Predominantly minority D.C school kids are not sharing NEA leader’s glee over President Obama’s budget. Last week, President Obama released his administration’s budget for fiscal year 2015 and National Education Association president Dennis Van Roekel was ecstatic. He was especially pleased that Obama plans to move “towards ending the era of austerity.” (Austerity? I must...

Why are vouchers okay for college students, but not for K-12ers? Recently, the National Education Association posted an interview with Wes Moore on its website. Two boys are named Wes Moore. Both grow up in fatherless homes in Baltimore. Both struggle in school, and run into trouble with the police. But one Wes Moore wins...

“Although fully aware that Neal did something illegal, I am very proud to have him as my friend.” “… his dedication and leadership qualities gained him the respect of his administrators, staff, students and community.” The above quotes are from letters that were written by teachers to a judge last June on behalf of a...

Joining a racially charged situation, largely inflamed by the media, the nation’s teachers unions hypocritically play the civil rights card. To acknowledge the obvious, the February 26, 2012 events in Sanford, FL were tragic. Trayvon Martin is dead and George Zimmerman will be haunted – and very possibly hunted – for the rest of his...

Teacher union twaddle is not fooling the nation’s moms any more. National Education Association president Dennis Van Roekel wrote a tired piece for Huffington Post last week in which he trotted out all the usual phrases and suspects that we have come to expect from a union boss who is trying to scare us into...

Good week for debunking teachers union hype, big government waste and mainstream media distortions. The factually challenged Valerie Strauss unleashed a doozie in her Washington Post blog last week. As Alabama was passing tax credit legislation, Strauss, as she so often does, echoed the teachers union line, railing about the program being “welfare for the...

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg donates $1 million to reform candidates in Los Angeles school board race. School boards are powerful entities. Within the confines of state law, they typically adopt budgets, collectively bargain with the local teachers union, monitor student achievement and pick the local school superintendent. In California, there are more than...

The National Education Association is relentless in pushing for “reforms,” all the while engaging in world class duplicity. (While the themes I explore here have been covered before, they must be repeated because the National Education Association is dogged in its attempt to acquire even more power than it now has. It is incumbent that...

In California schools, the fifth month (formerly known as May) is now Labor History Month. As Kevin Dayton pointed out in Union Watch last week, the entire month of May is now officially deemed Labor History Month in California. Courtesy of AB 2269, the state education code has been amended to read, The month of...

Teacher union leaders offer heat but no light after the mass murder in Newtown. In the aftermath of the December 14th mass murder of 26 children and school staffers in Newtown, Connecticut, there has been the understandable finger pointing and a full range of suggestions for ensuring that such a horror doesn’t happen again. On...