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.
Washington Post writer Jay Mathews is “woke” to the fact that the California Teachers Association lies. Jay Mathews has been around the block a few times. He has been with the Washington Post since 1971, and for many of those years he has written about education issues, often arguing for sensible reforms. Which is why...
By Larry Sand
Teachers should stop listening to union leaders and look at the data before striking. When one looks at the actual dollars-and-cents reality, the emotional photo of the kindly old 1st grade teacher picketing for more money “for the classroom” falls flat. Very, very flat. There are several relevant facts that teachers and all Americans – especially the taxpaying variety – need to know.
By Larry Sand
The world has progressed in amazing ways since 1983, but for the most part, public education has stagnated. In 1983, the first mobile telephones intended for public use were released, ARPANET became the technical foundation of the internet, and A Nation at Risk: The Imperative for Educational Reform was released. The latter was a report...
By Larry Sand
Using the Turpins as an excuse, California legislative busybodies are looking to punish homeschooling families. It was shocking to learn in January that Californians David and Louise Turpin had imprisoned their thirteen children for years in the most disgusting and degrading ways. Fortunately, one of the girls escaped from the home in Perris, and contacted...
By Larry Sand
The latest progressive education fad is doing serious damage to kids and teachers. Fads aren’t always harmful things. Hula hoops, goldfish swallowing and pet rocks have really not had a detrimental effect on the nation. But when the education establishment pushes its collective whims on millions of school kids and their teachers, the...
By Larry Sand
Following similar actions in Wisconsin and Iowa, eternal union representation of teachers is a thing of the past in Florida; the new law doesn’t go quite far enough, however. Just imagine that in the 1970s your grandmother hired a lawyer to represent her in a lawsuit, and today, you’re forced to patronize the very same...
By Larry Sand
Three hundred “must place” teachers in Los Angeles don’t work, but are still on the payroll. What does a school board do with teachers whom no principal wants to hire? In New York, that problem was “solved” this past fall when Mayor Bill De Blasio and school chief Carmen Fariña, began to unload the so-called...
By Larry Sand
Union rhetoric about the Janus case has gone from hyperbolic to just plain crazy. If successful in the Supreme Court, the Janus v AFSCME case will free public employees from paying a union as a condition of employment in 22 states. Government workers in the other 28 states already have been spared the unions’ forced...
By Larry Sand
“Bargaining for the common good,” which greatly expanded the parameters of collective bargaining, was cooked up in 2014 by leaders from public sector unions and community organizations at a national conference held at Georgetown University. The meeting’s priorities included using “the bargaining process as a way to challenge the relationships between government and the private-sector;...
By Larry Sand
While finger-pointing continues over the Florida school shooting, it’s time to arm our teachers. Understandably, much has been written about the awful school shooting in Parkland, Florida, where 17 young people were slaughtered at the hands of a sick and evil human being. The tragedy was particularly vexing as there were so many warning signs...
By Larry Sand
Too many schools are failing, and parents need a way for their kids to escape from them. A couple of months ago, the education establishment told us that “U.S. Graduation Rate Hits New All-Time High, With Gains in All Student Groups.” But in the real world this is nothing more than a façade – a...
By Larry Sand
A recent tactic, “bargaining for the common good” very well may bury the unions in Janus v. AFSCME. In June 2016, right around the time the Friedrichs v CTA case wound up in a 4-4 stalemate, Rachel Cohen wrote a piece for The American Prospect called “Teacher Unions Are ‘Bargaining for the Common Good. ’”...
By Larry Sand
Teacher union leaders palavering about evil corporations and the rich is a modern-day version of The Emperor’s New Clothes. The teachers unions really need to get some new talking points. Granted, straw men and hyperbole are common in political discourse, but union verbiage needs a serious makeover – the old model is giving hypocrisy a...
By Larry Sand
High school graduation rates have traditionally been a barometer of student success, as well as a measure of the quality of school systems. The members of California’s education establishment have been high-fiving each other over the state’s on-time high school graduation rate reaching 83.2 percent in 2016. But a peak behind the curtain reveals some...
By Larry Sand
a new form will got here