The Oasis Was a Mirage

By Larry Sand
03/10/2015
After failing miserably for almost ten years, a rare union-run charter school is mercifully shuttered. In September 2005, New York City’s United Federation of Teachers (UFT) president Randi Weingarten was frustrated and wanted to prove a point. She explained that the union was opening two charter schools so that it could “reclaim” the original charter...

TAGS: American Federation of Teachers, Center for Popular Democracy, Eva Moskowitz, Harlem Success Academy, In the Public Interest, Joel Klein, Larry Sand, Michael Mulgrew, Randi Weingarten, RiShawn Biddle, teachers union, United Federation of Teachers

Democrats and Teachers Unions: The Chasm Grows

By Larry Sand
12/23/2014
As more Dems demand education reform, the teachers unions find themselves increasingly isolated. Going back to 2009, I have written many times about the relationship between the teachers unions and the Democratic Party. It’s no secret that the party and the unions were at one time synonymous, but this is rapidly becoming history. Quite clearly,...

TAGS: Andrew Cuomo, Campbell Brown, Democratic Party, Democrats for Education Reform, Joel Klein, Koch Brothers, Larry Sand, Michael Mulgrew, National Education Association, New York State United Teachers, teachers union, United Federation of Teachers

School Choice Wars

By Larry Sand
02/18/2014
Though National School Choice Week ended a couple of weeks ago, reactionary rhetoric and political clashes are just heating up. With National School Choice Week behind us, the battle – and it is a battle – to free our children from a monopoly by zip-code public education system is being fought on fronts all over...

TAGS: American Federation of Teachers, Barack Obama, Bill de Blasio, Eva Moskowitz, G.I. Bill, Jason Riley, Joel Klein, Lamar Alexander, Larry Sand, National Education Association, National School Choice Week, Pell Grant, privatization, Randi Weingarten, teachers union, Tim Scott, vouchers

The Big Apple and Little Dougco

By Larry Sand
11/12/2013
Last week, the nation’s biggest city and a county in Colorado went in diametrically opposite education reform directions. On Election Day, there were several outcomes that affected how education will be conducted across the country. Perhaps the most dramatic took place in New York City and Douglas County, CO. In New York, after several years...

TAGS: American Federation of Teachers, Ben DeGrow, Bill de Blasio, Charter schools, Chester Finn, Education Next, Joel Klein, Joy Resmovits, Larry Sand, Marcus Winters, Michael Bloomberg, Randi Weingarten, Rick Hess

Pollution Driven Unionism

By Larry Sand
07/31/2012
AFT president Randi Weingarten trots out “solution driven unionism,” but her “solutions” are anything but. As if Detroit didn’t have a zillion other problems, the American Federation of Teachers decided to have its every-other-year convention there last week. In Michigan, a forced union state, I guess AFT figured they’d have a captive audience. On opening...

TAGS: American Federation of Teachers, Eva Moskowitz, Joel Klein, Randi Weingarten, teachers unions

Teachers Practicing Sexual Harassment Protected by Unions, Victim Advocates Intimidated

By Larry Sand
04/10/2012
With teacher union enabling, child abuse goes on unabated. A male business owner joking about life for homosexuals in prison, forced a junior accountant to bend over a desk, lined up behind him to simulate a sex act, then quipped, “I’ll show you what’s gay.” An insurance company middle manager who had been warned about...

TAGS: California Teachers Association, Eva Moskowitz, Joel Klein, Michael Mulgrew, Michelle Rhee, Randi Weingarten, teachers unions, United Federation of Teachers