This article originally appeared in For Kids and Country. It has been a decade since the landmark Vergara lawsuit was filed, and its denial in the courts has led to ongoing failure in California schools. Back in 1975, I lost my 6th-grade teaching position in New York City. As a newbie, it was explained to...
As the 21st century careens its way towards more geopolitical and economic uncertainty than most people alive today have ever known, with constant and transformative change the only constant, optimists among us still hope that some elements of California’s labor movement will begin to throw their weight behind policies and politicians that offer stability and...
In just three days in early May, California’s teachers unions opened the vault and moved $1.2 million into Tony Thurmond’s campaign for Superintendent of Public Instruction. Thurmond has earned their favor. In nearly four years as the incumbent, he has advanced the unions’ demands to end charter schools, and endorsed teacher strikes — which, in...
This article originally appeared in For Kids and Country. Social Emotional Learning (SEL) was always a bad idea, and now that it is politicized, it’s a nightmare. As a longtime teacher, I have seen firsthand that education is a fad-filled field. Culturally responsive education, inventive spelling, new math, experiential learning, balanced literacy, etc. are educational...
Most California school districts and their labor unions have finally come to terms on COVID-19 protocols, reconciling federal and state funding and mandate issues with the funding given them in several relief packages. Now, a new round of labor unrest is percolating across the state as new compensation contracts are negotiated. Teachers expect sizable raises,...
This article was originally on For Kids and Country. In California, parents are abandoning the k-12 system, college enrollment is down, and now the state is trying to lure 4-year-olds to transitional kindergarten. According to just released data from the California Department of Education, the state has lost 110,000 students this school year, and has fewer...
The organization behind some of California’s most out-there education initiatives announced it’s splitting from the national group that helped it promote the “parents are terrorists” campaign. In a low-profile statement, the California School Boards Association says its leadership approved the divorce from the National School Boards Association on March 26. In the press release, the...
California’s traditional public schools are not doing their job, and parents are opting out. With sky-high taxes, a sieve-like southern border, and an ongoing flow of nutty regulations – one law targets cow flatulence, for example – California really doesn’t need any more bad news. But according to a recent report, the state now leads the...
Guess who’s leading the drive to keep children masked? This article was originally featured in FrontPageMag. State officials announced last week that as of March 12, California will no longer require school children to wear masks, and thankfully most California school districts are going along with the decision. Also, the Los Angeles County Department of Public...
This article was originally posted on For Kids & Country. As states and school boards battle over school curricula, the least we can do is keep parents informed about what their kids are learning. Bologna. The FDA insists that every last ingredient of the heavily processed food is listed on the package label. No one has an issue with...
The article with originally on FrontPageMag. A remarkably dysfunctional year for the San Francisco Unified school board. It started in January 2021, when the school board in San Francisco decided to rename 44 public schools, claiming their namesakes were “unworthy of the honor.” The names of such American icons as Abraham Lincoln, Paul Revere, Thomas...
Originally featured in For Kids & Country. America’s children are suffering greatly and teachers may be exiting the profession en masse. Just last week, the National Education Association released the results of a poll which finds that “55 percent of educators are thinking about leaving the profession earlier than they had planned.” The NEA claims this...
There are a lot of reasons for public school parents to be disappointed in their schools. The lack of an in-person option last school year, strict COVID mandates, and more have caused a growing number of parents to consider alternatives to public school education. Whatever the reason, more and more parents are considering homeschooling their...
California parents are at last in on the joke. They’re seeing (perhaps for the first time) that our public schools are failing our children – practicing invasive therapy as if that’s teaching, carrying out political indoctrination as if that’s education, insisting on vaccine mandates and masking for a population that’s hardly at risk (see the California...