The Janus case, which gave public employees a choice whether or not to join a union, elicited apocalyptic proclamations, but the reality – thus far – has been quite different. “I listened as the right wing launched attack after attack on unions and on what collective bargaining gains for working people, those they serve and...

  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...

  Too many educators are clueless on issues relating to their profession.  In 2006, I co-founded the California Teachers Empowerment Network, whose mission is to give educators unbiased information and to combat union spin and outright lies. While we have helped a good number of teachers, there are still way too many who are...

Though better than the current law, a new tenure bill doesn’t go nearly far enough. As things stand, k-12 public school teachers in California are essentially guaranteed lifetime employment if they can get through their first two years on the job. This puts a lot of pressure on principals, as they must decide by March...