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

Expect to see more headlines like this one in the coming weeks:

Obama bill targets teacher jobs, but Ark. officials say jobs not at risk

Click here to read:

1) Jobs Act Is More Act Than Jobs

2) Last Week’s Intercepts

3) Quote of the Week

Back in July, the California legislature passed Assembly Bill 114, which, the Los Angeles Times prescientally noted, requires school districts “to assume that they will get as much money from the state this year as they did in the last, even though the projections on which the state budget is based are unrealistically rosy. School budgets will probably have to be slashed midyear, and school boards and superintendents will have to deal with it then, on the fly.”

Districts are forbidden to lay off teachers or cut programs, so they better stock up on magic beans because – surprise! – revenues are falling short of projections. The Sacramento Bee reports the state fell $541 million short of July expectations, and there are already signs the state may also miss its August projections.

The good news is teachers will hold on to their jobs. The bad news is they’ll have to be paid with company scrip.

Public schools in Butte, Montana, are closed due to a strike. Not a teacher strike. A principal strike.

The principals are represented by the Teamsters and the teachers’ union is honoring their picket line.

Click here to read:

1) Tiny Cracks in the Great Wall

2) Last Week’s Intercepts

3) Quotes of the Week

Harris Interactive surveyed 2,450 people to learn their attitudes about labor unions. The overall results were what you might expect in the current climate – unions are not very popular – but what you wouldn’t expect is the negative attitude about them in union households.

To be sure, “union households” is an imperfect measure of support for unions. I, for one, was brought up in a union household. But the Harris numbers are startling nonetheless, especially when examined without reference to the larger population.

First the positive news. Seventy-two percent of union household members agree that unions “improve wages and working conditions of workers,” while 55 percent agree that unions “work to get legislation that helps all working people, whether they are union members or not.”

After that, large numbers of union household members hold what are clearly “anti-union” attitudes. Sixty percent believe unions “are too involved in political activities.” Sixty-three percent think unions “are more concerned with fighting change than with trying to bring about change.”

Those are differences of opinion with the unions’ external activities. What’s worse is how they view unions from within. Forty-six percent believe unions “stifle individual initiative.” Most troublesome is that only 47 percent think unions “give members their money’s worth for the dues they pay.”

What we don’t know is if individual initiative has been stifled to the point that no one will do anything about it.

“Good luck at the new school, Mr. Duffy, and remember: However tough it is to deal with teachers, at least you don’t have to deal with yourself.”

- Nick Gillespie, editor in chief, Reason