The rise of uncivil education

By Larry Sand
10/24/2017
This year has not been kind to the land of the free. Due to advancing ignorance and arrogance – a deadly combination – the basic tenets of our republic are in trouble, and public education is at the center of much of what is wrong. While we went through a similar socio-political upheaval in the...

TAGS: California Teachers Association, Chester Finn, John Stocks, Kevin Dayton, Lance Izumi, Larry Sand, Mike Antonucci, National Education Association, teachers union, United Teachers of Los Angeles

Propaganda posters in California public school classrooms: union dogma or educational opportunity?

By Kevin Dayton
08/11/2017
Why is the California teachers union Association distributing political propaganda posters to teachers and other educators for display “in your school, classroom, and beyond?” The California Teachers Association doesn’t offer teachers a guide for the use of these posters in classroom instruction. Nor does it recommend the posters as catalysts for students to think about the nature...

TAGS: California Teachers Association, social justice

Teachers union spreads Soviet-era art and ideas in public school classrooms

By Kevin Dayton
08/10/2017
There’s a rare note of dissent in the May-June issue of Educator, the usually doctrinaire magazine of the California Teachers Association. In a letter to the editor, Fremont Teacher Jim Brady questions the purpose behind official union posters appearing in public school classrooms across the state. As part of its 2017 campaign to “actualize the...

TAGS: California Teachers Association, social justice

Trailer trash

By Larry Sand
07/04/2017
Forced unionism may soon be illegal, but a mandatory union propaganda law is now on the books in California. The public employee unions, especially the teacher union variety, are very jittery over the prospect that the Janus case, if successful in the U.S. Supreme Court next year, could free government workers from paying forced dues...

TAGS: AB 119, Association of American Educators, California Federation of Teachers, California Teachers Association, Janus v. AFSCME, Joshua Pechthalt, Larry Sand, Steven Greenhut, teachers union

Profits of doom

By Larry Sand
06/27/2017
From California to Africa, teachers unions fight the “for-profit” bogeyman. Well, I guess we can all rest just a bit easier now that California is on the verge of banning for-profit charter schools. Sponsored by the California Federation of Teachers, AB 406 is making its way through the California State Senate, having glided through the...

TAGS: American Federation of Teachers, California Teachers Association, Eric Hanushek, James Tooley, Josh Pechthalt, Kevin McCarty, Larry Sand, Lily Eskelsen Garcia, National Education Association, Neal McCluskey, teachers union, The Beautiful Tree

Union dues are cutting into teacher’s retirement funds

By Jackie Lavalleye
06/27/2017
Union dues take a large bite out of the paychecks of California teachers. We estimate that newly hired, full-time teachers will pay $37,000 in dues over a 30-year career. Further, if new teachers could fully opt out of the union and instead save their dues in an Individual Retirement Account, they would each have $228,000...

TAGS: California Teachers Association, National Education Association, public sector unions, teachers union, teachers unions

“Who ya gonna believe – me, or your own eyes?”

By Larry Sand
06/20/2017
Teachers unions continue to bash charter schools in spite of their success and popularity. When it comes to charter schools, the teachers unions are nothing if not relentless. From Mike Antonucci we learn that the California Teachers Association is in the process of developing and promoting resolutions, which local unions can introduce at school board meetings...

TAGS: California Teachers Association, Charter schools, CREDO, Eva Moskowitz, Larry Sand, Lily Eskelsen Garcia, Marcus Winters, Matthew Ladner, Mike Antonucci, National Education Association, Patrick Wolf, Success Academy, teachers union

Teachers’ union president obsesses about billionaires at California Democratic convention

By Kevin Dayton
05/25/2017
Billionaires weigh heavy on the mind of the president of the California Teachers Association (CTA). During his brief May 21 speech at the 2017 California Democratic Party convention, CTA president Eric Heins referred to billionaires four times. He didn’t refer to reading, writing, or mathematics at all. It appears the CTA leadership has discovered a legion...

TAGS: California Teachers Association, Eric Heins, Kids Not Profits

Are Charters Doomed in California?

By Larry Sand
05/02/2017
Education establishment is protecting its turf in the Golden State; kids are not on its radar.  In late April, U.S. News & World Report released its yearly national rankings of America’s public high schools, and six of the top 10 are charter schools – public schools that don’t have to be in lockstep with their...

TAGS: Alex Caputo-Pearl, California Charter School Association, California Teachers Association, Charter schools, Eli Broad, George McKenna, Larry Sand, Los Angeles Unified School District, teachers union, Tony Mendoza, United Teachers of Los Angeles

Unions party like it’s 1886

By Larry Sand
04/25/2017
May Day, which may have had some justification 131 years ago, has become an excuse for unions to spread leftwing propaganda. As the Communist Party USA website informs us, May 1st is a day for working people to “demonstrate their unity and celebrate those who labor and produce all wealth. But it’s also a day...

TAGS: Alex Caputo-Pearl, California Federation of Teachers, California Teachers Association, Larry Sand, May Day, National Education Association, teachers unions, United Teachers of Los Angeles