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.
Whatever you call it, there’s a culture war being waged, and the citizenry is fighting back. Just four weeks ago, I wrote about the rising resistance to the woke craze and Critical Race Theory, and much has transpired since then. Here in California, even Disneyland has not been spared the wrath of the crazies. On...
By Larry Sand
Editor’s note: This is the seventh in a series of missives to Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers. The first six can be accessed here. Oy vey, old friend! As you well know, I have written several heartfelt emails to you over the years, pointing out my concern over many of the...
By Larry Sand
Despite the reopening happy talk, more than half of all California’s k-12 students remain in distance learning. While schools in California have reopened, a study by EdSource reveals that 55 percent of all public school students in California have not returned to their physical classroom. And just 13 percent of all students in the Golden...
By Larry Sand
Unprecedented federal spending on education is a swindle of epic proportions. As reported by the estimable Just Facts, federal, state, and local governments in the U.S. spent $1.02 trillion on education in 2019. This breaks down to $7,945 for every household in the country. It’s worth noting that these figures do not include land that...
By Larry Sand
The mainstreaming of Marxism is meeting resistance from anti-woke warriors, but more people must lose their fear and fight back. Here in California, the woke train rolls merrily along. If AB 101 passes in its current version, a one-semester high school course in ethnic studies will be mandated starting in the 2029–2030 school year. Each...
By Larry Sand
Children in L.A. are suffering at the hands of the school district and its “labor partner.” Public schools are finally opening in Los Angeles, but education will be unlike anything the kids have ever seen. Elementary students will attend school just half the time – groups of students will have in-person instruction either in the...
By Larry Sand
Forcing Critical Race Theory on children is psychologically damaging. I come from a time when schools existed to teach the ABCs, basic math and the amazing story of the American founding. While it’s true that Horace Mann, the man who first promoted universal public education, was a central planner, government schools usually turned out educated...
By Larry Sand
School choice is rapidly advancing across the U.S. On March 9th, I wrote that Covid-related lockdowns were leading many states to implement or advance already existing school choice measures. Just four weeks later, it is happening at breakneck speed. Legislators and parents have become fed up, and are doing what they can to regain control...
By Larry Sand
The ongoing Covid lockdown hysteria is taking a brutal toll on the young. According to the Burbio school tracker, 53 percent of schools nationwide are now fully open for business. With the new CDC guidelines having determined that three feet is a safe distance for students, one would think the other 47 percent would embrace...
By Larry Sand
Resistance mounts to teacher union orchestrated lockdowns in Los Angeles. As has been well documented, pandemic-related school reopenings are based mostly on politics and union strength. In union-lite, politically-sensible Florida, the state resumed in-person instruction in August, and Covid case rates remained lower than those in the general community. According to Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran,...
By Larry Sand
(Note: This piece, co-written with Lia Rensin, first appeared in various Southern California News Group newspapers.) On March 5th, the California Department of Education released a fourth draft of its Ethnic Studies Model Curriculum. Not surprisingly, letters opposing Critical Race Theory and Critical Ethnic Studies comprised the #1 concern about the ESMC. And yet, more...
By Larry Sand
As a result of their insistence on school closings, the unions are inadvertently leading the charge to educational freedom. As I wrote last week, opposition to teacher union-mandated lockdowns is growing. Parent groups are springing up all over the country, demanding that schools reopen. They see the irreparable harm being done to their kids on...
By Larry Sand
Refusing to accept responsibility for Covid-related lockdowns, the American Federation of Teachers tars Republicans. In a recent Wall Street Journal op-ed, former New Jersey governor Chris Christie, a Republican, correctly blamed the nation’s teachers unions for the overwrought Covid-related lockdowns that have strangled public education throughout much of the country. The American Federation of Teachers...
By Larry Sand
The fixation on equity is a loser for all concerned. At the same time that the indoctrination of American students continues to work its way through the schools, its evil twin “equity” is advancing right along with it. As the race-obsessed Ibram X. Kendi explains, equity exists when “two or more racial groups are standing...
By Larry Sand
a new form will got here