Union Watch Highlights

By Jack Dean

01/31/2012

California Teachers Association backs Brown’s tax plan By Kevin Yamamura, January 30, 2012, Sacramento Bee The California Teachers Association officially agreed Sunday to back Gov. Jerry Brown’s multibillion-dollar tax plan, which should provide the governor hefty financial support for his fall campaign. The union represents 325,000 teachers and education workers, and it is a heavy...

Jerry Brown and CTA: Testphobic Twins

By Larry Sand

01/31/2012

Children in the Golden State will get a better education when teacher quality becomes a priority. In perhaps the most in-depth study on the subject to date, three Ivy League economists studied how much the quality of individual teachers matters to their students over the long term. The paper, by Raj Chetty and John N....

TAGS: California Teachers Association, Jerry Brown, Lance Izumi, standardized testing, teacher quality, teachers unions, value added

How Much Could California's Government Pensions Cost Taxpayers?

By Edward Ring

01/27/2012

January 27, 2012 This week both of California’s largest government employee pension funds, CalPERS and CalSTRS, released their portfolio earnings numbers for the most recent twelve months. In a statement released on January 24th, “CalSTRS Calendar Year-End Investment Returns Show Slight Gains,” CalSTRS disclosed “Investment returns for the California State Teachers’ Retirement System (CalSTRS) ended...

How Much Could California’s Government Pensions Cost Taxpayers?

By Editor

01/27/2012

This week both of California’s largest government employee pension funds, CalPERS and CalSTRS, released their portfolio earnings numbers for the most recent twelve months. In a statement released on January 24th, “CalSTRS Calendar Year-End Investment Returns Show Slight Gains,” CalSTRS disclosed “Investment returns for the California State Teachers’ Retirement System (CalSTRS) ended the 2011 calendar...

TAGS: CalPERS, CalSTRS

CalPERS Earned 1.1% on Investments in 2011, Plan Assumptions are 7.75%

By Mike Shedlock

01/27/2012

Pension plans rebounded sharply in 2009 and 2010 from the devastating losses in 2008. However they never got back to even. 2011 was another poor year, and in spite of the start to 2012 I expect this year and/or next year to suffer more losses, or alternatively the market to limp along with no gains...

How the NLRB Agenda Creates Unemployment

By Dave Bego

01/27/2012

Labor union membership continues to be blind to the fact that the support of its “leadership” to President Obama and his political allies is coming at the cost of the members. Big Labor bosses and their political allies are happy to continue to throw the membership under the bus for their own personal gain. For...

How Unions Intimidate Business Owners

By Editor

01/27/2012

It is unusual to find serious coverage of union “corporate campaigns” in the media. A regular contributor to UnionWatch, Dave Bego, who owns a multi-state services company that has fought back the SEIU for years, has worked tirelessly to expose how unions intimidate business owners into permitting unionization of their companies. Here is another such...

Union Watch Highlights

By Jack Dean

01/24/2012

Unions and Rebranded ACORN Behind Violent Occupy San Francisco Clashes With Police By Lee Stranahan, January 23, 2012, Big Government In San Francisco this past weekend, the Occupy movement bolstered by labor unions and the rebranded California ACORN group ACCE once again terrorized private businesses and got into direct clashes that included throwing furniture, bricks...

Exposing a 40 Year Education Crime: Why California Needs School Choice

By Larry Sand

01/24/2012

Busting LAUSD and every other school district in the state for negligence should help kids, but it’s anyone’s guess as to when. In the meantime, giving families more educational options would be a great help, but don’t hold your breath, California. With National School Choice Week underway, we see many positive things happening across the...

TAGS: National School Choice Week, school boards, Stull Act, teachers unions, vouchers

The Faces of the Forgotten 33%

By Editor

01/23/2012

Earlier this month a UnionWatch editorial referenced “The Atlas Generation,” describing those Americans who are not members of the elite 1% super-rich, nor part of the privileged 20% who work for the government, nor among the nearly 50% of America’s population who are, apparently, poor enough to avoid taxes altogether. Who are these forgotten 33%?...

Universal Housing Affordability

Report Archive