The World’s Largest Oligarchical Organization

By Larry Sand
10/25/2016
The WikiLeaks document dump exposes NEA’s manipulation of its purported democratic process. The WikiLeaks email release, unmasking the Hillary Clinton campaign, has become a daily ritual. A treasure trove of communiqués has exposed Hillary to be just about everything that the right (and even many on the left) has said she is. The emails from...

TAGS: Bernie Sanders, Hillary Clinton, James Sherk, John Stocks, Larry Sand, Lily Eskelsen Garcia, Mike Antonucci, NEA, teachers union

Teacher Union Political Spending: Liberal as Ever

By Larry Sand
10/11/2016
AFT continues to use teachers as ATM machines to fund their pet leftist causes. The latest American Federation of Teachers annual financial disclosure has been released (H/T RiShawn Biddle). This year’s LM-2 is filled with goodies that are sure to warm the cockles of leftist teacher union members, but apolitical educators, centrists and certainly those...

TAGS: agency fee payer, Al Sharpton, American Federation of Teachers, Association of American Educators, California Teachers Association, California Teachers Empowerment Network, Center for Popular Democracy, Friedrichs, Larry Sand, Mary Kay Henry, Mike Antonucci, National Action Network, Randi Weingarten, seiu, teachers union

Clinton Turns Her Back on School Choice While Trump Embraces It 

By Larry Sand
09/13/2016
As Hillary Clinton cozies up to the teachers unions, Donald Trump seeks to vastly expand school choice opportunities.  In November, 2015, Hillary Clinton gave a speech in South Carolina in which she abandoned her prior support for charter schools. Using language straight from the teachers union fact-free playbook, she claimed that charters “don’t take the...

TAGS: American Federation of Teachers, Charter schools, Common Core, Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton, Kevin Chavous, Larry Sand, Lily Eskelsen Garcia, merit pay, Mike Antonucci, National Education Association, Randi Weingarten, school choice, teachers union, vouchers

Union Kingpin Threatens California

By Larry Sand
08/16/2016
In a blatant power-play, UTLA president targets health benefits and charter schools, calling for a “state crisis” if he doesn’t get his way. United Teachers of Los Angeles president Alex Caputo-Pearl gave a speech for the ages a couple of weeks ago, securing a wing in the pantheon-of-vile, a place which includes such memorable outbursts...

TAGS: Alex Caputo-Pearl, Bob Chanin, CAHSEE, California Charter Schools Association, California High School Exit Examination, Karen Lewis, Larry Sand, Los Angeles Unified School District, Mike Antonucci, National Education Association, remediation, teachers union, Terry Moe, United Teachers of Los Angeles

ALEC, ISTA and Indiana

By Larry Sand
08/02/2016
The teachers unions continue to pound the anti-ALEC drum, this year in the Hoosier State. The American Legislative Exchange Council is an organization of state legislators, business leaders and other concerned Americans dedicated to the principles of limited government, free markets and federalism. In the education sphere, ALEC holds that parents should be in charge...

TAGS: ALEC, American Legislative Exchange Council, EdChoice, Education Savings Accounts, Indiana State Teachers Association, Koch Brothers, Larry Sand, Mike Antonucci, Mike Pence, National Education Association, Rebecca Friedrichs, school choice, Scott Walker, tax-credit scholarships, teachers union, vouchers

The Teachers Unions Faux Grassroots Organizing

By Larry Sand
07/12/2016
The Hedge Clippers, a union run and organized group, laughably pretends to be grassroots. The Hedge Clippers, born last year, is an anti-capitalist, left-wing, purportedly grassroots organization whose focus is on exposing “the mechanisms hedge funds and billionaires use to influence government and politics in order to expand their wealth, influence and power.” The group received...

TAGS: American Federation of Teachers, California Teachers Association, Citizens United, Dark money, Eva Moskowitz, Harlem Success Academy, Larry Sand, Mike Antonucci, National Education Association, Prop. 30, Randi Weingarten, teachers union, United Federation of Teachers

Teacher Shortage Claim Is Still Short on Data

By Larry Sand
05/17/2016
No matter how many times it’s repeated, the national teacher shortage story is a canard. In the months since I last wrote about the alleged teacher shortage crisis, I had hoped the hysteria would abate. But alas, it hasn’t; if anything, it has increased, with the teachers unions at the forefront of the bogus story....

TAGS: American Federation of Teachers, Andrew Coulson, California Teachers Association, Cato Institute, EdSource, Education Next, John Fensterwald, Kate Walsh, Larry Sand, Mike Antonucci, National Education Association, Randi Weingarten, teacher shortage, teachers union

$MORE

By Larry Sand
01/12/2016
CTA press release reveals the union’s agenda toward education spending…and its utter disregard of reality. Last week California Teachers Association president Eric Heins issued a press release that shows the union’s ignorance – or avoidance – of facts. It begins with, “Educators are encouraged to see the Governor use his proposed state budget and revenues...

TAGS: Andrew Coulson, California Teachers Association, Cato Institute, education spending, Eric Heins, Larry Sand, Mike Antonucci, NAEP, Prop. 30, teachers union

Myths the Union Organizer Tells Us

By Larry Sand
12/15/2015
Socialist teacher union honcho’s distortions about union political spending and “labor peace” are, well, par for the course. Shaun Richman, a former organizing director for the American Federation of Teachers, has written a bizarre piece for In These Times in which he claims that “the Friedrichs v. Calif. Teachers Association SCOTUS Case Could Actually Be...

TAGS: Abood, agency fee payer, American Federation of Teachers, Dark money, Friedrichs v CTA, labor peace, Larry Sand, Mike Antonucci, National Education Association, RiShawn Biddle, teachers union

The National Teacher (Union Member) Shortage

By Larry Sand
09/01/2015
NEA/AFT and their friends in the media try to make hay of teacher shortage myth. For years, teachers unions have been moaning that nearly half of all new educators leave the profession within the first five years. They and others have repeated the claim so many times that it has taken on the mantle of...

TAGS: ALEC, American Federation of Teachers, Andrew Coulson, Cato Institute, Indiana State Teachers Association, Koch Brothers, Larry Sand, Mike Antonucci, National Council on Teacher Quality, National Education Association, New York Times, Randi Weingarten, teacher shortage, teachers union