Members of the Inland Empire Parent Union march on MLK Day in Murietta, CA. There was a new twist in Riverside County’s annual Martin Luther King Jr. Day celebration. This year’s parade through the streets of Murietta included members of the Inland Empire Parent Union (IEPU). IEPU President Christina Laster is fighting to get parents more...
CPC teaming up with NAACP for equitable education
Everybody knows that the California education system is broken. Marred by a decline in educational standards, a misuse of public funds and racial discrimination, most parents would have surrendered. One parent in Riverside County decided to fight back. Christina Laster Christina Laster, a mother of four, is anything but apathetic. She has been involved in...
Beyond DeVos
Editor’s Note: The confirmation of Betsy DeVos was not supported by everyone committed to improving public education, and in particular, not even to everyone committed to breaking the grip of the teachers union on public education. Rishawn Biddle is someone who vehemently opposed DeVos, but is equally vehement in his condemnation of the corruption and...
Secretary of Education Nominee Betsy Devos – One Reformer’s Perspective
There has been plenty of discussion about U.S. Secretary of Education Nominee Betsy DeVos in the weeks since your editor wrote a series of commentaries about why reformers shouldn’t support her, much less anyone in the incoming Trump Administration. The resulting discussion and sparring among reformers over DeVos exemplifies the splits that have been developing...
The Hypocrisy of Public Sector Unions
During the industrial age, labor unions played a vital role in protecting the rights of workers. Skeptics may argue that enlightened management played an equally if not greater role, such as when Henry Ford famously raised the wages of his workers so they could afford to buy the cars they made, but few would argue...
Progressivism, Unionization and Political Correctness Are Destroying Public Education
Even a brief glance at the 1908 7th and 8th grade reading lists or the 1895 Salina, Kansas 8th grade exit exam graphically illustrates the profound decline in public education produced as a consequence of the progressives who dominate our academic institutions and federal government. Less obvious is the threat this presents to the future of the American Republic....
The Real Cost of K-12 Education
The annual cost of K-12 education in the United States has increased steadily for decades. For 2015, the cost is about $600 billion. Fiscal reality has not diminished the demand by politicians and their powerful union cronies for even more money, a substantial portion of which would be earmarked to fund the high salaries of...
Lessons for Reformers from Governor Scott Walker
Certainly there are scores of Beltway conservative reformers (and movement conservatives disinterested in education policy) who are dismayed by Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s decision yesterday to halt his campaign for the Republican presidential nomination. After all, the onetime state legislator and former Milwaukee County Executive-turned-governor has been highly-touted by them for his success in abolishing...
How Government Unions Are Destroying America
Not one presidential candidate, apart from Gov. Walker’s last-ditch rhetoric prior to dropping out, has discussed the problems with unionized government as a major issue. That’s too bad, because these problems are bigger than even most critics acknowledge. When people discuss the need to reform, if not eliminate, public sector unions, the only reason typically...
Palm Lane Reform Activists Win Court Ruling – District Immediately Appeals
The yearlong battle with the Anaheim City School District and Anaheim City Board of Education has ended. The parents of the 733 students enrolled at Palm Lane Elementary School have finally been granted the right to restart their decade-long failing school as an independent charter school. Judge Andrew P. Banks, Orange County Superior Court, issued...