent on teachers and students.”

You guessed it, he wants forced consolidation of school districts.

Fortunately, Des Moines Register reporter Staci Hupp did a little research, and noted that Iowa has 362 school districts today – down from 4,652 in 1950. I can’t find a figure for per-pupil spending for 1950, but the Digest of Education Statistics reveals that per-pupil spending in Iowa more than tripled – in constant dollars – from 1960 to 2005.

Yep, those bigger districts sure do save a fortune.

Click here to read:

1) Breaking: NEA to Support Senate Stimulus Bill, Fight for House Numbers in Conference Committee
2) EIA Exclusive: AFT’s Contributions Favor Labor Groups
3) Former Union Exec Appointed to Ohio State Board of Education
4) Scheduling Note
5) Last Week’s Intercepts
6) Quote of the Week

While Pennsylania Gov. Ed Rendell plans to consolidate school districts, his neighbors in New Jersey declare  that it doesn’t really save money. Frank Belluscio of the New Jersey School Boards Association says:

“What we’ve found invariably is that somebody’s property taxes do go up. That is because of differences in property wealth, and there might be differences in enrollment.”

The story also tells us, “Current labor law requires the consolidated district to adopt the contract of whichever district was highest paid…”

Will hope triumph over experience? No.

Robert Benincasa of National Public Radio reveals individual California teachers and school employees gave far more money to support Proposition 8 – the ban on gay marriage – than to defeat it.

“Teachers, aides and counselors in California public school systems gave about $2 to support the marriage ban for every $1 they gave to oppose it. The educators gave some $450,000 in individual contributions to advocates supporting the ban and about $210,000 to those opposing it, according to the NPR analysis.”

These individual contributions were dwarfed by the $1.3 million the California Teachers Association contributed to the No on 8 campaign. California voters approved the ban, but CTA continues the battle, recently filing an amicus brief against enactment of the law.

“I think the CTA does represent the majority of its members,” said CTA spokeswoman Sandra Jackson. “I don’t believe that the overall membership is more conservative than the leadership. If so, I think we would hear about it.”

If you do not hear, perhaps it is from want of listening.