SPLC and NEA v. Parents and Kids
SPLC and NEA v. Parents and Kids
The disgraceful Southern Poverty Law Center is now trying to keep poor parents from getting their kids out of awful schools. The Southern Poverty Law Center, which regularly labels organizations whose politics they disagree with as “Hate Groups,” has jumped head-first into the school choice fray. Just a few weeks ago, they began Public Funds...
By Larry Sand
The 2020 California Tax Grab
The 2020 California Tax Grab
Still a year away, Golden Staters brace for a shoot-out with the tax bandits. Like a bad zombie movie where no one really dies, California’s “split roll property tax” is back. The last time it had a heartbeat was in 2015 via the so-called “Make it Fair” initiative, which was headed for the ballot in...
By Larry Sand
Romanticized fiction trumps facts
Romanticized fiction trumps facts
A blockbuster report exposes myths about the teaching profession, but will it matter? People love stories, and the gooier and more heart-rending the better. Few are more likely to send readers running for a box of tissues than the tale of a dedicated, but woefully underpaid teacher who is forced to take a second job,...
By Larry Sand
Child abuse: Education establishment style
Child abuse: Education establishment style
The true believers in the education world, not climate change, are a major threat to children. When I was seven years old, I had a nightmare about witches, and subsequently became convinced that I had an ugly old hag living in my closet. It wasn’t pleasant, but doing a thorough inspection of my entire bedroom,...
By Larry Sand
Failing education, lawsuits and parental choice
Failing education, lawsuits and parental choice
A literacy lawsuit is due to go to trial in October, but little will change if it is successful. Americans are shockingly weak in civics. The latest Annenberg Public Policy Center survey finds that only 39 percent could name the three branches of U.S. government and less than one-quarter know that Congress has to muster...
By Larry Sand
Greenlighting classroom disruptions
Greenlighting classroom disruptions
A new law that bans school suspensions for defiance is on the books in California. Yesterday, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed SB 419 into law, which extends the current K-3 ban for suspensions for “defiant and disruptive” behavior to grades 4-8. The law suggests that “restorative justice practices, trauma-informed practices, social and emotional learning, and schoolwide positive...
By Larry Sand
Teacher union mandates lead to teacher shortages
Teacher union mandates lead to teacher shortages
The unions treatment of teachers as interchangeable parts does great damage to the education process. In my post last week, I gave ample proof that the claim of a nationwide teacher shortage is bogus. For example, in California, where the teachers unions insist that teachers are “leaving the profession in unprecedented numbers,” there is no widespread...
By Larry Sand
The Real Reason Behind the Drive to Unionize Charter Schools
The Real Reason Behind the Drive to Unionize Charter Schools
Want to know another reason California’s teachers unions are desperate to unionize charter schools? They want the leverage to force these schools to participate in CalSTRS, because CalSTRS charges all its participants the same pension contribution rates. This is a truly amazing, grotesquely unfair, astonishing scam. It means that new schools have to pay for...
By Edward Ring
The Teacher Shortage Data Shortage
The Teacher Shortage Data Shortage
“The false cry that there is no teacher shortage must not go unchallenged.” In recent times, one cannot go far without hearing piercing screams emanating from the education cognoscenti and teacher union poohbahs about the national teacher shortage. But, then again, this hysteria is hardly new. The above quote came from The Journal of the...
By Larry Sand
California’s Mandatory Ethnic Indoctrination
California’s Mandatory Ethnic Indoctrination
California’s state legislature is on the verge of mandating an “ethnic studies” course in order for a student to graduate from high school. Why not? Today in California, K-12 public school student enrollment is only 23 percent “White not Hispanic.” Based on current immigration and fertility statistics, California’s demographics will eventually become America’s demographics. If America were the melting pot it...
By Edward Ring
SATIRE: California State Superintendent bans finger guns in schools
SATIRE: California State Superintendent bans finger guns in schools
The following was written for the “Fake News or Real” quiz on National Review’s Radio Free California podcast. –Editor After a string of non-fatal gun battles in California’s classrooms, Superintendent Tony Thurmond announced new guidelines on Tuesday to ban the use of finger guns. “This ends now! We must act! We can’t just sit around...
By Koppany Jordan
Readin’, writin’, and proselytizin’
Readin’, writin’, and proselytizin’
More than ever, parents must be vigilant regarding what goes on in their child’s school. It is officially “back to school” season and, thusly, a time to remind parents that they must be very aware of what their kids are learning in school. Though I have written about this subject many times, it cannot be...
By Larry Sand
Poll Dancing
Poll Dancing
The latest PDK poll is useless, as are most. The latest yearly poll from Phi Delta Kappa, an organization whose mission is to “activate educators and other stakeholders to elevate the discourse around teaching and learning….” has just been released, and I don’t see any elevation. In fact, the poll is ultimately meaningless, although that didn’t...
By Larry Sand
How some teacher unionistas spent their summer vacation
How some teacher unionistas spent their summer vacation
The “Red for Ed” movement is becoming redder by the day. At a time when most U.S. citizens have benefited from the Trump tax cuts, the American Federation of Teachers joined up with a motley assemblage of leftwing organizations over the summer on what was billed as the “Tax the Rich Bus Tour.” The road...
By Larry Sand