Last week, the school wars intensified on many fronts. Since Governor Gavin Newsom’s July 17th edict closing all but a handful of schools in California, much has transpired. First, it was uncovered a few days later that schools in the Golden State could apply for a waiver to reopen, something Newsom mysteriously omitted in his...
Until Gov. Gavin Newsom declared most California schools closed for the fall, he had left school re-openings to local officials. But before that declaration, Orange County Board of Education trustees had voted 4-1 to approve the reopening of schools in that county. California Policy Center helped draft an early version of those recommendations, and though the final...
With the economic shutdown devastating private sector employment in California, with small family-owned businesses the worst hit, how are California’s public employees doing? A recent report by NPR paints a grim picture, “Cities Have Never Seen A Downturn Like This, And Things Will Only Get Worse.” From the San Francisco Chronicle, “California cities warn of widespread...
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...
Wiki Commons The second-largest public school district in the United States is in turmoil. Los Angeles Unified School District, with over 600,000 students in kindergarten through twelfth grade at over 1,000 schools, may not be open for the business of teaching on August 18. How to handle the COVID-19 pandemic is the issue, and there is...
Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders team up with the teachers unions; the big losers are poor and minority families. Back in May, presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden tapped Senator Bernie Sanders to help assemble six task forces which would make recommendations for the party’s 2020 platform. The allegedly moderate Biden joined up with the...
A conservative response to police-reform protests Intense public protests and riots following George Floyd’s deadly encounter with a Minneapolis police officer in May have caught many conservatives off guard. Because of their overall support for police officers and their respect for public order, conservatives seem generally troubled by the public reaction. They have – at...
***Watch a mini-documentary on the creation of OCCA HERE*** In barely one month, 360 elementary school students will begin attending a new charter school that offers a dramatic departure from the failed public education model in California. The Orange County Classical Academy (OCCA) will open its doors to kindergarten through 5th-grade students, and apart from the...
The Supreme Court finally clears the way for students to use tax-credit scholarships to attend religious schools; the teachers unions and much of the MSM are apoplectic. The oldest daughter of single mom Kendra Espinoza was being bullied and her youngest daughter was struggling academically at their local public school in Montana. Kendra transferred them...
On July 1, 2020, the Placentia, California’s new Fire and Life Safety Department commenced operations, marking a revolution in California firefighting – and in municipal finance. As documented in the two previous installments of this report, Placentia’s new and independent department replaced the more expensive services (part one) that had been provided by the union-dominated Orange County...
We choose where we buy food. Why can’t we do the same for our kids’ education? Those invested in the primacy of traditional public schools – notably the teachers unions, bureaucrats and others who financially benefit from the current set-up – insist that the government is best suited to be in charge of educating our...
On July 1 the City of Placentia will begin to operate a fire department independent of the Orange County Fire Authority. The motivation for the Placentia’s City Council to take this step was to provide equal or greater service at a lower cost. In this report, those cost savings will be summarized. The figures were...
Using Covid-19 as an excuse, the teachers union wants you to “invest” more in education; historical data put things into perspective, however. Last week I reported on the American Federation of Teachers plea for more money to flow into government-run schools because of the Covid-19 crisis. Not to be outdone, the National Education Association has...
In June 2019 the City of Placentia, in a 3-1 council vote, decided to leave the Orange County Fire Authority and build their own fire department. The reasons for this decision, and the means to accomplish it, will be explored in greater detail in a follow-up article. But the decision came down to this: a majority...