End the Solidarity Mindset of Teachers and Cops

By RiShawn Biddle
12/30/2014
Chances are that you don’t think that New York City Patrolman’s Benevolent Association President Patrick Lynch has much in common with Randi Weingarten of the American Federation of Teachers. In fact, after Lynch sparred earlier this year with Weingarten protégé Michael Mulgrew, the president of the union’s United Federation of Teachers local, over the unit’s collaboration...

TAGS: American Federation of Teachers, National Education Association, Vergara v California

Happy Sue Year!

By Larry Sand
12/30/2014
The Chinese zodiac is transitioning from “horse” to “sheep,” but in the U.S., where school choice is involved, the species in 2014-2015 is “lawyer.” School choice comes in many flavors, but the privatization kind is the most threatening to various special interests because government-run schools are money-makers and power bases for them. Teachers unions, entrenched...

TAGS: American Federation of Teachers, Cato Institute, education savings account, Florida Education Association, Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice, Jason Bedrick, Larry Sand, National Education Association, school choice, tax-credit scholarships, teachers union, vouchers, Wisconsin

Unaffordable California – It Doesn’t Have To Be This Way

By Richard Rider
12/29/2014
December 2014 Update:  Here’s a documented comparison of California taxes and economic climate with the rest of the states. The news is bad, and getting worse. But it doesn’t have to be this way! The state and local government policies that created an unaffordable California can be reversed. PERSONAL INCOME TAX:  Prior to Prop 30...

TAGS: California business tax climate, California energy costs, California gas taxes, California housing costs, California legal environment, California personal income tax, California property tax rate, California sales taxes, California tax rate, California unemployment, California welfare and poverty

Democrats and Teachers Unions: The Chasm Grows

By Larry Sand
12/23/2014
As more Dems demand education reform, the teachers unions find themselves increasingly isolated. Going back to 2009, I have written many times about the relationship between the teachers unions and the Democratic Party. It’s no secret that the party and the unions were at one time synonymous, but this is rapidly becoming history. Quite clearly,...

TAGS: Andrew Cuomo, Campbell Brown, Democratic Party, Democrats for Education Reform, Joel Klein, Koch Brothers, Larry Sand, Michael Mulgrew, National Education Association, New York State United Teachers, teachers union, United Federation of Teachers

The Abundance Choice

By Edward Ring
12/23/2014
The prevailing challenge facing humanity when confronted with resource constraints is not that we are running out of resources, but how we will adapt and create new and better solutions to meet the needs that currently are being met by what are arguably scarce or finite resources. If one accepts this premise, that we are...

Transparent California Releases Compensation Data for 405 cities and 826 Special Districts Statewide

By California Policy Center
12/22/2014
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Sacramento, California, December 22, 2014 Contact: press@calpolicycenter.org; media contact Jordan Bruneau, 916-258-2396 #1 Greater Los Angeles Municipal Employees Earned Average of $119,000 in 2013 TUSTIN – Today, Transparent California released previously unseen 2013 public employee compensation data – complete with names, pay, and benefits – for 405 cities and 826 special districts statewide on TransparentCalifornia.com,...

Economic Bubbles #2 – The Cruel Injustice of the Fed's Bubbles in Housing

By Charles Smith
12/22/2014
As the generational war heats up, we should all remember the source of all the bubbles and all the policies that could only result in generational poverty: the Federal Reserve. Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen recently treated the nation to an astonishing lecture on the solution to rising wealth inequality–according to Yellen, low-income households should...

TAGS: housing bubble

Economic Bubbles #1 – Why Living in a Post-Bubble World Is No Fun

By Charles Smith
12/19/2014
What do we do when the bubble economy cannot be reflated? It is generally conceded that we are living in an era of Peak Everything: peak central bank omnipotence, peak powerless of the non-elites, peak wealth inequality, peak media-induced delusion, peak market-rigging, peak bogus official statistics, peak propaganda, peak bread and circuses, peak deception, peak distraction,...

TAGS: housing bubble

Liberals and Libertarians

By Randal O’Toole
12/18/2014
Editor’s Note:  Earlier this year, inspired by media reports – accurate ones – of a guarded and growing rapprochement between Ralph Nader and Patrick Buchanan on issues where they share common values, we published an editorial entitled “A Left-Right Alliance Against Public Sector Unions?” Drawing from Nader and Buchanan’s recently published missives, we identified five areas...