Grad rates have become the education establishment’s Potemkin village

By Larry Sand
02/13/2018
Too many schools are failing, and parents need a way for their kids to escape from them. A couple of months ago, the education establishment told us that “U.S. Graduation Rate Hits New All-Time High, With Gains in All Student Groups.” But in the real world this is nothing more than a façade – a...

TAGS: American Federation of Teachers, California High School Exit Examination, credit recovery classes, dropouts, EdChoice, graduation rate, Larry Sand, Randi Weingarten, school choice, teachers union

Too many kids are failing in California, and so is the education establishment

By Larry Sand
01/24/2018
High school graduation rates have traditionally been a barometer of student success, as well as a measure of the quality of school systems. The members of California’s education establishment have been high-fiving each other over the state’s on-time high school graduation rate reaching 83.2 percent in 2016. But a peak behind the curtain reveals some...

TAGS: California High School Exit Examination, dropouts, graduation rate, Larry Sand, National School Choice Week, Patrick Wolf, vouchers

Big Education’s bad month

By Larry Sand
12/05/2017
November saw a rash of stories about the troubled public school monolith. As I wrote last week, the public education brand is in trouble and as 2017 fades away, a wave of stories is sending the year out with not a bang or a whimper, but rather with an unceremonious thud. A Public Policy of...

TAGS: Bill Ayers, Chicago public schools, D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program, graduation rate, Larry Sand, public schools, school choice, student spending, teachers union, tenure

More unaccountability from the education establishment

By Larry Sand
11/15/2017
Too many kids in California are failing, and the powers-that-be are doing nothing effective about it.  As I wrote recently, the Big Education mandarins are forever pointing fingers at charter and private schools, claiming they’re “unaccountable.” But in reality, there is no entity in America that is less accountable than a unionized, government-run school system....

TAGS: accountability, California High School Exit Examination, credit recovery classes, graduation rate, Larry Sand, remediation, Speak Up, teachers union

The best defense is to be offensive

By Larry Sand
09/19/2017
Anti-school choicers are getting desperate. The traditional public education monopolists are using some truly bizarre arguments to ensure that children remain in government-run schools. In July, American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten intimated that parents who opt out of government schools are equivalent to southern segregationists. Then later in July, Katherine Stewart penned possibly...

TAGS: American Federation of Teachers, Betsy DeVos, CAHSEE, credit recovery classes, graduation rate, Heartland Institute, Larry Sand, LAUSD, Mackinac Center, Randi Weingarten, school choice, teachers union, vouchers

Los Angeles Department of Monopoly and Power

By Larry Sand
02/23/2016
Educating students is far from the #1 priority of the school board and the teachers union in LA. On February 11th, LA School Report released an internal Los Angeles Unified School District document which stated that just 54 percent of seniors in LA are on track to graduate. The drop off from 74 percent last...

TAGS: Alex Caputo-Pearl, CAHSEE, California Charter Schools Association, California High School Exit Examination, Eli Broad, graduation rate, LA School Report, Larry Sand, Los Angeles Unified School District, school choice, teachers union, United Teachers of Los Angeles, Vergara lawsuit