Teachers Unions Are Promoting School Choice

By Larry Sand
03/09/2021
As a result of their insistence on school closings, the unions are inadvertently leading the charge to educational freedom. As I wrote last week, opposition to teacher union-mandated lockdowns is growing. Parent groups are springing up all over the country, demanding that schools reopen. They see the irreparable harm being done to their kids on...

TAGS: American Federation of Teachers, California Teachers Association, EdChoice, Eric Hanushek, Larry Sand, Randi Weingarten, school choice, teachers union

The No Education Association

By Larry Sand
01/19/2021
As the teachers unions buttress their roadblocks to reopening schools, parental choice is more important than ever. In September 2020, researchers Corey DeAngelis and Christos Makridis released the results of a study which found that school districts in places with strong teachers’ unions were much less likely to offer full-time, in-person instruction in the fall....

TAGS: American Federation of Teachers, California Teachers Association, Christos Makridis, Claudia Briggs, Corey DeAngelis, EdChoice, Larry Sand, Mike Antonucci, National Education Association, National School Choice Week, Randi Weingarten

Pandemic Pod Pushback

By Larry Sand
11/10/2020
The education establishment is losing customers, and it isn’t happy. Teacher union honchos don’t like homeschoolers for obvious reasons. When kids learn at home, it means less control, money, and power for them. Over the years, the National Education Association has adopted resolutions at its yearly convention which stipulate that homeschooling families “cannot provide the...

TAGS: Becky Pringle, California Teachers Association, EdChoice, Heritage Foundation, homeschool, Jonathan Butcher, Larry Sand, National Education Association, pandemic pods, Randi Weingarten, teachers union

My Latest Missive to Randi Weingarten

By Larry Sand
09/15/2020
This is the sixth in a series of open letters to the president of the American Federation of Teachers. (The first five can be accessed here.) Yo Randi! I am really concerned about you, girl! First, at Al Sharpton’s National Day of Action lefty-fest in D.C. a couple of weeks ago, you informed the throng...

TAGS: Al Sharpton, American Federation of Teachers, EdChoice, Larry Sand, Randi Weingarten, school choice, student spending, teachers union

Pensions in the time of a pandemic

By Larry Sand
05/05/2020
Willfully blind to the reality of the fiscal impact of Covid-19, the teachers union is demanding billions from the already beleaguered American taxpayer. Long after the coronavirus fades into history, there will be many lingering effects. And high on that list very well may be the toll on public employee pensions and the beleaguered taxpayers...

TAGS: 401K, defined benefit, EdChoice, Larry Sand, National Education Association, teachers union

Casting Pearls Before Caputo

By Larry Sand
02/19/2019
Conflating regulation with accountability, teacher union leaders continue their deceptive talking points. While it’s up for grabs who originated the saying, “If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it,” Alex Caputo-Pearl is certainly one of its modern-day avatars. In a recent Washington Post op-ed, the...

TAGS: Alex Caputo-Pearl, American Federation for Children, Andrew Gillum, Corey DeAngelis, EdChoice, Education Savings Accounts, James Shuls, Larry Sand, Pell Grants, Ron DeSantis, school choice, tax credit scholarship, teachers union, United Teachers of Los Angeles, vouchers

Class size matters…not a whit

By Larry Sand
11/27/2018
Perhaps the “fake news” story of the year – actually the last 20 years – is that small class size is essential to learning. Under the leadership of its cantankerous president Alex Caputo-Pearl, the United Teachers of Los Angeles is planning to strike – very possibly in January. The union’s demands haven’t budged, even as...

TAGS: Alex Caputo-Pearl, Andrew Coulson, Austin Beutner, Benjamin Scafidi, Cato Institute, class-size, EdChoice, Eric Hanushek, Larry Sand, Los Angeles Unified School District, teachers union, United Teachers of Los Angeles

The endless teacher salary lies

By Larry Sand
09/25/2018
Using the “pay penalty” canard, the education establishment enflames teacher anger and accords them victim status. “‘I Work 3 Jobs and Donate Blood Plasma to Pay the Bills.’ This Is What It’s Like to Be a Teacher in America” begs for your sympathy. Then, of course, you are supposed to get righteously angry! But looking...

TAGS: Act 10, Barbara Biasi, Benjamin Scafidi, Cato Institute, Economic Policy Institute, EdChoice, free market, Larry Sand, Lee Saunders, Nick Gillespie, Randi Weingarten, Richard Trumka, Robert Enlow, Scott Walker, teachers union

Young minds, bureaucrats and union bosses

By Larry Sand
08/28/2018
School choice is advancing, but the monopolists continue to defend a failing system. As I mentioned in last week’s post, the latest bogus anti-school choice study being touted by the National Education Association was released in June. The report from the Network for Public Education (NPE) and the Schott Foundation contains all the usual gasp-worthy...

TAGS: Cato Institute, Corey DeAngelis, EdChoice, Education Next, ESA, Greg Forster, Larry Sand, Network for Public Education, Patrick Wolf, privatization, school choice, teachers union, vouchers

School choice matters

By Larry Sand
08/21/2018
From Puerto Rico to Los Angeles, teachers unions still try to deny parental choice at every turn. In March, six months after Hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico, the island’s lawmakers approved a bill that offered parents school choice options, including vouchers and charter schools. Hardly radical, the voucher program was capped at 3 percent of...

TAGS: American Federation for Children, American Federation of Teachers, EdChoice, Larry Sand, National Education Association, Network for Public Education, Randi Weingarten, teacher strike, teachers union, United Teachers of Los Angeles