NEA Agenda: More Money, Minimal Reform
NEA Agenda: More Money, Minimal Reform
The teachers union not only plays the poverty card, but by battling reforms, ensures that the impoverished will remain that way. “No Education Reform Without Tackling Poverty, Experts Say,” is the title of an article on the National Education Association website. Experts? A trip into the weeds leads to something called the Center on Poverty,...
By Larry Sand
Stand Up To Bullying Day
Stand Up To Bullying Day
The NEA says that May 4th should be devoted to anti-bullying. Okay, and to be fair, I suggest that we start with the biggest organized bullies in the country – the teachers unions themselves. The National Education Association celebrated “Stand Up To Bullying Day” on May 4th. Its website is full of advice about how...
By Larry Sand
The Second American Revolution
The Second American Revolution
If education reformers stick to principle and don’t back down, all other obstacles to victory can be overcome. Recently, Andrew Rotherham wrote a short piece in The Atlantic in which he describes “The 3 Main Obstacles in the Way of Education Reform”. The first obstacle he mentions is that currently “We buy reform.” Or at...
By Larry Sand
The Tragic Consequences of Social Justice Education
The Tragic Consequences of Social Justice Education
The president of the National Education Association continues to promote ideas that are anti-American and are turning our kids into progressive, anti-wealth, equality-obsessed robots. Last week, the drone-like National Education Association President Dennis Van Roekel gave a talk at the annual gathering of the Nebraska State Education Association. He unleashed the same tired old class...
By Larry Sand
NEA Greed Machine is in Overdrive
NEA Greed Machine is in Overdrive
Tax Freedom Day is April 17th. Freedom from teacher union extortion? To be announced. The National Education Association has thrown itself full force into the “corporate loophole” demagoguery campaign. According to the NEA, children are being victimized by avaricious corporate types who don’t pay their fair share of taxes. The NEA exhorts the American people...
By Larry Sand
Teachers Practicing Sexual Harassment Protected by Unions, Victim Advocates Intimidated
Teachers Practicing Sexual Harassment Protected by Unions, Victim Advocates Intimidated
With teacher union enabling, child abuse goes on unabated. A male business owner joking about life for homosexuals in prison, forced a junior accountant to bend over a desk, lined up behind him to simulate a sex act, then quipped, “I’ll show you what’s gay.” An insurance company middle manager who had been warned about...
By Larry Sand
California Schools: Administrator Heavy & Union Controlled
California Schools: Administrator Heavy & Union Controlled
California’s public schools continue to lay-off teachers, and the process by which they do this is as convoluted and illogical as one would expect in a bureaucratic system in which the needs of the students falls fairly low on the list of priorities. That’s my take-away from a new report by the state’s Legislative Analyst’s...
By Steven Greenhut
Publishing Teacher Value Added Rankings: Shame on Whom?
Publishing Teacher Value Added Rankings: Shame on Whom?
The release of teachers’ VA rankings should not be viewed as an attack on teachers, but as a wake-up call for the rest of us. The recent release of teachers’ value added (VA) rankings by the New York Times reignited a controversy which began when the Los Angeles Times did the same thing in 2010....
By Larry Sand
Taking Randi Weingarten’s Words with a Grain of Salt… and Some Maalox
Taking Randi Weingarten’s Words with a Grain of Salt… and Some Maalox
The American Federation of Teachers President’s half truths and hypocrisy can’t hide an obvious agenda. In a slam against those of us who believe that part of a teacher’s evaluation should be based on how well their students perform on standardized tests, American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten wrote an article for the Huffington...
By Larry Sand
Good Teachers: Beware The Ides of March
Good Teachers: Beware The Ides of March
Julius Caesar came to a bad end on March 15th, the same date many good teachers were warned that they may be unemployed in June. “Nearly 20,000 Teacher Pink Slips Statewide Show Drastic Need for More Education Funding” screamed the headline on the California Teachers Association website. First, let’s straighten out the union spin. Typically...
By Larry Sand
Seattle Teachers Union Seeks to Ban Teach For America
Seattle Teachers Union Seeks to Ban Teach For America
Teachers unions, known for fighting to keep pedophiles in the classroom, try to get rid of good teachers in Seattle. Last week, I wrote about the particularly egregious case of a teacher in Rochester, NY who sent sexually charged emails to her principal and was subsequently jailed for ignoring a restraining order. Upon her release,...
By Larry Sand
Adults’ Rights Come Before Children’s Health and Welfare in Public Schools
Adults’ Rights Come Before Children’s Health and Welfare in Public Schools
Parents send their children to school assuming that kids are its number one priority. But as recent events have shown, public schools are Ground Zero for a culture that puts children last and doesn’t hold adults accountable. In Waiting For Superman, Michelle Rhee stated that it took her a while, but she finally realized that...
By Larry Sand
School Choice: Time to Move Forward
School Choice: Time to Move Forward
As evidence mounts that the government/union education monopoly is failing our children, 2012 should see ramped up efforts to advance school choice. Last week, Education Week published “What Research Says About School Choice,” in which nine scholars analyze the results of various studies concerning “school choice” – the quaint notion that parents should be able...
By Larry Sand
CTA in Bed with the Occupy Crowd? LOL!
CTA in Bed with the Occupy Crowd? LOL!
The California Teachers Association is seeking cover in the Occupy Wall Street movement. The OWS crowd doesn’t understand that CTA and other public employee unions are a major part of the problem. Last week, part of my post concerned itself with the March 5th “Occupy the Capitol” protest being promoted by the California Teachers Association....
By Larry Sand