Sacramento Legislators announced a budget deal last week that spends a record $125 billion in the general fund. But most interesting isn’t what’s in the deal, but what isn’t. There’s plenty of new spending, of course, but not so much that it outpaces the rate of inflation. There are controversial “trailer” bills that attempt to...
Teachers unions continue to bash charter schools in spite of their success and popularity. When it comes to charter schools, the teachers unions are nothing if not relentless. From Mike Antonucci we learn that the California Teachers Association is in the process of developing and promoting resolutions, which local unions can introduce at school board meetings...
Sacramento On first blush, the latest effort by Gov. Jerry Brown and Democratic legislators to give public-employee unions access to public agencies to hold “orientation” seminars with new hires is an unfair special privilege not normally provided to private groups. It’s even more disturbing that the legislation authorizing such access is being rammed through the...
Large school districts are often less responsive to the needs of students and the hopes of parents than smaller districts. Public educational behemoths – such as Los Angeles Unified – are more likely to fall under the influence of well-organized interest groups such as teachers’ unions. By breaking up large districts into smaller ones, parents...
Three of the nation’s five most expensive schools are in the Los Angeles Unified School District. Each ranks among the lowest performing schools in California. With a $578 million price tag, Robert F. Kennedy Learning Center is the most expensive school ever built. Boasting an auditorium modeled after the famous Coconut Grove nightclub, a state-of-the-art...
Trump’s proposed budget includes some minor cuts; union leaders launch hyperbolic grenades. Did you know that the Trump/DeVos budget is manifestly cruel to children and catastrophic to public schools? Are you aware that Trump/Devos are planning to slash funding for public schools, and use voucher schemes to funnel taxpayer dollars to unaccountable private schools? Well,...
Billionaires weigh heavy on the mind of the president of the California Teachers Association (CTA). During his brief May 21 speech at the 2017 California Democratic Party convention, CTA president Eric Heins referred to billionaires four times. He didn’t refer to reading, writing, or mathematics at all. It appears the CTA leadership has discovered a legion...
Retired LA schools chief Ramon Cortines received pension benefits totaling a remarkable $238,383.67 last year, possibly through a controversial pension-spiking practice known as “air time” – the purchase of credit for time not worked.
Aftershocks could have ramifications; teacher union leaders grouse as they plan next steps. On Tuesday, May 6th, Nick Melvoin and Kelly Gonez, who are more concerned with the needs of parents, kids and taxpayers than stoking the bureaucracy and complying with teacher union diktats, were elected to the Los Angeles Unified School District board. Reformers...
Sacramento — Supporters of charter schools, homeschooling and other forms of school “choice” are so used to fighting in the trenches against the state’s muscular teachers’ unions that they often forget how much progress they’ve made in the last decade or so. Recent events have shown the degree of progress, even if they still face...
Incumbent Steve Zimmer, lost to challenger Nick Melvoin in the District 4 race for the Los Angeles Unified School District Board of Education, while seventh grade teacher Kelly Gonez was leading in early election results Tuesday night to represent District 6 on the LAUSD Board of Education. cityclerk.lacity.org/election/results.html
A new study points fingers at charter schools for malfeasance, but traditional public schools are still by far #1 in wasteful spending.
Unions, which are tax-exempt, see to it that the rest of us pay and pay and…. Tax Freedom Day is the day when our government has taken enough of workers’ income to satisfy its tax lust for the year. TFD, which differs from year to year, is determined by taking all federal, state, and local...
Last week’s report from State Auditor Elaine Howell reveals some disturbing budgeting and compensation practices at the University of California’s Office of the President (UCOP). But the problem isn’t just limited to UCOP; it is a systemwide phenomenon. We have previously reported that Robert Reich makes close to $300,000 annually to teach one class at...
