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

It had the correct pedigree – a Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel story reporting that Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker had appointed former Assembly Speaker Scott Jensen to raid the public employees’ pension fund in order to cover the state’s budget deficit. Jensen was quoted from an appearance on Charlie Sykes’ talk radio show, and Tim Jackson, aide to Gov. Walker was also quoted. The story was attached to a chain e-mail sent by the Northwest United Educators, eventually showing up on the Little Chute Education Association web site.

Well, it turned out the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel didn’t publish such a story, Gov. Walker hadn’t appointed Jensen to raid the pension fund, Jensen hadn’t said anything and hadn’t appeared on the Sykes show, and Gov. Walker doesn’t have an aide named Tim Jackson. Other than that, it was an accurate story.

Pretty bad, but not as bad as the “retraction” from the Northwest United Educators:

Yesterday you were forwarded an e-mail that NUE had received through its WEAC connections regarding comments made by Governor Scott Walker and cohorts about your pension benefits through the WRS. We later were told that the reporter who allegedly wrote the article denied writing it. It was apparently a hoax or bad joke that was started by a WEAC local union.

When the e-mail was received it looked like something that we needed to inform you about for rapid action. The dilemma when receiving such an e-mail is how quickly to pass it on or wait for confirmation. It is interesting that so many in WEAC thought the comments were true because they seemed totally in character with actual comments by Walker and newly-elected legislators. Your pension and other benefits could very well be in peril before this legislative session is completed. Whenever we receive word of pending legislation or action that will impact your lives, we will let you know and hope you take action to contact your legislators or the governor. We hope something like this, where we receive erroneous information, will not happen again, but we can’t let it stop us from being vigilant in protecting your careers.
 
Please accept our apologies for any inconvenience or embarrassment this may have caused you.

Tim Schultz
NUE Executive Director
16 West John Street
Rice Lake, WI  54868

It’s the old “fake but accurate” defense! My favorite sentence is this:

The dilemma when receiving such an e-mail is how quickly to pass it on or wait for confirmation.

It really is a dilemma, deciding whether to immediately fire off a bulk e-mail or trying to find the story on the Journal-Sentinel web site – an endeavor of roughly, oh, 30 seconds duration. But who has time for such details when you’re so busy being vigilant?

From The Lookout on Yahoo News (hat tip to Russo):

Teachers’ unions and their supporters say without tenure, teachers would be fired for arbitrary and sometimes political reasons. They also warn that any “frontal attack” on the practice would not go unnoticed by the National Education Association’s 3.2 million members.

“I think … if teachers felt like politicians were doing harm to them, they would rise up and let them know that,” John Wilson, executive director of the largest teachers’ union, told The Lookout.

Would educators call a national strike if states across the nation tried to eliminate teacher tenure? “I would not take that off the table,” Wilson said. “I also know that a strike is never the first choice of any strategy. I would hope that the voices of our members would be influential to policy makers.”

If NEA called a national strike, it would just allow Americans to identify all the non-union schools and states where NEA holds no sway. So knock yourself out, Mr. Wilson.

In education, jobs are on everyone’s minds, and have been for a couple of years. But thanks to Politics K-12, we now know that some states are dragging ass when it comes to job saving.

Michele McNeil provides a handy chart that ranks the states according to how much of their federal stimulus money they have left. Iowa leads the way, having disposed of all but 6 percent of its funds. Arizona trails with 13 percent and my state, California (the preseason favorite for spending) ranks third with 14 percent.

Bringing up the rear are Wyoming (67%), Hawaii (57%), Delaware (55%) and Texas (53%).

Get with it, you guys! Remember, the job you save may be your own.

Since before the Civil War, Vermont NEA has held an annual convention with workshops and professional development programs.

But not this year.

At its peak, the annual convention attracted thousands of educators from around the state for two days of programs, trainings and events. Actual participation in recent years has dropped as local professional development programs have increased. The advent of web-based opportunities to buy textbooks, lesson guides and other educational materials also has dampened attendance.

Certainly it had nothing to do with the increasing use of the convention as a political rally for union-friendly lawmakers, something that plagues many of these conferences. Whatever the reason, these get-togethers appear to be on the way out. According to Vermont NEA, “At least a dozen states no longer host an annual convention, and attendance in another dozen more are (sic) declining.”

Click here to read:

1) EIA Exclusive: NEA Gave More Than $13 Million to Advocacy Groups

2) Last Week’s Intercepts

3) Quotes of the Week

A massive protest of “about 30 teachers” headed out to an Oakland mall to demand that three banks bail out schools and public services.

There is a way the banks could guarantee these teachers more money – buy them plane tickets to Boston.

The Detroit Public Schools may not just close half of its remaining schools, but abandon them – leaving them to looters to fight over what’s left.

Meanwhile, it appears Detroit Federation of Teachers president Keith Johnson has been re-elected in a runoff with long-time firebrand Steve Conn. Johnson won by 41 votes, but a recount is being conducted.

Johnson’s slate swept the other five executive positions. None of the other elections were as close as the presidential one.