School Choice and Its Foes

By Larry Sand
07/19/2016
My brief talk Saturday at FreedomFest identified those who try to deny school choice to the children of America and the tactics they use to do it.  On a recent panel at FreedomFest, a libertarian gathering held yearly in Las Vegas, I along with National School Choice Week President Andrew Campanella, Friedman Foundation State Programs...

TAGS: ACLU, Bob Bowdon, Choice Media, Florida Education Association, Friedman Foundation, Greg Forster, Jonathan Butcher, Larry Sand, National Education Association, National School Choice Week, school choice, tax credit scholarship, teachers union, Valerie Strauss, voucher, Zelman v. Simmons-Harris

Fixing Z Mess

By Larry Sand
01/26/2016
National School Choice Week aims to end our Zip-code Mandated Education System (Z MESS) and promote parent-power.  You: I’m going out to dinner tonight. Me: You are going to the restaurant down the street from where you live, right? You: No, it’s not very good. I am going to a restaurant across town; it has...

TAGS: American Federation of Teachers, Charter schools, Florida Education Association, Friedman Foundation, Greg Forster, Larry Sand, Matthew Ladner, National Education Association, National School Choice Week, Randi Weingarten, teachers union, vouchers

Charter Chumps

By Larry Sand
05/12/2015
The competition-phobic teachers unions are still trying to decimate charter schools. As I wrote a couple of years ago, the teachers unions vacillate when it comes to charter schools. On odd days they try to organize them and on even ones they go all out to eviscerate them. But the organizing efforts haven’t gone too...

TAGS: AB 1172, Alex Caputo-Pearl, California Charter School Association, California Teachers Association, Center for Education Reform, Charter schools, Dean Vogel, Jay Greene, Larry Sand, National Alliance for Public Charter Schools, National Education Association, National School Choice Week, teachers union, Tom Kane, Tony Mendoza, United Teachers of Los Angeles

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

Letting Schools Compete: A Boon to the Economy

By Larry Sand
02/05/2013
The National Education Association continues to throw out stale bromides in an attempt to salvage a failing and very costly education enterprise. National School Choice Week has just ended and what a week it was! It spanned the country with 3,600 events in all 50 states and D.C., with proclamations and endorsements from 29 governors,...

TAGS: Ben DeGrow, Benjamin Scafidi, Indiana State Teachers Association, Larry Sand, Mike Antonucci, National Education Association, National School Choice Week, Patrick Wolf, school choice, vouchers

School Choice for Kids? Ravitch and NEA Say No

By Larry Sand
01/22/2013
Widely discredited ex-reformer and teachers union try to deny families a fundamental right. Diane Ravitch has yet again exposed herself as an unserious spokesperson for the sclerotic anti-education reform movement. This crowd is made up of people – typically special interests – bureaucrats, teachers unions, etc. – who desperately cling to the ridiculous notion that...

TAGS: California Teachers Empowerment Network, Charter schools, Diane Ravitch, Greg Forster, Larry Sand, National Education Association, National School Choice Week, Patrick Wolf, school choice, teachers union, vouchers

School Choice: Time to Move Forward

By Larry Sand
02/28/2012
As evidence mounts that the government/union education monopoly is failing our children, 2012 should see ramped up efforts to advance school choice. Last week, Education Week published “What Research Says About School Choice,” in which nine scholars analyze the results of various studies concerning “school choice” – the quaint notion that parents should be able...

TAGS: California Charter School Association, California Teachers Association, National School Choice Week, Parent Trigger, school choice, teachers union

Exposing a 40 Year Education Crime: Why California Needs School Choice

By Larry Sand
01/24/2012
Busting LAUSD and every other school district in the state for negligence should help kids, but it’s anyone’s guess as to when. In the meantime, giving families more educational options would be a great help, but don’t hold your breath, California. With National School Choice Week underway, we see many positive things happening across the...

TAGS: National School Choice Week, school boards, Stull Act, teachers unions, vouchers

Tenure for Teachers: Enough is Enough

By Larry Sand
12/13/2011
Every year untold thousands of school kids are harmed by teachers who shouldn’t be allowed in a classroom. Parents must be given an opportunity to send their children elsewhere. A teacher arrives at work high on drugs…daily. A teacher regularly flies into rages, terrifying kids and coworkers. A teacher talks in explicit terms about sex...

TAGS: Education Action Group, Eric Hanushek, National School Choice Week, school choice, teacher tenure, teachers unions