Labor Union Day

By Larry Sand
09/08/2015
Labor Day has become little more than an opportunity for union leaders to puff out their chests and make grandiose statements about the glories of organized labor. As a way to build their brand, union leaders typically pit management against labor, portraying the worker as David fighting greedy entrepreneurs and corporate Goliaths. This is especially...

TAGS: American Federation of Teachers, Deroy Murdock, Diana Furchtgott-Roth, Koch Brothers, Larry Sand, Manhattan Institute, National Education Association, Randi Weingarten, Teamsters, Unions, United Auto Workers, United Federation of Teachers

Reformers Successfully Pressure Torlakson to Restore Access to School Performance Data

By RiShawn Biddle
09/02/2015
Two things can be said about California’s state government when it comes to its efforts on school data. The first? That the Golden State has always blundered when it comes to developing robust comprehensive data systems that can be easily used by families, school leaders, researchers, and policymakers. As I reported seven years ago in...

TAGS: American Federation of Teachers, National Education Association

The National Teacher (Union Member) Shortage

By Larry Sand
09/01/2015
NEA/AFT and their friends in the media try to make hay of teacher shortage myth. For years, teachers unions have been moaning that nearly half of all new educators leave the profession within the first five years. They and others have repeated the claim so many times that it has taken on the mantle of...

TAGS: ALEC, American Federation of Teachers, Andrew Coulson, Cato Institute, Indiana State Teachers Association, Koch Brothers, Larry Sand, Mike Antonucci, National Council on Teacher Quality, National Education Association, New York Times, Randi Weingarten, teacher shortage, teachers union

Planned Persecution

By Larry Sand
08/25/2015
NEA claims to be for religious freedom, but Catholics and other right-to-lifers need not apply. “The National Education Association believes that freedom of religion is a fundamental human right. The Association also believes that choice of religion is an intensely personal decision.” These high-minded words are from NEA Resolution I-33, which was passed at its...

TAGS: AFL-CIO, American Federation of Teachers, Evan Grossman, Larry Sand, Mary Kay Henry, Michael Mulgrew, National Education Association, Randi Weingarten, Richard Trumka, seiu, teachers union, United Federation of Teachers

AFT’s Left Flank Infuriated over Clinton Endorsement

By Larry Sand
07/22/2015
Union leftists are shocked! shocked! that the teacher union elite did not confer with them before anointing Hillary Clinton as Democratic presidential pick. The education and mainstream media were whooping it up last week after a cadre of teacher union members laid into the American Federation of Teachers for its endorsement of Hillary Clinton as...

TAGS: American Federation of Teachers, California Teachers Association, Dean Vogel, EAG, Hillary Clinton, Kyle Olson, Larry Sand, Mike Antonucci, National Education Association, Randi Weingarten, Reg Weaver, teachers union

The NEA, Social Justice and Indoctrination Ghettos

By Larry Sand
07/15/2015
The NEA convention had its humorous moments as well as a very disturbing one. The National Association Education’s yearly convention, which wrapped up last week, was mostly a tame affair with not much worth writing about. But NEA executive director John Stocks did provide some unintentionally comedic moments. His boiler plate lefty political ranting included...

TAGS: American Federation of Teachers, class warfare, income inequality, Indoctrination, Jason Hart, John Stocks, Larry Sand, Los Angeles Unified School District, Occupy Wall Street, Randi Weingarten, Saul Alinsky, social justice, teachers union, white privilege

Exposing Teachers Union Front Groups Against Minority Kids

By RiShawn Biddle
07/08/2015
Hope remains eternal — at least among those who want Congress to pass a reauthorized version of the No Child Left Behind Act being considered by the Senate this week. Even as the likelihood of passage remains as unlikely as it was back in March, when House Education and the Workforce Committee Chairman John Kline’s...

TAGS: American Federation of Teachers, Dropout Nation, education reform, National Education Association, No Child Left Behind

The Friedrichs Free Rider Fraud

By Larry Sand
07/07/2015
The Supreme Court’s decision to hear the Friedrichs case has the unions in a tizzy. On June 30th, the Supreme Court decided to hear Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association et al, a case that could seriously change the way the public employee unions (PEUs) do business. If the plaintiffs are victorious, teachers, nurses, sanitation workers,...

TAGS: "free rider", AFL-CIO, AFSCME, AFT, American Federation of Teachers, CTA, Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association, Heritage Foundation, James Sherk, Koch Brothers, Larry Sand, Mike Antonucci, National Education Association, National Labor Relations Act, NEA, public employee unions, Right to Work, Rodda Act, seiu, teachers union

Income Inequality Farm

By Larry Sand
06/23/2015
Labor leaders and their friends start a new “progressive” organization … as George Orwell rolls over in his grave. We live in strange times when a man can decide that he’s a woman and someone born freckled and blonde declares with great conviction that she is African-American. Following the trend, we have organized labor leaders...

TAGS: American Federation of Teachers, California Teacher Association, George Orwell, Larry Sand, Randi Weingarten, Richard Trumka, teachers union

Pseudo Studies and Push Polls

By Larry Sand
04/21/2015
Teachers unions turn to “facts” as they desperately cling to their monopolistic, anti-privatization narrative. Last Thursday the “non-partisan” Center for Tax and Budget Accountability rolled out a report that slammed vouchers, claiming that there is “no statistical evidence proving that students who use vouchers perform better than their public school counterparts.” The “study,” as reported...

TAGS: American Federation of Teachers, Bob Peterson, Cato Institute, Center for Popular Democracy, Education Next, Friedman Foundation, Greg Forster, Illinois Federation of Teachers, Jason Bedrick, Larry Sand, Lily Eskelsen Garcia, No Child Left Behind, Randi Weingarten, school choice, teachers union, vouchers