A Pension Recommendation for the California Teachers Association

By Edward Ring
08/13/2020
This week a fascinating article on the website of the Education Intelligence Agency revealed that the California Teachers Association, one of the most powerful labor unions in the world, is itself having labor problems. Moreover, the labor problems they’re encountering are because they’re trying to be fiscally responsible. Setting aside for a moment all the grievances that education reformers...

TAGS: California Teachers Association, CalSTRS, government pensions, pension reform

Subsidiarity must become a reality in education

By Larry Sand
08/04/2020
The one-size-fits-all regimen for schools needs to end. Originating in the Catholic Church, subsidiarity is an organizing principle that stipulates “matters ought to be handled by the smallest, lowest or least centralized competent authority.” And our times are most definitely screaming for this simple but powerful concept to be applied to schooling. A perfect example...

TAGS: California Teachers Association, Gavin Newsom, Larry Sand, teachers union

School is canceled in California

By Larry Sand
07/21/2020
Governor Newsom and teachers unions nix in-person instruction for most school kids in the fall. The writing was on the chalkboard when the California Teachers Association released a statement on July 8th asserting that, due to coronavirus concerns, schools should not open in the fall. The following day, the United Teachers of Los Angeles echoed...

TAGS: American Academy of Pediatrics, California Teachers Association, Corey DeAngelis, Gavin Newsom, John Fensterwald, Kevin Kiley, Larry Sand, Los Angeles Unified School District, pandemic pods, school choice, socialism, Speak Up, teachers union, United Teachers of Los Angeles

The coming upheaval in education

By Larry Sand
05/12/2020
Due to Covid-19 related economic realities, the unions demand the Feds pour billions more into education. There is no way to sugarcoat it. The economic impact of Covid-19 will take its toll on education funding. The National Education Association is in full freak-out mode, “calling for an additional $175 billion to stabilize education funding—the $30.7...

TAGS: Alex Caputo-Pearl, Benjamin Scafidi, California Teachers Association, COVID-19, Larry Sand, LIFO, National Education Association, seniority, teachers union, United Teachers of Los Angeles

Schools out…forever?

By Larry Sand
03/24/2020
Whether it’s a pandemic, a damn panic, or all the above, the coronavirus has turned us into a nation of homeschoolers. With just about every public school in the country closed at this time, the only way for kids to get an education is at home. Many see this as nothing less than tragic. Writing...

TAGS: A.J. Duffy, Andrew Coulson, California Federation of Teachers, California Teachers Association, Corey DeAngelis, coronavirus, homeschooling, Horace Mann, Kerry McDonald, Larry Sand, Lindsey Burke, Stephen Sawchuk, teachers union, United Teachers of Los Angeles

Government sanctioned child abuse

By Larry Sand
02/25/2020
Wisconsin parents fight the transgender lobby, while California is going in the other direction. Fourteen Wisconsin parents represented by Alliance Defending Freedom and the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty, public interest legal firms, have filed a lawsuit in an attempt to stop a policy they say “instructs teachers to assist and encourage children in...

TAGS: California Teachers Association, Larry Sand, teachers union, transgender

Teachers unions lose it over State of the Union address

By Larry Sand
02/11/2020
Union leaders are enraged at Trump and DeVos for the audacity of promoting parental choice. Last week, the President’s State of the Union address was a typically upbeat affair. President Trump outlined his many successes and Congressional Republicans were jubilant, while Democrats scowled. One of the features of Trump’s talk was a revival of Texas...

TAGS: American Federation of Teachers, Betsy DeVos, California Teachers Association, Donald Trump, Lance Izumi, Larry Sand, Lily Eskelsen Garcia, National Education Association, Neal McCluskey, Pacific Research Institute, Randi Weingarten, teachers union, United Teachers of Los Angeles

The faux nonprofit prophets

By Larry Sand
12/24/2019
The clamor over for-profit charters has no substance whatsoever. Among the many vapid rallying cries in the 2019 presidential follies is the one that stresses the importance of eliminating for-profit charter schools. In October, Elizabeth Warren released her education plan that proposed eliminating them, and using the IRS to investigate existing schools that may “actually...

TAGS: Bernie Sanders, California Teachers Association, Elizabeth Warren, James Tooley, Kids Not Profits, Larry Sand, National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, National Assessment of Educational Progress, teachers union, The Beautiful Tree

The profligacy of legacy costs

By Larry Sand
11/19/2019
Better pay and working conditions for teachers can be achieved, if only the unions would get out of the way. We live in striking times. In 2018 there were state-wide teacher work stoppages in West Virginia, Oklahoma, Arizona, et al. And this year, we have seen strikes in Denver, Los Angeles and Chicago. Not surprisingly,...

TAGS: California Teachers Association, Daniel DiSalvo, Larry Sand, teacher pay, teachers union, United Teachers of Los Angeles

Carrying for the kids

By Larry Sand
11/12/2019
An analysis of school shootings by the U.S. Secret Service doesn’t really tell us anything new. A report released last week by the U.S. Secret Service National Threat Assessment Center on “targeted school violence” doesn’t add much to what we already knew. Nearly every attacker “experienced negative home life factors.” Most were victims of bullying...

TAGS: American Federation of Teachers, California Teachers Association, Larry Sand, NRA, Parkland, Randi Weingarten, Sandy Hook, teachers union