The rigid old normal

By Larry Sand
05/26/2020
When the Covid-19 craziness subsides, our calcified zip-code education laws will endure. Pundits are continuously speculating about what the post-pandemic “new normal” will look like in education when schools open (hopefully) in a few months. Many say that smaller class size will be necessary to facilitate social distancing. Some think that homeschooling will flourish. While...

TAGS: Gloria Romero, Larry Sand, National Education Association, school choice, teachers union

Court sides with parents in battle with district over lousy school

By Craig Alexander
04/28/2017
Officials fought parents for years to keep children in a failing Anaheim school Parent-trigger warning In 2015 parents at the Palm Lane Elementary School of the Anaheim City School District turned in far more signatures than needed under the Parent Trigger Law (authored by former State Sen. Gloria Romero as Ed. Code sections 53300-53303). The goal...

TAGS: Charter schools, Gloria Romero, parent trigger law

The Latest Teachers Unions’ Monopoly Moves

By Larry Sand
05/03/2016
April revealed the teachers unions’ desperation over losing control of top-down, one-size fits all government-run schools. In many ways April was normal for teacher union monopolists. Early in the month, the Washington Teachers Union said it would challenge a new law in the Evergreen State that corrected problems in the way that charter schools, which...

TAGS: Alliance to Reclaim Our Schools, American Federation of Teachers, California Teachers Association, CREDO, Gloria Romero, James Tooley, Larry Sand, Randi Weingarten, teachers union, The Beautiful Tree, Washington Teachers Union

The DivIdes of March

By Larry Sand
03/15/2016
My latest battle against a teacher union leader…. Last month, Rebecca Friedrichs, lead plaintiff in a lawsuit against the California Teachers Association that was recently heard by the U.S. Supreme Court, and I were invited to talk about her case on Inside OC, a public affairs TV show in Orange County. Rebecca was given the...

TAGS: agency fee payers, American Federation of Teachers, California Teachers Association, CTA, Eric Heins, fair share, Gloria Romero, Jay Greene, Koch Brothers, labor peace, Larry Sand, Randi Weingarten, Rebecca Friedrichs, Rod Paige, seiu, teachers union, Terry Moe

Glazer Victory Proves Government Union Reform Is Bipartisan

By Private: Gloria Romero
06/05/2015
Steve Glazer is a symbol of change. The Democrat mayor of Orinda, Glazer, won a decisive victory over Concord Assemblywoman Susan Bonilla in last week’s special election for the vacant 7th District State Senate seat. Given California’s open primary system, it was a Democrat vs. Democrat runoff in which Glazer’s foes resorted to attacking him...

TAGS: Gloria Romero, Steve Glazer, Susan Bonilla

California Democrat Goes Rogue, Incurs Government Union Wrath

By Private: Gloria Romero
03/26/2015
It didn’t take long for “the brotherhood” of status quo politics to pile on. Within hours of former Assembly member Joan Buchanan having lost her election bid for Northern California’s 7th Senate District seat in last week’s special election to fill the vacancy, she endorsed labor-embraced and fellow Democratic Assemblywoman Susan Bonilla, D-Concord. Together, they...

TAGS: Gloria Romero, government unions, public sector unions, Steve Glazer

Parent Trigger & Open Enrollment – Ways to Cope With Union Controlled Schools

By Edward Ring
01/27/2015
In January 2010 the California’s legislature passed into law, perhaps uncharacteristically, an excellent new law. Entitled “Public schools: Race to the Top,” SB 54 created two mechanisms for parents to exert greater control over the education of their children. There are two components: (1) The Open Enrollment Act mandates that the California Department of Education to...

TAGS: Gloria Romero, Palm Lane Elementary School, Parent trigger laws

Union-dues case moves closer to Supreme Court

By Private: Gloria Romero
11/25/2014
Sometimes you win by losing. That’s precisely what occurred last week, when the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals granted the motion by Rebecca Friedrichs’ attorneys to decide her case (Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association) on the basis of the pleadings, without a trial or additional oral arguments. The “loss” actually means that plaintiffs –...

TAGS: Center for Individual Rights, Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association, Friedrichs vs. the CTA, Gloria Romero, Harris v. Quinn

Parents Need a Private School Option When Public Schools Fail

By Larry Sand
11/18/2014
As the need for vouchers increases, the politics of school privatization gets interestinger and interestinger. “Some NYC teachers: ‘Don’t send your kids here!’” screamed the headline in a New York Post article last week. The damning story goes on to explain how over 80 percent of the teachers in eight public schools – including charters...

TAGS: American Federation of Teachers, D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program, Education Next, Fordham Institute, Friedman Foundation, Gloria Romero, Hillary Clinton, Howard Fuller, Kevin Chavous, Larry Sand, National Education Association, Randi Weingarten, teachers union, voucher, Whitney Tilson

Teachers Unions’ Election Day Thumping

By Larry Sand
11/11/2014
“Teachers Unions Take a Beating in Midterm Races” “Teachers Unions Take a Shellacking” “Teachers Unions Get Schooled in 2014 Election” The above is just a small sampling of post-election headlines which flooded the media after last Tuesday’s historic election, which generated a major political shakeup in the nation’s capital as well as state houses from...

TAGS: American Enterprise Institute, American Federation of Teachers, Bruce Rauner, California Center for Parent Empowerment, Center for Education Reform, City Journal, EdSource, Gloria Romero, John Fensterwald, Kara Kerwin, Larry Sand, Lily Eskelsen Garcia, Marshall Tuck, National Education Association, Randi Weingarten, Rick Hess, Rick Scott, Rick Snyder, Scott Walker, Steve Greenhut, teachers union, Tom Corbett, Tom Torlakson, Vergara