In California schools, the fifth month (formerly known as May) is now Labor History Month. As Kevin Dayton pointed out in Union Watch last week, the entire month of May is now officially deemed Labor History Month in California. Courtesy of AB 2269, the state education code has been amended to read, The month of...
The only “lasting impact” of the Head Start program is on taxpayers’ wallets. Those too-clever-for-words folks over at the Department of Health and Human Services have yet again tried to put one over on us. Using the oldest PR trick in the book, they released information to the media that they hoped no one would...
Do you have children or grandchildren in California public schools? You may need to give some counter-instruction at home to balance the material disseminated at school assemblies and through classroom instruction during Labor History Month. As enacted by Governor Jerry Brown in 2012 through Assembly Bill 2269, the entire month of May is now designated by the state government for...
Teacher union leaders offer heat but no light after the mass murder in Newtown. In the aftermath of the December 14th mass murder of 26 children and school staffers in Newtown, Connecticut, there has been the understandable finger pointing and a full range of suggestions for ensuring that such a horror doesn’t happen again. On...
Now that the dust has settled, there are still some loose ends that need to be addressed in the Wolverine State’s right-to-work battle. Last Tuesday, Michigan became the nation’s 24th right-to-work state. Much has been written about this and yet there still is much misinformation in circulation – mostly being spread by the unions, of...
Instead of the usual fake teacher union concerns about “the children,” CFT’s new straightforward video unequivocally touts class warfare and vilifies rich people. The California Teachers Association has been in the news a lot lately. In the early fall, it successfully fought to get Prop. 30 passed and to kill Prop. 32. These victories came...
A reportedly “historic” teacher evaluation deal between Los Angeles Unified and the teachers union would solidify the dismal status quo. A substantive settlement in the Doe vs. Deasy lawsuit would drag the Los Angeles Unified School District into the 21st Century. In November of 2011, I wrote …a half-dozen anonymous families working with EdVoice, a...
Throwing ever more funds at education without making substantive changes to the system is a horrible waste of money, not to mention children’s lives. California Democrat Congressman Mike Honda and National Education Association President Dennis Van Roekel recently collaborated on an op-ed that played up just about every bit of feel good, cliché-riddled drivel ever...
Not content with forcing traditional D.C. public school teachers to join the Washington Teachers Union, the rapacious WTU is now trying to get its hooks into charter schools. Last week, Nathan Saunders, president of the Washington Teachers Union, announced his intention to push for legislation that would force charter school teachers in the nation’s capital...
Restoring a school system that has been hijacked by the left should be the nation’s highest priority. There have been endless post mortems following Barack Obama’s election victory over Mitt Romney last week. It has been posited that Romney lost because he wasn’t libertarian enough, not Tea Party enough, not socially conservative enough, didn’t reach...
As reported over the past few months in www.UnionWatch.org, almost all of the sixteen community college districts within 50 miles of San Francisco have succumbed to the union political agenda and now require their construction contractors to sign a Project Labor Agreement with trade unions as a condition of working on taxpayer-funded projects. And unions are busy...
Union political power is only as strong as its members’ willingness to give. Last week, the American Federation of Teacher’s latest union financials (LM-2s) were released. Courtesy of Dropout Nation’s RiShawn Biddle, we learn that in 2011-2012, AFT spent $27 million to “preserve its influence.” Teachers unions spend money in a variety of ways, but...
As you go to the polls next week, please consider the facts before voting to pour more money into the K–12 black hole. Last week, The Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice released a comprehensive study which details an employment explosion in America’s public schools. America’s K-12 public education system has experienced tremendous historical growth in...
In December 1997, the AFL-CIO implemented its “2000 in 2000” program to help elect union activists to public office. As the AFL-CIO reported in February 1999, “In 1998, we made progress toward our goal of putting 2,000 union members on the ballot in the year 2000. Over the next two years we will make a...