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

Will Los Angeles teachers strike out on a bad pitch?

By Larry Sand
08/07/2018
Using loads of bogus info, LA teacher union leader prepares teachers for a walkout in the fall. In my post last Tuesday, I wrote about the many problems facing the Los Angeles Unified School District. Since then, one of the issues I detailed has moved front and center: the strong possibility of a teacher strike....

TAGS: Alex Caputo-Pearl, Austin Beutner, bargaining for the common good, Charter schools, EdSource, James Agresti, John Fensterwald, Larry Sand, Lisa Snell, Los Angeles Unified School District, Mike Antonucci, Reason Foundation, socialism, teacher pay, teacher strike, teachers union, United Teachers of Los Angeles

Transitional Kindergarten: A Boondoggle by any other name….

By Larry Sand
01/14/2014
CA announces a budget surplus — and legislators can’t wait to blow it. It’s hardly surprising, but California’s we-never-met-a-big-budget-bill-we-didn’t-like Democratic lawmakers and State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson have joined hands to sponsor SB 837, new legislation that would provide free public preschool to every four-year-old child in California. The Kindergarten Readiness Act of 2014, introduced...

TAGS: California Teachers Empowerment Network, Caroline Hoxby, Darrell Steinberg, Head Start, Jerry Brown, Larry Sand, Lindsey Burke, Lisa Snell, Tom Torlakson, Transitional Kindergarten

The Strange Politics of Education Reform

By Larry Sand
09/10/2013
… where conservatives demand change and many alleged progressives, including teacher union elites, are really reactionary. While this may be old news to some, it can’t be said enough: In our polarized times, education reform is the only truly bipartisan issue, whereas with other matters things invariably break down into Republican vs. Democrat, liberal vs....

TAGS: Andrew Cuomo, Democrats for Education Reform, Diane Ravitch, Eric Holder, Heritage Foundation, Jay Greene, Larry Sand, Lindsey Burke, Lisa Snell, Michael Nutter, Rahm Emanuel, Reason Foundation, teachers union

Big Education Jive Exposed

By Larry Sand
03/04/2013
Good week for debunking teachers union hype, big government waste and mainstream media distortions. The factually challenged Valerie Strauss unleashed a doozie in her Washington Post blog last week. As Alabama was passing tax credit legislation, Strauss, as she so often does, echoed the teachers union line, railing about the program being “welfare for the...

TAGS: Andrew Rotherham, Dennis Van Roekel, Head Start, Larry Sand, Lisa Snell, Randi Weingarten, school choice, tax credit scholarship, teachers union

NEA Agenda: More Money, Minimal Reform

By Larry Sand
05/15/2012
The teachers union not only plays the poverty card, but by battling reforms, ensures that the impoverished will remain that way. “No Education Reform Without Tackling Poverty, Experts Say,” is the title of an article on the National Education Association website. Experts? A trip into the weeds leads to something called the Center on Poverty,...

TAGS: Charter schools, education spending, Eva Moskowitz, George Soros, Head Start, Jay Greene, Lindsey Burke, Lisa Snell, National Education Association, teachers unions, vouchers