Week 36 Entries

Public Sector Unions – The Other Deep State

When government fails, public-sector unions win. When society fragments, public-sector unions consolidate their power. When citizenship itself becomes less meaningful, and the benefits of American citizenship wither, government unions offer an exclusive solidarity. Government unions insulate their members from the challenges facing ordinary private citizens. On every major issue of our time; globalization, immigration, climate...

By Edward Ring

Teach for America, not California

Assembly bill would eliminate the successful TFA program in CA, a state which desperately needs more good teachers. Assembly Bill 221 in California would prohibit school districts from entering into a contract with a third-party organization that employs teachers “who commit to teaching in the organization for less than five years.” This is an obvious...

By Larry Sand

Why are Public Safety Unions supporting Teachers Unions?

During the Los Angeles teachers strike earlier this year, an article in the far-left publication The Nation offered an excellent glimpse into the mentality of strikers and their supporters. The article begins by describing a scene in front of an LAUSD middle school on day three of the strike. A truck driver has arrived to make a delivery to...

By Edward Ring

National Association of Arrogant Calculating Phonies

Renegade locals fight California state NAACP and national board over anti-charter school stance. Nearly 68 percent of all black public school students in California perform below their grade level in English and language arts, and more than 80 percent fail to meet the state’s proficiency mark in math, according to the latest California Assessment of...

By Larry Sand

Week 38 Entries

Congratulations go to Jonathan Boring (uplifting cnc) for his furniture varnish can with full marks for a funny quip, great irony, and strong social media impact. Like most Californians, the Howard furniture varnish company has not taken the Prop65 warning seriously and found a creative way of letting its customers know that they should disregard...

By Renee Olivett

Citizen Reformers Set to Transform Oxnard’s Politics

Oxnard has got a problem. The city’s contributions to CalPERS, which totaled $23 million in their fiscal year 2016-17, are going to increase to $45 million by 2024-25. Where is this money going to come from? As reported last week, the “skyrocketing pension costs” have already led Oxnard’s Mayor to call for “painful cuts.” But if...

By Edward Ring

Fifty costly years of failure to “fix” education

Research shows that technocratic reforms have made no difference in alleviating the achievement gap. A new study by Eric Hanushek et al. for the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) shows that all the top-down fixes – No Child Left Behind, Race to the Top, etc. – piled on by the education industrial complex have...

By Larry Sand

Week 37 Entries

Congratulations this week go to Jonathan Boring (Cleanclean.christian.memes.daily) for an incredible array of Prop65 warnings in a wonderfully ironic post. Watch out, hunters. Gun legislation has to be particularly ripe in a state in which even toy guns are deemed lethal. Only in Crazy California! View this post on Instagram I guess we...

By Renee Olivett

What Would Howard Do?

The “WWHD Conference — What Would Howard Ahmanson, Sr., Do?” — was held August 1, 2018, the year marking the 50th anniversary of my father’s death. I decided I wanted to sponsor it, mostly to honor him. In the tumultuous year of 1968, when Howard Sr. died, he owned Home Savings and Loan, the largest savings...

By Editorial Staff

Housing and Transportation – How California’s Legislature Gets EVERYTHING Wrong

California, the welcoming sanctuary state, has a population on track to break 40 million by the end of this year. Its highway system was designed to handle a population of 20 million. Its cities, bound by legislated “urban containment,” are 3.5 million homes short of what would meet current housing needs. As a result, commuters spend hours stuck in...

By Edward Ring

City of Oxnard Pension Contributions Set to Double by 2024

As reported by the Ventura County Star, the City of Oxnard faces budget headwinds. Quoted in the article, Mayor Tim Flynn had this to say: We’re making decisions that should have been made 10, 20 years ago to put the city on a sustainable path,” Flynn said. “These are very painful cuts, but we have to...

By Edward Ring

How California’s Legislation Targeting Public Charter Schools Shows That Blue States Can Oppress Black People Too

Blue states oppress black people too. Nowhere is this more obvious than in policing and public education in California. California’s Legislature is grappling with these issues this session. Assemblymember Shirley Weber (D-San Diego), a progressive voice and chair of the California Legislative Black Caucus, is authoring AB 392, which seeks to change the use of...

By Margaret Fortune

L.A. tax addicts looking to score

Union leader and the school district want more of your money to feed a bad habit. United Teachers of Los Angeles President Alex Caputo-Pearl is on a mission. In an online rant to his flock, he makes a pitch for Measure EE, a parcel tax that will be on the ballot in Los Angeles on...

By Larry Sand

Week 36’s winning entry is provided by Denise Smith (MrsNellie08). It appears that being fashionable is just another way that Californians can contract cancer or put their progeny at risk. It also points to one of the benefits of the web. The warning only appears when a Californian makes a purchase. Fashion apparently kills only...

By Renee Olivett