Education Reform

California Pensions Take Above-Average Tax Bite

California Pensions Take Above-Average Tax Bite

California pension funds take a bigger share of tax revenue than the national state average, a research website shows. Why the growing costs are outpacing the norm is not completely clear. A prime suspect for some would be overly generous pensions, particularly what critics say is an “unsustainable” increase for police and firefighters widely adopted...

By Ed Mendel

Teachers Union Kills Another Commonsense Reform Bill

Teachers Union Kills Another Commonsense Reform Bill

Despite the U.S. declaring its independence from Britain in 1776, Californians are still saddled with teacher union redcoats 240 years later. Teacher tenure is an atrocity. Officially called “permanence,” this union-mandated work rule allows some teachers to stay in the classroom when they should be imprisoned or at least working somewhere else, preferably far away...

By Larry Sand

Teachers Union Chases "Teach for America" Out of San Francisco

Teachers Union Chases "Teach for America" Out of San Francisco

It should be an article of faith by now that in California, whatever the teachers union wants, the teachers union gets. It is nonetheless surprising that their reach might extend all the way to a recent decision by the San Francisco Unified School District board to reject fifteen talented teachers who were part of “Teach for...

By Edward Ring

Protecting CA Students From Pension Costs

Protecting CA Students From Pension Costs

“The secret to stellar grades and thriving students is teachers,” writes The Economist in a recent editorial. One study cited by the magazine found that “in a single year’s teaching the top 10% of teachers impart three times as much learning to their pupils as the worst 10% do” and another “estimates that if African-American children were taught...

By David Crane

The Bad, the Ugly and…the Perky

The Bad, the Ugly and…the Perky

Three recent stories point to the self-serving teacher union mentality. The bad. Joseph Ocol was in big trouble when he came to the U.S. in 1999. As a whistleblower, he was placed in the government’s Witness Protection Program for calling attention to an election fund-raising scam in his native Philippines. Even with a double degree in...

By Larry Sand

Labor Backed Prop. 30 Extension Represents CA Taxpayer-Funded Bailout

Labor Backed Prop. 30 Extension Represents CA Taxpayer-Funded Bailout

Perhaps the best decision California voters can make at the polls this November is to vote “NO” on the initiative extending the Prop. 30 temporary tax increases that expire in 2018. Why?  The short answer is that extending the Prop. 30 tax extensions effectively bails out California State Democrat politicians for their inability to take...

By David Kersten

$6.2 Billion in New Borrowing on June 7th Primary Ballot

$6.2 Billion in New Borrowing on June 7th Primary Ballot

They are overshadowed by one of the most tumultuous Presidential primary campaigns in decades, but California’s June 7th primary ballot has local tax and bond proposals in numbers that, in aggregate, ought to be generating vigorous public debate. Next week voters will be asked to approve 46 local bond measures totaling $6.18 billion in new debt, along...

By Edward Ring

CalChamber Opposes “Virtually Permanent” Prop 30 Tax

CalChamber Opposes “Virtually Permanent” Prop 30 Tax

With the California Chamber of Commerce announcing yesterday that it will oppose the Proposition 30, income tax extension, the question arises if a campaign will come together to match the financial firepower that the teachers, medical professionals and other public employee unions bring to the table in support of the measure. Officially, the word from the...

By Joel Fox

CA Democrats are Not Standing Up for "Working Families"

CA Democrats are Not Standing Up for "Working Families"

It’s election season, so every California Democrat politician is out there on the campaign trail, precinct walking with their “friends” in labor, and speaking to labor organizations and anyone else who will listen.  They are speaking with one voice–that ” we are proud to stand up for working families.” This may sound like a great...

By David Kersten

Freedom and Liberty = Public Charter Schools

Freedom and Liberty = Public Charter Schools

As a follow up to my post of last week (Anti-Choice Teachers Unions Want to Take Control of O.C. Board of Education), former State Senator Gloria Romero has penned another excellent op-ed piece in the O.C. Register. In Celebrating National Charter Schools Week Senator Romero not only noted that this week is a time to...

By Craig Alexander

Anti-Choice Teachers Unions Want to Take Control of the OC Board of Education

Anti-Choice Teachers Unions Want to Take Control of the OC Board of Education

Everyone agrees that education for our children is a critical pathway for those children to grow into adults who are ready to earn a living and become responsible members of our society. Unfortunately labor unions including teachers unions have a different focus – to benefit their union bank accounts with your tax dollars more than...

By Craig Alexander

Vergara Update: Virtues and Villainy

Vergara Update: Virtues and Villainy

The union and media reactions to the appeals court decision in the Vergara case had me going through a whole can of room deodorizer. In 2014, the plaintiffs in the Vergara trial claimed that several California education statutes – all of which are on the books at the behest of the teachers unions – cause...

By Larry Sand

Teacher Union Pension Flim-flam

Teacher Union Pension Flim-flam

The public employee pension problem isn’t new, but a teacher union leader’s defense of it has sunk to new depths. According to the Federal Reserve, public employee pensions in aggregate nationally are in serious trouble. Currently totaling $5.8 trillion, they are underfunded by $1.7 trillion. While all these pensions are draining public resources, Don Boyd, director...

By Larry Sand

Dear South Side Teacher

Dear South Side Teacher

An open letter to the idealistic teacher in Chicago who may have defied the teachers union by not striking on April 1st. In a recent newspaper article you said you were “morally and ethically” against the Chicago Teachers Union one-day strike (or “Day of Tantrum,” according to a Chicago Tribune op-ed) last Friday and that...

By Larry Sand