Sanders stands firm on the issues; Warren and Booker are chameleon-like; Biden is meh. As I wrote in May, several of the Democratic presidential hopefuls were tripping over each other in an effort to secure the endorsement of the teachers unions. These candidates were most pointed in criticizing any form of school choice. Bernie Sanders...
SPLC and NEA v. Parents and Kids
The disgraceful Southern Poverty Law Center is now trying to keep poor parents from getting their kids out of awful schools. The Southern Poverty Law Center, which regularly labels organizations whose politics they disagree with as “Hate Groups,” has jumped head-first into the school choice fray. Just a few weeks ago, they began Public Funds...
Poll Dancing
The latest PDK poll is useless, as are most. The latest yearly poll from Phi Delta Kappa, an organization whose mission is to “activate educators and other stakeholders to elevate the discourse around teaching and learning….” has just been released, and I don’t see any elevation. In fact, the poll is ultimately meaningless, although that didn’t...
School choice’s strange bedfellows
The move to educational freedom brings together some unlikely allies. Shortly after the general election, American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten was ecstatic. Writing in The New York Times, she insisted that there was a “realignment in the electorate.” She also claimed that “voters responded to a decade of disinvestment in public education and...
An open letter to Randi Weingarten
This is the fourth in a series of missives to the president of the American Federation of Teachers. (The first three can be accessed here, here and here.) My Dear Randi, It has been a while! I hope you are well, though I suspect recent events have you a bit off-kilter or even a tad...
Young minds, bureaucrats and union bosses
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...
Teacher pay fray
In light of strikes past and future, a brief review of teacher compensation is in order. A recent headline in the Austin American-Statesman caught my eye. It read, “Texas education chief suggests paying higher-performing teachers more.” Those of you whose first reaction is “Well, duh,” are hardly outliers. But in the land of...
Worker freedom: The Janus edition
With another right-to-work case headed to the Supreme Court, union lies and chicanery are in high gear. Among the greatest myths in recent history include the belief that Che Guevara was a freedom fighter, that China in the 20th Century was a “People’s Republic” and “If you like your health care plan, you can keep...
Teacher Shortage Claim Is Still Short on Data
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....
The Enemies of Choice
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...