L.A.’s Measure EE defeat: What happened and what’s next

By Larry Sand
06/11/2019
LAUSD parcel tax measure goes down, and the district is still in charge…for now.  If you live in Los Angeles, the thud you heard last Tuesday was the Los Angeles Unified School District’s parcel tax measure crashing to earth. Its goal was to raise $500 million annually over a 12-year period. Thus, owners of large...

TAGS: Alex Caputo-Pearl, Austin Beutner, Eli Broad, Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, Larry Sand, Los Angeles Unified School District, Measure EE, parcel tax, teachers union, United Teachers of Los Angeles

L.A. tax addicts looking to score

By Larry Sand
04/30/2019
Union leader and the school district want more of your money to feed a bad habit. United Teachers of Los Angeles President Alex Caputo-Pearl is on a mission. In an online rant to his flock, he makes a pitch for Measure EE, a parcel tax that will be on the ballot in Los Angeles on...

TAGS: Alex Caputo-Pearl, Charter schools, Larry Sand, Los Angeles Unified School District, Measure EE, Nick Melvoin, teachers union, United Teachers of Los Angeles

Casting Pearls Before Caputo

By Larry Sand
02/19/2019
Conflating regulation with accountability, teacher union leaders continue their deceptive talking points. While it’s up for grabs who originated the saying, “If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it,” Alex Caputo-Pearl is certainly one of its modern-day avatars. In a recent Washington Post op-ed, the...

TAGS: Alex Caputo-Pearl, American Federation for Children, Andrew Gillum, Corey DeAngelis, EdChoice, Education Savings Accounts, James Shuls, Larry Sand, Pell Grants, Ron DeSantis, school choice, tax credit scholarship, teachers union, United Teachers of Los Angeles, vouchers

L.A. teachers in open rebellion – this time against their own union leaders

By Mark Bucher
01/23/2019
Union chief Caputo-Pearl: “This agreement is horrible,” a teacher wrote on UTL:A’s Facebook page. “It was not worth striking 7 minutes let alone 7 days!!! Our union has let us down once again.” (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes) LOS ANGELES — L.A. teachers on Tuesday voted on a deal their union calls “historic.” But by then, the...

TAGS: Alex Caputo-Pearl, LAUSD, United Teachers of Los Angeles

As L.A. strike begins, eye-catching billboards tell teachers they don’t have to strike – they can quit the union

By Editorial Staff
01/15/2019
SHOUTING FROM THE ROOFTOPS: Billboard at 6th and Beaudry, near LA Unified HQ. LOS ANGELES—As 30,000 teachers walked out of Los Angeles classrooms, a coalition of education reform groups is offering teachers an alternative: leave the teachers union. Billboards around the Los Angeles Unified School District encourage teachers to learn their rights – including the...

TAGS: Alex Caputo-Pearl, Austin Beutner, Janus decision, teachers strike, United Teachers of Los Angeles

UTLA’s crisis is here

By Larry Sand
01/01/2019
Union boss’ orchestrated state crisis is well underway in Los Angeles.  United Teachers of Los Angeles President Alex Caputo-Pearl’s long sought-after teachers’ strike is set for January 10th. He began the long march back in 2016 when he forecast a walkout and also boasted about the union’s ability to “create a state crisis” in 2018. Though...

TAGS: Alex Caputo-Pearl, Arlene Inouye, Austin Beutner, California Teachers Association, David Crane, Parent Revolution, Speak Up, teacher strike, United Teachers of Los Angeles

Class size matters…not a whit

By Larry Sand
11/27/2018
Perhaps the “fake news” story of the year – actually the last 20 years – is that small class size is essential to learning. Under the leadership of its cantankerous president Alex Caputo-Pearl, the United Teachers of Los Angeles is planning to strike – very possibly in January. The union’s demands haven’t budged, even as...

TAGS: Alex Caputo-Pearl, Andrew Coulson, Austin Beutner, Benjamin Scafidi, Cato Institute, class-size, EdChoice, Eric Hanushek, Larry Sand, Los Angeles Unified School District, teachers union, United Teachers of Los Angeles

The charter school haters dig in

By Larry Sand
10/23/2018
The education traditionalists’ attacks on parental choice are unrelenting. All across Texas, children are hoping to get into a charter school. In San Antonio alone, 40,000 families await the chance to pick a school that best fits the needs of their child. Nationally, over 3 million students now attend these schools of choice, which get...

TAGS: Alex Caputo-Pearl, California Charter School Association, charter school, Diane Ravitch, In the Public Interest, James Shuls, Larry Sand, Lisa Snell, National Education Association, school choice, teachers union, United Teachers of Los Angeles

The looming apocalypse in California

By Larry Sand
09/18/2018
The “state crisis” threatened by Los Angeles teacher union boss two years ago is upon us. In two recent posts, I detailed the United Teachers of Los Angeles contract demands on the school district and reported that a strike was likely. And of late, the situation has gone from bad to dire. Perhaps the biggest...

TAGS: Alex Caputo-Pearl, George McKenna, Larry Sand, Los Angeles Unified School District, Nick Melvoin, Richard Vladovic, teacher pay, teacher strike, teachers union, United Teachers of Los Angeles

The inevitable Los Angeles teachers strike — does Chicago hold the key to a solution?

By Mike Antonucci
09/12/2018
Mike Antonucci’s Union Report appears weekly at LA School Report. Leaders of United Teachers Los Angeles continued their preparations for a strike by approving the transfer of up to $3 million from the union’s strike fund to its general fund in order to be ready for immediate use. The first mediation session is scheduled for Sept. 27, with neither...

TAGS: Alex Caputo-Pearl, Chicago Teachers Union, Los Angeles Unified School District, teachers strike, UTLA