NAACP: Now Advocating Against Colored People

By Larry Sand
08/09/2016
The once righteous civil rights organization is now in thrall to the teachers unions. From the horrors of lynching to the injustice of forced school segregation, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People has been there fighting for the rights of black people. But that has changed, at least in the realm of...

TAGS: American Federation of Teachers, charter school, Eva Moskowitz, Larry Sand, NAACP, National Education Association, RiShawn Biddle, Success Academy

Minnesota’s Toxic Twins

By Larry Sand
07/26/2016
Randi Weingarten and Hillary Clinton embrace, as parents sue to modify rigid, anti-child union work rules. The yearly American Federation of Teachers wingding was a doozie this year. The 100th anniversary of the union and the presence of Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton made for an especially noxious four days in Minnesota – a forced...

TAGS: American Federation of Teachers, Campbell Brown, Chris Stewart, Hillary Clinton, Larry Sand, Randi Weingarten, seniority, teacher shortage, teachers union, tenure

The Teachers Unions Faux Grassroots Organizing

By Larry Sand
07/12/2016
The Hedge Clippers, a union run and organized group, laughably pretends to be grassroots. The Hedge Clippers, born last year, is an anti-capitalist, left-wing, purportedly grassroots organization whose focus is on exposing “the mechanisms hedge funds and billionaires use to influence government and politics in order to expand their wealth, influence and power.” The group received...

TAGS: American Federation of Teachers, California Teachers Association, Citizens United, Dark money, Eva Moskowitz, Harlem Success Academy, Larry Sand, Mike Antonucci, National Education Association, Prop. 30, Randi Weingarten, teachers union, United Federation of Teachers

The Bad, the Ugly and…the Perky

By Larry Sand
06/14/2016
Three recent stories point to the self-serving teacher union mentality. The bad. Joseph Ocol was in big trouble when he came to the U.S. in 1999. As a whistleblower, he was placed in the government’s Witness Protection Program for calling attention to an election fund-raising scam in his native Philippines. Even with a double degree in...

TAGS: American Federation of Teachers, Chicago Teachers Union, Karen Lewis, Larry Sand, New York State United Teachers, teachers union

Teacher Shortage Claim Is Still Short on Data

By Larry Sand
05/17/2016
No matter how many times it’s repeated, the national teacher shortage story is a canard. In the months since I last wrote about the alleged teacher shortage crisis, I had hoped the hysteria would abate. But alas, it hasn’t; if anything, it has increased, with the teachers unions at the forefront of the bogus story....

TAGS: American Federation of Teachers, Andrew Coulson, California Teachers Association, Cato Institute, EdSource, Education Next, John Fensterwald, Kate Walsh, Larry Sand, Mike Antonucci, National Education Association, Randi Weingarten, teacher shortage, teachers union

The Latest Teachers Unions’ Monopoly Moves

By Larry Sand
05/03/2016
April revealed the teachers unions’ desperation over losing control of top-down, one-size fits all government-run schools. In many ways April was normal for teacher union monopolists. Early in the month, the Washington Teachers Union said it would challenge a new law in the Evergreen State that corrected problems in the way that charter schools, which...

TAGS: Alliance to Reclaim Our Schools, American Federation of Teachers, California Teachers Association, CREDO, Gloria Romero, James Tooley, Larry Sand, Randi Weingarten, teachers union, The Beautiful Tree, Washington Teachers Union

Vergara Update: Virtues and Villainy

By Larry Sand
04/19/2016
The union and media reactions to the appeals court decision in the Vergara case had me going through a whole can of room deodorizer. In 2014, the plaintiffs in the Vergara trial claimed that several California education statutes – all of which are on the books at the behest of the teachers unions – cause...

TAGS: American Federation of Teachers, California Teachers Association, Campbell Brown, Eric Hanushek, Eric Heins, Larry Sand, National Education Association, Randi Weingarten, Rolf Treu, seniority, Students Matter, Susan Bonilla, teachers union, tenure, Vergara

Teacher Union Pension Flim-flam

By Larry Sand
04/12/2016
The public employee pension problem isn’t new, but a teacher union leader’s defense of it has sunk to new depths. According to the Federal Reserve, public employee pensions in aggregate nationally are in serious trouble. Currently totaling $5.8 trillion, they are underfunded by $1.7 trillion. While all these pensions are draining public resources, Don Boyd, director...

TAGS: 401K, American Federation of Teachers, Andrew Biggs, Friedman Foundation, ghost teachers, Jason Richwine, Larry Sand, pension tsunami, Randi Weingarten, release time, school choice, teachers union

Dear South Side Teacher

By Larry Sand
04/05/2016
An open letter to the idealistic teacher in Chicago who may have defied the teachers union by not striking on April 1st. In a recent newspaper article you said you were “morally and ethically” against the Chicago Teachers Union one-day strike (or “Day of Tantrum,” according to a Chicago Tribune op-ed) last Friday and that...

TAGS: American Federation of Teachers, Antonin Scalia, Association of American Educators, charter school, Chicago Teachers Union, first out, Friedrichs, Larry Sand, last in, LIFO, National Education Association, pension pick-up, Rick Hess, seniority, Supreme Court, teachers union

In like a Lyin’

By Larry Sand
03/29/2016
As charter schools continue to succeed, the reformicidal teachers unions ramp up their assault on them. Month by month, the teachers unions have been increasing their barrage of malevolence toward charter schools, which are nothing more than publicly funded schools of choice that are trying to break away from the rigidity of Big Education/Big Union...

TAGS: Alex Caputo-Pearl, American Federation of Teachers, California Charter School Association, Center for Education Reform, Center for Popular Democracy, charter school, In the Public Interest, Kara Kerwin, LA School Report, Larry Sand, Randi Weingarten, school choice, teachers union, United Teachers of Los Angeles