Newsom’s 2020-21 Budget – A big pie but empty calories
Newsom’s 2020-21 Budget – A big pie but empty calories
Governor Newsom has unveiled his budget proposal for the fiscal year 2020-21, and it comes in at a whopping $222 billion. That’s up from $209 billion last year, and sharply up from a few years ago. Backing up a decade, the 2010-11 budget totaled $130 billion. What on earth could justify a 70 percent increase...
By Edward Ring
California Dystopia Update: The January 2020 edition
California Dystopia Update: The January 2020 edition
On Friday, Gov. Gavin Newsom presented a 2020-21 state budget that includes more money for K-12 public schools than ever before. But even as metrics-driven education reforms over the past quarter-century have paid major dividends in both union states (Massachusetts, New Jersey) and non-union states (Florida, Texas), California lawmakers have never seriously considered trying to...
By Chris Reed
A solution to the free rider problem
A solution to the free rider problem
Union leaders grumble when non-members get union perks; here’s a way out. As a result of the Janus decision in June 2018, workers are no longer forced to pay any money whatsoever to a public employee union as a condition of employment. While teachers and other government workers were freed from paying union dues or...
By Larry Sand
West Contra Costa School District putting a half-billion dollar bond before voters in March
West Contra Costa School District putting a half-billion dollar bond before voters in March
One of the most financially mismanaged school districts in California has found a solution to their financial challenges – borrow more money, and let the voters pay more in property taxes. Scheduled to appear on the March 2020 local ballot for voters living within the West Contra Costa Unified School District, Measure R, a “classroom modernization...
By Edward Ring
Gompers must choose what kind of future it wants
Gompers must choose what kind of future it wants
In 2004, following decades of poor student performance and gang crime, parents at San Diego’s Gompers Middle School and the school’s principal used a little-known state law to convert their campus into a public charter school. The new school, called Gompers Preparatory Academy, thrived. Campus safety improved, test scores rose, and students and teachers lined...
By Koppany Jordan
More Red than Ed
More Red than Ed
Radical teacher’s movement picks up some steam in 2019 and national unions join in. #RedforED began as a grassroots teachers’ movement that was organized on Facebook in early 2018. Cooked up by Noah Karvelis, a 24-year-old music teacher and socialist from Arizona, its raison-d’etre is ultimately class warfare. Karvelis’ own words are ripped from The...
By Larry Sand
Public Employee Strike Looms in Santa Clara County
Public Employee Strike Looms in Santa Clara County
With 2020 upon us, it appears likely that two unions representing Santa Clara County employees will be going on strike. Unless agreements can be reached, 3,000 members of the Registered Nurses Professional Association will strike, along with over 11,000 members of the SEIU. When one considers the political leanings of the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors,...
By Edward Ring
Taxing Californians’ patience
Taxing Californians’ patience
The new Prop. 13, very much unlike the iconic original, hurts taxpayers. There is yet another potential tax grab coming to California in the form of a school bond, which will be on the March 3rd ballot. The ironically named Prop. 13, a “School and College Facilities Bond,” would authorize $15 billion in general obligation...
By Larry Sand
The faux nonprofit prophets
The faux nonprofit prophets
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...
By Larry Sand
Is new property transfer tax plan a blank check?
Is new property transfer tax plan a blank check?
On December 10, the SJ City Council approved a directional plan which aims to allocate to affordable housing monies raised from a proposed new property transfer tax. The plan has no guarantees that the monies will actually be spent on housing and has no guardrails to make sure the money isn’t misspent on overpriced new...
By Christopher Escher
The Manger vs The Monster – Housing California’s Homeless
The Manger vs The Monster – Housing California’s Homeless
“And she brought forth her firstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the inn.” – Luke 2:7 Advocates for the homeless frequently invoke biblical passages in order to appeal to the Christian compassion that still guides the hearts of most Americans, whether...
By Edward Ring
Montana, SCOTUS, and your kids
Montana, SCOTUS, and your kids
Americans are losing confidence that public schools will improve, but a Supreme Court case could pave the way to greater parental choice. A recent in-depth survey by RealClearPolitics concludes that a majority of registered voters are dissatisfied with the performance of America’s education system and “have little confidence that public schools will improve any time...
By Larry Sand
The Many Unintended Consequences of AB 5
The Many Unintended Consequences of AB 5
By now anyone who works as an independent contractor in California has heard of AB 5, which will force companies to reclassify them as employees. The justification for AB 5, which was reportedly written by the AFL-CIO, is to prevent companies from exploiting workers. Without AB 5, the reasoning goes, companies hire freelancers to do the same work...
By Edward Ring
Is Elitist Elizabeth’s campaign collapsing?
Is Elitist Elizabeth’s campaign collapsing?
The NEA grills POTUS candidates on the issues, and Elizabeth Warren is outed as a world-class hypocrite. In an attempt to be transparent about its endorsing process, the National Education Association is recording interviews with all the 2020 Democratic presidential candidates. And Elizabeth Warren’s effort is right in line with her talk in Atlanta, in...
By Larry Sand