California Public Schools to Teach LGBTQQIAA Dogma to 3rd Graders

By Larry Sand
12/26/2018
Californians need to act now on the new state Health Education Framework. In 2016, several doctors tore into new guidelines that promoted transgenderism in the Canadian province of Alberta. They refused to accept the new orthodoxy advanced by progressive activists that “gender is a social construct,” and insisted that identifying one’s gender as different from...

TAGS: Larry Sand, transgender

Organizing those ratty charter schools

By Larry Sand
12/18/2018
The unions’ “If ya can’t kill ’em, organize ’em” mentality is on display in Chicago. In a refreshingly honest video from 2011, Leo Casey, New York City’s United Federation of Teachers Vice President, equates charter schools to Walmart – both being very resistant to unionization. Pounding on the table at a socialist gathering, he says...

TAGS: American Federation of Teachers, charter school, Chicago Teachers Union, Janus ruling, Larry Sand, Mike Antonucci, school choice, teachers union, United Federation of Teachers

The #WeSue movement

By Larry Sand
12/11/2018
The Janus decision in June has opened the door to litigation. Lots of litigation. It has been almost six months since the Janus ruling, which allows government workers to avoid paying a union as a condition of employment. But that was just a beginning. The decision has shone a light on many other union abuses...

TAGS: California Policy Center, Competitive Enterprise Institute, Janus ruling, Larry Sand, Liberty Justice Center, National Right to Work Foundation, release time, teachers union, Thomas Few, Trey Kovacs, United Teachers of Los Angeles, worker freedom

School choice’s strange bedfellows

By Larry Sand
12/04/2018
The move to educational freedom brings together some unlikely allies. Shortly after the general election, American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten was ecstatic. Writing in The New York Times, she insisted that there was a “realignment in the electorate.” She also claimed that “voters responded to a decade of disinvestment in public education and...

TAGS: American Federation of Teachers, Andrew Gillum, Betsy DeVos, Education Next, Larry Sand, Randi Weingarten, Ron DeSantis, school choice, Scott Walker, tax credit scholarship, teachers union, voucher

Class size matters…not a whit

By Larry Sand
11/27/2018
Perhaps the “fake news” story of the year – actually the last 20 years – is that small class size is essential to learning. Under the leadership of its cantankerous president Alex Caputo-Pearl, the United Teachers of Los Angeles is planning to strike – very possibly in January. The union’s demands haven’t budged, even as...

TAGS: Alex Caputo-Pearl, Andrew Coulson, Austin Beutner, Benjamin Scafidi, Cato Institute, class-size, EdChoice, Eric Hanushek, Larry Sand, Los Angeles Unified School District, teachers union, United Teachers of Los Angeles

The delightfully, annoyingly persistent Rebecca Friedrichs

By Larry Sand
11/20/2018
In Standing Up to Goliath: Battling State and National Teachers’ Unions for the Heart and Soul of Our Kids and Country, teacher, wife, mother, devout Christian and Supreme Court plaintiff Rebecca Friedrichs (David) has written an informative, enjoyable and, at times, infuriating book in which she weaves revelations about her humble roots, marriages, problems with...

TAGS: Antonin Scalia, Janus v. AFSCME, Larry Sand, Rebecca Friedrichs, teachers union

NEA’s defective election reflections

By Larry Sand
11/13/2018
Teachers union wants us to believe that it won big on Election Day…in spite of the facts. On November 7th, the National Education Association proclaimed “Voters deliver big wins for public education.” The union insisted that Election Day saw pro-education candidates sweep into office at every level of government. NEA President Lily Eskelsen García was...

TAGS: #RedforED, Alexander Russo, Larry Sand, Lily Eskelsen Garcia, Mike Antonucci, National Education Association, teachers union

An open letter to Randi Weingarten

By Larry Sand
11/06/2018
This is the fourth in a series of missives to the president of the American Federation of Teachers. (The first three can be accessed here, here and here.)  My Dear Randi, It has been a while! I hope you are well, though I suspect recent events have you a bit off-kilter or even a tad...

TAGS: AFSCME, American Federation of Teachers, Center for American Progress, Education Next, Larry Sand, Mike Antonucci, NEA, Randi Weingarten, school choice, seiu, teachers union, vouchers

California Ed-doctrination

By Larry Sand
10/30/2018
Indoctrination in government schools is a big problem; giving parents choices can solve it. Recently in southern California, a public high school student was given an assignment in English class to pick an issue and make an argument for and against it. The 16-year-old decided to do her essay on the Dreamers. But her teacher...

TAGS: Education Savings Accounts, Howard Zinn, Larry Sand, Los Angeles Unified School District, school choice, Stephen Sawchuk, tax-credit scholarships, vouchers

The charter school haters dig in

By Larry Sand
10/23/2018
The education traditionalists’ attacks on parental choice are unrelenting. All across Texas, children are hoping to get into a charter school. In San Antonio alone, 40,000 families await the chance to pick a school that best fits the needs of their child. Nationally, over 3 million students now attend these schools of choice, which get...

TAGS: Alex Caputo-Pearl, California Charter School Association, charter school, Diane Ravitch, In the Public Interest, James Shuls, Larry Sand, Lisa Snell, National Education Association, school choice, teachers union, United Teachers of Los Angeles