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

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1) Trading Students for Employees

2) Last Week’s Intercepts

3) Quote of the Week

Definitive membership numbers for the National Education Association are not as easy to obtain as they used to be, and when they do appear, sources often confuse timelines (May, September and December numbers are very different) and categories (total, active, ESP and certificated all yield different numbers). Coupled with the fact that official numbers sometimes defy common sense, and reporting accurately becomes troublesome.

However, if we accept the 3,269,523 total members reported by the union in December 2009 as the high-water mark, then NEA has lost more than 95,000 members in the last 18 months. Virtually all of these appear to be working K-12 teachers and education support personnel.

Forty state affiliates reported losses compared to last year at the same time. The union expects a further loss of 30,000 active members this year.

In response, NEA is proposing about $14 million in budget adjustments – in line with what EIA reported back in February.

AmeriCorps is a federal community service program that places volunteers in places of need. Its motto is “Your world. Your chance to make it better.” The organization also has a pledge:

I will get things done for America -
to make our people safer,
smarter, and healthier.

I will bring Americans together
to strengthen our communities.

Faced with apathy,
I will take action.

Faced with conflict,
I will seek common ground.

Faced with adversity,
I will persevere.

I will carry this commitment
with me this year and beyond.

I am an AmeriCorps member,
and I will get things done.

The pledge provides no guidance for AmeriCorps members faced with union complaints to the state labor board.

The California School Employees Association charged the the Twin Rivers Unified School District with unfair labor practices for using AmeriCorps volunteers in the classroom as teachers’ aides.

“We have highly qualified people who have been laid off,” said CSEA’s Carlo Tarantola. “We are  concerned about our members, but the greater concern is that children are being  instructed by people without any training.”

Interestingly, the local teachers’ union has an opposing view. “Teachers like AmeriCorps,” said union president John Ennis. “Any additional adult in the classroom  is good.”

The Sacramento Bee editorial page criticized CSEA, pointing out the lack of connection between AmeriCorps presence and teacher aide layoffs.

Dane County Circuit Judge Maryann Sumi struck down the new Wisconsin collective bargaining law, which might mean it will have to be passed again, which might mean another NEA Friend of Education junket to Rockford, Illinois.

Make your reservations now, before all the bar stools are gone.

I don’t watch The Simpsons, but I did come across the season finale, which is worth viewing in its entirety (22 minutes).

If you lack the time, here’s a synopsis of the relevant portion, concerning teacher Edna Krabappel, courtesy of Blogcritics:

The teachers’ union will not allow her to be fired, so instead, she is forced to  report to a holding room every day, with full pay, to await a hearing in fifty-seven years for her actions.

Not this one. This one:

Doomsday budget forecast for schools may not materialize

After issuing thousands of preliminary layoff notices, drafting budgets with deep cuts and listening to sky-is-falling scenarios that would shorten the school year by a month, California schools now face a startling possibility: There actually may be the same amount of money as this year.

In short, California teachers spent about $5 million in union dues to get David Sanchez arrested and jailed overnight. Hallelujah!

Yesterday  we heard the battle between charter schools and teachers unions “is coming to an end.”

So, as charter schools tentatively creeped out of their bunkers, they were hit on both flanks with artillery fire.

The California Assembly passed a new cap on the number of charter schools – a bill sponsored by the California Federation of Teachers – and the recent United Federation of Teachers lawsuit would prevent the Upper West Success Academy charter school from moving to a public school campus.

Stay in the trenches, troops.