Education Secretary Arne Duncan announced today the eighteen states plus D.C. who have a chance to compete for the final round of the Race to the Top funding program. $3.4 billion is still up for grabs after Delaware and Tennessee received $600 million in round one.  Continue Reading...

Politico reports that Republican and some Democratic politicians have turned on public workers and their labor unions—particularly teachers unions, including the NEA and the AFT. According to Politico, "public employee unions [are] emerging as an intransigent public enemy number one in cities and state capitals across the country."  Continue Reading...

West Virginia State Sen. Erik Wells, a Democrat representing Kanawha, killed his own charter schools bill, criticizing the unions who opposed the legislation. "Who's standing up for students of this state?" Wells asked during his speech on the senate floor, "It's not AFT, it's not WVEA." Sen. Wells accused the unions of attacking his family because he sends his daughter to private school. Although Sen. Wells was elected in 2006 with union support, one teacher union has endorsed Wells' primary opponent.  Continue Reading...

HT Mike Antonucci's Intercepts AFT union members in New Mexico are expressing their disappointment in a recent Albuquerque Journal editorial by canceling their subscriptions. Imagine that, they have the freedom to take their business elsewhere.   Continue Reading...

The Los Angeles teachers union has been advised by their lawyers to sue the Los Angeles Unified School District to prevent schools from being turned over to charter school operators. United Teachers Los Angeles, a 48,000-member joint affiliate of the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers, received the recommendation in a memo last month, which was subsequently leaked to the Los Angeles Times.   Continue Reading...