School Board Battles Are Raging

By Larry Sand
11/18/2022
Teachers unions finally have some competition in all-important school board races. It’s no secret that the teachers unions have control over most aspects of public education in the U.S. The school boards, which negotiate with unions over salary, work rules, etc. are particularly important for the unions to dominate. To that end, Michael Hartney, a...

TAGS: California public sector unions, campaign spending, Local Elections, political spending, school board

No dues without political representation

By Larry Sand
07/10/2018
Dissident educators have the power to change the course of teacher union politics in California. A few years back I was on a panel with then California Teachers Association President Dean Vogel, who mentioned during his talk that about 35 percent of his union’s membership was Republican which is roughly the way the rest of...

TAGS: California Teachers Association, Daniel DiSalvo, Dean Vogel, Eric Heins, Gavin Newsom, Janus v. AFSCME, Larry Sand, Mike Antonucci, National Education Association, political spending, teachers union, union dues

Teachers’ Unions Spend Over $27 Million on State Races

By Marc Joffe
11/22/2016
In a recent op-ed, California Federation of Teachers (CFT) President Joshua Pechthalt calls out special interests for pouring money into California elections in support of charter schools. He writes: The charter association spent better than $24 million in relatively few races this year. Oakland, where previously $20,000 was a lot of money for a school...

TAGS: California Federation of Teachers, Joshua Pechthalt, political spending