LA Story: The Poorer You Are, the More Likely You Are to Support Charters

By Adam Jacobs
09/29/2016
Los Angeles school teachers gathered in August in the posh, iconic – and for the group, weirdly ironic – Westin Bonaventure Hotel. They heard their union’s leaders extol their role as revolutionary defenders of the city’s poorest communities against the wealthy. But that’s not how the city’s poor have seen it. The poorer you are,...

TAGS: Charter schools, LAUSD

Clinton Turns Her Back on School Choice While Trump Embraces It 

By Larry Sand
09/13/2016
As Hillary Clinton cozies up to the teachers unions, Donald Trump seeks to vastly expand school choice opportunities.  In November, 2015, Hillary Clinton gave a speech in South Carolina in which she abandoned her prior support for charter schools. Using language straight from the teachers union fact-free playbook, she claimed that charters “don’t take the...

TAGS: American Federation of Teachers, Charter schools, Common Core, Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, Kevin Chavous, Larry Sand, Lily Eskelsen Garcia, merit pay, Mike Antonucci, National Education Association, Randi Weingarten, school choice, teachers union, vouchers

ACLU Turns its Back on LA's Poorest Students in Attack on Charter Schools

By Blake Dixon
09/08/2016
The ACLU has aimed its considerable legal firepower at charter schools. The reason? They aren’t enough like our failing traditional public schools. In a recent report, the ACLU condemns 253 California charter schools for what it sees as a violation of discrimination law, citing examples of charter schools requiring consistent attendance and, in some cases,...

TAGS: ACLU, Charter schools, LAUSD, Vergara v California

Los Angeles Teachers Union Sinks to Unmitigated Depths

By Larry Sand
05/31/2016
The union war on charter schools has become even uglier, courtesy of UTLA. On May 4th, the United Teachers of Los Angeles, in concert with the Alliance to Reclaim Our Schools (AROS) – a radical union front group – planned a major protest to be held outside schools where charter schools share a campus with...

TAGS: Alliance to Reclaim Our Schools, California Charter School Association, Charter schools, LA School Report, Larry Sand, National Education Association, teachers union, United Teachers of Los Angeles

Fixing Z Mess

By Larry Sand
01/26/2016
National School Choice Week aims to end our Zip-code Mandated Education System (Z MESS) and promote parent-power.  You: I’m going out to dinner tonight. Me: You are going to the restaurant down the street from where you live, right? You: No, it’s not very good. I am going to a restaurant across town; it has...

TAGS: American Federation of Teachers, Charter schools, Florida Education Association, Friedman Foundation, Greg Forster, Larry Sand, Matthew Ladner, National Education Association, National School Choice Week, Randi Weingarten, teachers union, vouchers

Unionization Push Threatens Alliance College-Ready Public Schools

By Scott Kaufman
01/12/2016
“Join the movement for schools L.A. students deserve.” You’d be forgiven for thinking that meant schools that offered the best outcomes for their students. Instead, it’s the banner the United Teachers of Los Angeles is marching under in its “struggle” with the Los Angeles Unified School District and the “fight against the corporate parasites lined...

TAGS: Alliance College-Ready Public Schools, Charter schools, Los Angeles Unified School District

The Enemies of Choice

By Larry Sand
12/29/2015
The teachers unions’ fight against parental and teacher choice is not going well for them. Teacher union membership is dwindling. In fact, it has dipped below 50 percent nationwide, down from a high of almost 70 percent in 1993. Wisconsin, Michigan and Indiana, having  become “right-to-work” (RTW) states over the past several years, have given...

TAGS: Act 10, Charter schools, Education Next, educational savings accounts, Fordham Institute, Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association, Larry Sand, National Education Association, Right to Work, tax-credit scholarships, teachers union, Tom Gantert, vouchers

Preferring Failing Schools to Successful Ones

By Larry Sand
12/22/2015
Teacher union leaders want to keep poorly performing public schools open, but kill off thriving charters and voucher schools. Just last week it was announced in New York City that three failing public schools would be closing. With a total enrollment of 217 students, there really was no other choice. Indeed, it was such a...

TAGS: Charter schools, Dennis Van Roekel, Eva Moskowitz, Fordham Institute, Harlem Success Academy, Larry Sand, Michael Mulgrew, National Education Association, school choice, teachers union, United Federation of Teachers, vouchers

Hillary Rodham Weingarten

By Larry Sand
11/17/2015
Using teacher union talking points, Mrs. Clinton badly distorts facts about charter schools. Coming on the heels of the Benghazi fabrication, the “dead broke” when she left the White House claim, and “servergate,” the latest Hillary blunder is a baseless sliming of charter schools. In a well-publicized gaffe, she told journalist Roland Martin, … the...

TAGS: American Federation of Teachers, Cecily Myart-Cruz, Charter schools, Democrats for Education Reform, Eva Moskowitz, Hillary Clinton, Larry Sand, National Education Association, Nina Rees, Randi Weingarten, teachers union, United Teachers of Los Angeles