June 14 is the anniversary of the 1846 Bear Flag Revolt that helped set California on the path to statehood. But how many California students could explain what the Bear Flag Republic was, why it mattered, or how California became a state? The truth is, we have no idea. California schools are expected to teach...

Why students’ history proficiency goes unmeasured, and how a politicized framework is undermining classroom instruction. California has no reliable way to measure whether students are meeting state history and social studies standards. In Gavin Newsom’s State of the State speech in January 2026, he claimed that California has seen “improved academic achievement in every subject...

America’s schools won’t recover through more spending or slogans, but through a return to proven basics—clear instruction, firm discipline, accountable teaching, and classrooms focused on learning. As someone who attended public school in the 1950s and 1960s, taught in elementary and middle schools in the early 1970s, and then from 1984 until I retired in...

For fans of dark comedy, California politics is as good as any entertainment – shot through with grim irony, corrupt politicians, and laughable hypocrisy. Consider Attorney General Rob Bonta’s legal campaign to crush the practice of seven school districts to notify parents before gender-transitioning their children. Parent notification, as it’s called, “places transgender and gender...

Parents, where do you draw the line? The state legislature is aggressively shepherding anti-parent bills through its chambers that erode parental authority in ways that would seem unimaginable only a few years ago. Under the banner of “affirming transgender children,” legislators are pushing bills that upend parental rights in frightening ways and pose serious risks...

RE: Assembly Constitutional Amendment 9 – OPPOSE, UNLESS AMENDED Dear Assemblyman McCarty, I write in respectful opposition to Assembly Constitutional Amendment 9 (ACA 9) as it is presently constituted. Full disclosure – I was the runner-up candidate for the constitutional office of Superintendent of Public Instruction on the November 2022 general election ballot. While considering the following comments...

It did not take long after I announced a statewide education reform tour as a former candidate for Superintendent of Public Instruction and in my role as California Policy Center’s Vice President of Education Policy and Government Affairs to receive an overwhelming and positive response. Parents, educators, school board members, and other concerned community members...

You can add Arkansas to the list of states that have enacted universal school choice legislation this year. In just three months, Republican governors in Iowa and Utah, and now newly-elected Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, have signed laws creating statewide Education Savings Account (ESA) programs that empower parents to use state education dollars to...

California’s primary and secondary education system is broken. I don’t need to list the parade of horribles — we all know them. We are failing the next generation. With your input, I would like to find a better way. You’re skeptical that any reform of value can be achieved in California. I get it. I...

The number of children in the classroom has no effect on educational achievement. The perennial, “We have a teacher shortage!” canard has a younger and equally bogus sibling known as, “Children do better in a small class setting!” In fact, lower class size is very often on the list of demands when teachers go out...