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

Lauren MacLean is a student at Churchill County High School in Nevada. She is also a reporter for the student newspaper. She wrote a story about how several students did not have their audition tapes forwarded to a state choir competition, apparently due to a failure on the part of Kathy Archey, who is a teacher and the school’s choir director.

Here is a link to the story Lauren wrote, reprinted in the Lahontan Valley News.

Not exactly the most devastating condemnation ever published, is it? Well, the Churchill County Education Association was so incensed by the article it filed a grievance against the district, claiming a violation of the collective bargaining agreement regarding discipline without just cause. The union is seeking to block publication of the article (due out today), but the school district plans to go ahead anyway. This prompted the union to file a second grievance because the district released information about the first grievance to the public.

The cat, however, is out of the bag. The story was picked up by just about every Nevada newspaper, including the big ones in Reno and Las Vegas, prompted an editorial blasting the union in the Las Vegas Review-Journal, went out on the Associated Press wire, found its way to USA Today, and caught the attention of the Student Press Law Center and the Poynter Institute.

So who would you say learned more about freedom of the press this week, Lauren or the Churchill County Education Association?

A liberal application of campaign dollars helped bring the public employees’ union a tax victory in Oregon, and it didn’t take long for others to get the message.

The Hawaii State Teachers Association unveiled a plan to create two new income tax brackets, along with increases in capital gains and corporate taxes.

“There’s no good solution to furloughs, either this year or next year, without additional funding for the Department of Education. And the only way to do that is to increase revenues,” said Jim Williams, executive director of the HSTA.

If there are any demographics and economics researchers out there, now would be a good time to establish a tax benchmark in the 50 states – a snapshot of tax levels as these proposals gain traction. If they persist and spread, we should be able to track over time business and citizen movement across state lines and attribute the trends to the new tax rates. With tax hikes passed in Oregon, and now on the table in Hawaii, believe me, California will be next. It might be nice to know how this affects movement into Nevada, Arizona, Utah, Texas, Idaho and Montana.

Ted Kennedy’s Senate seat lost, health insurance reform in limbo, Air America folds, John Edwards admits paternity… it was enough to make your average progressive burst into tears. But fear not! At least in the world of public education, you can console yourself with new bundles of taxpayer cash.

Yesterday in Oregon, two tax increase initiatives backed almost exclusively by public employees’ unions passed by comfortable margins. Gloating press releases from the Oregon Education Association here, and from NEA here.

Nationally, in advance of tonight’s State of the Union speech, the White House announced that K-12 education won’t be affected by an “austere” federal budget and will instead receive a “major” increase in funding.

Harris released its annual poll last week that seeks to determine which Washington, DC interest groups are most trusted and most powerful.

The American Red Cross ranked at the top of the trust standings, with 86% of respondents saying they trusted the organization “a great deal” or “a fair amount.” The least trusted was the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) at 37% – just below the AFL-CIO, at 38%.

NEA finished 7th out of the 12 organizations listed, with a 62% trust rating, down 5 points from last year.

When asked “How much power within Washington, DC do you believe these organizations have?” the AFL-CIO topped the list, with 90% saying the federation had “a great deal” or “a fair amount” of power. NEA finished 5th in this category, at 79%, up 5 points from last year.

Viewing the two together, it seems in DC the more powerful you are, the less trusted you are.

Click here to read:

1) Government Union Members Outnumber Private Sector Members

2) Oregon Fails to Identify Largest “Out-of-State Contributor” to Tomorrow’s Election

3) Iowa State Education Association Local Disaffiliates

4) Last Week’s Intercepts

5) Quote of the Week

In a column about union political endorsements, the Chicago Tribune‘s Eric Zorn throws in this aside:

Quick, tangential story. Last month, on a  Sunday morning, we discovered a leak in what looked like a difficult access point in our kitchen faucet. We called a union plumbing shop recommended by Angie’s List, and while the guy on the phone couldn’t have been nicer, he explained that union rules dictated that, because it was Sunday, this was going to fall into the category of two-hour minimum, double-time emergency service — roughly $500.  Upshot: The neighborhood handyman diagnosed and fixed the problem in less than five minutes and I had to force him to accept $20.

This idea pops up every now and then, but it bears close attention in this case because of the economic situation, and because it’s being pushed by a Republican gubernatorial candidate.

Nevada’s Brian Sandoval wants to divert school construction bond funds to operating expenses in the Clark County School District.

Some of those quoted in the story have harsh words for the idea, with which I agree, but does this have legs, or is it just a strange way to get your name in the papers?