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.
An illuminating study comparing education in America’s progressive and conservative cities opens a major can of worms. A stunning report that came out in January of this year received little attention at first, and was then completely buried due to the avalanche of coronavirus-related stories. “The Secret Shame: How America’s Most Progressive Cities Betray Their...
By Larry Sand
Temporary Los Angeles teacher union contract, inspired by COVID-19, liberates teachers, but parents and kids are still held captive, of course. On Thursday, April 9th the Los Angeles Unified School District struck a distance-learning pact with the United Teachers of Los Angeles. The seat-of-the-pants labor agreement was necessitated by the closing of all district schools...
By Larry Sand
As the COVID-19 crisis continues, much of the Big-Ed/Big Union complex maintains its inflexibility. With U.S. schools closed, educators across the land are scrambling to figure out how to provide instruction to millions of students via computers. Granted, an immediate switch to distance learning is not easy for school districts, which by and large...
By Larry Sand
Los Angeles teacher union leader is using the coronavirus crisis as an excuse to trash charter schools. Due to the coronavirus, many of us are going out of our way to be nice – helping the elderly and infirm, shopping for a family that fears leaving home, limiting ourselves to purchasing just one package of...
By Larry Sand
Whether it’s a pandemic, a damn panic, or all the above, the coronavirus has turned us into a nation of homeschoolers. With just about every public school in the country closed at this time, the only way for kids to get an education is at home. Many see this as nothing less than tragic. Writing...
By Larry Sand
Californians nix school bonds as Florida’s parental choice program expands. It looks like California’s Prop.13, a $15 billion school construction bond, has been defeated. This is notable because voters had not rejected a bond of this nature since 1994. Additionally, supporters raised $10 million for the campaign, while opponents spent 1/40th of that amount –...
By Larry Sand
This is the fifth in a series of missives to the president of the American Federation of Teachers. (The first four can be accessed here.) Hey Randi! Can you believe it! Next Monday will be our tenth anniversary! Yup, a whole decade has passed since Terry Moe, Rod Paige and I devoured you and two...
By Larry Sand
As the political exhibition season ends, here’s a brief look at where the candidates stand on school choice, and the Green Mountain State’s 150-year-old parental choice program. In 2015, the American Federation of Teachers anointed Hillary Clinton as its 2016 presidential preference, with no input from its rank-and-file. This did not sit well with the...
By Larry Sand
Wisconsin parents fight the transgender lobby, while California is going in the other direction. Fourteen Wisconsin parents represented by Alliance Defending Freedom and the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty, public interest legal firms, have filed a lawsuit in an attempt to stop a policy they say “instructs teachers to assist and encourage children in...
By Larry Sand
A recent chat with my cousin illuminates the chasm between fact and fantasy. After a recent post in which I detailed California’s abuse of taxpayers, I got a call from my cousin Louie, an aging Hollywood screenwriter. Known as the “red sheep” of the family, he firmly believes that pouring more money into government schools...
By Larry Sand
Union leaders are enraged at Trump and DeVos for the audacity of promoting parental choice. Last week, the President’s State of the Union address was a typically upbeat affair. President Trump outlined his many successes and Congressional Republicans were jubilant, while Democrats scowled. One of the features of Trump’s talk was a revival of Texas...
By Larry Sand
LAUSD and UTLA leaders are leading us down the road to financial ruin. A few weeks ago, I wrote that tax-grabbing state bureaucrats were pushing hard-working Californians to the brink. Incompetence, mismanaged money and union greed have turned the formerly Golden State into a failing enterprise. Here, I will focus on the Los Angeles Unified...
By Larry Sand
Hollywood gives school choice a fair, positive representation. Inspired by a true story, Miss Virginia is the saga of Virginia Walden Ford, the force behind the Washington, D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program, a voucher program that lets low-income parents use public funding to send their children to private schools. Set in 2003, the film portrays Virginia,...
By Larry Sand
The abusive education monopoly must go. Having retired as a teacher over ten years ago, I often look back on some of the great educators that I worked with during my 28-year career, and how lucky their students were to have them. I also think about the stinkers I encountered, and how sad it is...
By Larry Sand
a new form will got here