Larry Sand, a former classroom teacher, is the president of the non-profit California Teachers Empowerment Network – a non-partisan, non-political group dedicated to providing teachers and the general public with reliable and balanced information about professional affiliations and positions on educational issues.
The damaging “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion” racket needs to be extinguished. Researchers extraordinaire Jay Greene and James Paul have released a series of three carefully crafted studies on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion that detail many aspects of the harmful scheme. In a nutshell, the authors find DEI to be “counterproductive and politically radical.” The part...
By Larry Sand
Here’s hoping that 2022 will see a halt to the spread of Critical Race Theory. Originally posted on FrontPageMag. Watching teachers unions, government school honchos, the media, etc., deny that Critical Race Theory (which makes race the prism through which its proponents analyze all aspects of American life, categorizing individuals into groups of oppressors and victims) is taught...
By Larry Sand
This article was first published on FrontPageMag. “All Government employees should realize that the process of collective bargaining, as usually understood, cannot be transplanted into the public service. It has its distinct and insurmountable limitations when applied to public personnel management.” The above caveat about government unions – usually known by the kinder and gentler...
By Larry Sand
The California Teachers Association fights parental choice with deeply flawed arguments. As this troubling year moves to a conclusion, there is certainly one thing worth celebrating: the great leap forward for educational freedom throughout the country. As I wrote last week, the countrywide union-mandated school shutdowns have had major consequences, and perhaps none more prominent...
By Larry Sand
School violence rises, mental health days proliferate, and thousands of kids are leaving government schools nationwide. Recently, a report compiled by Mike Antonucci for the Defense of Freedom Institute confirmed that the teachers unions had a heavy-handed role in the Covid-related shutdowns that consumed much of the country starting in March 2020. And the “never...
By Larry Sand
A new anti-parent diatribe is rife with condescension and a lack of logic. Christina Wyman is a writer and teacher, and most recently has become an inadvertent promoter of parental wrath. In an inflammatory piece for NBC News, Wyman insists that when it comes to the classroom, parents should know their place – just shut...
By Larry Sand
After school police are cut back, violence rises. In June 2020, the United Teachers of Los Angeles passed a motion to eliminate school police, and replace them with counselors and mental health programs. The union asserted, “Police presence in schools leads to negative outcomes for Black and Brown students, who are arrested and disciplined at...
By Larry Sand
Our failing education system is leading us down a dangerous road. America is in the midst of an education crisis, ranging from newborns to college students, and it is ubiquitous. In an under-reported story from August, a study by researchers at five universities found that babies born during the Covid pandemic show reduced verbal, motor,...
By Larry Sand
The recent election in Virginia has provided a trove of “teachable moments.” As a former educator, I know a teachable moment when I see one. And the political doings in Virginia this fall have been a goldmine. While the Democrats still maintain a small majority in the Old Dominion’s Senate in the recent election, Virginia...
By Larry Sand
Battle lines have been drawn, the war is on, and the great parent awakening of 2021 will have permanent consequences. Back in the 1950s and early 1960s, my parents could send me off to school and assume I would be taught by people who shared their values. Those days are long gone, however. To be...
By Larry Sand
The latest NAEP scores indicate a very troubled education system, and eliminating standardized tests certainly won’t solve the problem. On the most recent National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), or “nation’s report card,” test scores in both reading and math declined for 13-year-old students, the first drop registered in 50 years. The test showed that...
By Larry Sand
To ensure transparency, all classroom lessons should be recorded. Over the past year, there have been many suggestions as to how concerned parents could deal with the “woke” agenda that has become all too prevalent in our nation’s classrooms. Most recently, a new group, Parents Unite, held a conference in which several fight-back strategies for...
By Larry Sand
America’s public schools and its education leaders are under an immediate threat from parents, according to the National School Boards Association and Atty. Gen. Merrick Garland. In a story straight out of the “No matter how cynical I get, I just can’t keep up” file, the National School Boards Association sent a letter to President...
By Larry Sand
Mandatory vaccines and behind-your-back procedures are in the works. California has a long history of “firsts.” The Golden State was home to the first computer, the first movie theater and importantly, the first martini. Sadly, the state is now leading the nation in abusing children. For starters, Governor Gavin Newsom announced a vaccine mandate last...
By Larry Sand