Private School Primacy?

By Larry Sand
09/08/2020
It’s back-to-school decision time for many parents. With schools set to reopen, it’s time for parents to choose how best to proceed with their children’s education in our Covid-obsessed country. If there is no in-school option, how many will stick with online education from their local public school? And how many will opt to home...

TAGS: Al Sharpton, American Federation for Children, COVID-19, homeschool, Howard Blume, Larry Sand, Randi Weingarten, Rick Hess, school choice, teachers union

Could Parental Choice Swing the Election?

By Larry Sand
09/01/2020
Education issues could be key in the presidential race. While government-run schooling has been the choice for a great majority of parents in recent times, change is on the horizon. The National Home Education Research Institute reports that 23 percent of parents who did not homeschool before the Covid-19 invasion indicated that they are now “very...

TAGS: American Federation for Children, Donald Trump, homeschool, Janus decision, Joe Biden, Larry Sand, Randi Weingarten, Rick Hess, school choice, teachers union, Tim Scott

The NEA’s massive money grab

By Larry Sand
06/23/2020
Using Covid-19 as an excuse, the teachers union wants you to “invest” more in education; historical data put things into perspective, however. Last week I reported on the American Federation of Teachers plea for more money to flow into government-run schools because of the Covid-19 crisis. Not to be outdone, the National Education Association has...

TAGS: Alex Caputo-Pearl, American Federation of Teachers, Benjamin Scafidi, Corey DeAngelis, education spending, Just Facts, Larry Sand, National Education Association, Rick Hess, teachers union, United Teachers Los Angeles

Charter haters’ train is temporarily derailed in CA

By Larry Sand
06/04/2019
Two bills that would have deeply wounded the popular schools of choice are dead…for now.  Last week, two seemingly sure-shot bills were deep-sixed in the California legislature. AB 1506 would have placed a ceiling on the number of charter schools allowed in the state – the magic number being those in existence at the end...

TAGS: California Charter Schools Association, California Teachers Association, Democrats for Education Reform, Eric Heins, Jay Greene, Larry Sand, Rick Hess, teachers union, Tom Kane

Fifty costly years of failure to “fix” education

By Larry Sand
05/07/2019
Research shows that technocratic reforms have made no difference in alleviating the achievement gap. A new study by Eric Hanushek et al. for the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) shows that all the top-down fixes – No Child Left Behind, Race to the Top, etc. – piled on by the education industrial complex have...

TAGS: Eric Hanushek, Greg Forster, Larry Sand, No Child Left Behind, Programme for International Student Assessment, Rick Hess, school choice, teachers union

Defective collective bargaining

By Larry Sand
01/16/2018
Despite what teachers unions tell you, collective bargaining is bad for kids and country.  Ask any teacher unionista – leader or camp follower – and they will tell you with great assuredness that when teachers are organized and collectively bargain, children are better educated. To bolster their argument, they say things like unions enable teachers...

TAGS: Act 10, Alexander Willen, Barbara Biasi, Caroline Hoxby, collective bargaining, Jason Bedrick, Larry Sand, Michael Lovenheim, Rick Hess, Scott Walker, teachers union, Terry Moe

After Janus

By Larry Sand
11/21/2017
If the Janus case is successful, will it be the first of many shoes to drop?  Janus v AFSCME is due to be heard by the U.S. Supreme Court early in 2018, with a decision announced in June. If the lawsuit is successful, no teacher or any public employee in the U.S. would have to...

TAGS: Act 10, collective bargaining, Forced Unionism, Janus v. AFSCME, Larry Sand, Mike Antonucci, Mike Petrilli, Rick Hess, Right to Work, Scott Walker, teachers union, wage compression

The malice of absence

By Larry Sand
09/26/2017
Thanks to collective bargaining, traditional public school teachers “get sick” way too often. It’s no secret that many teachers take advantage of the “sick days” that are part of a typical union collective bargaining agreement (CBA). Of course, while sick days are used legitimately by all teachers at some point, many (including yours truly, on...

TAGS: Alexander Willen, American Federation of Teachers, Caroline Hoxby, collective bargaining, Fordham Institute, Kate Walsh, Larry Sand, Michael Lovenheim, National Council on Teacher Quality, Randi Weingarten, Rick Hess, teachers union, Terry Moe

Pot calls kettle racist

By Larry Sand
07/25/2017
Union leader sinks to a new low by hyping a worthless report and insulting millions of parents. When some people become frightened, they’ll say and do some amazingly asinine things. Utilizing that as a guide, American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten is apparently scared spitless. With Supreme Court decisions on the horizon that could...

TAGS: American Federation of Teachers, Betsy DeVos, Center for American Progress, Derrell Bradford, EdChoice, G.I. Bill, Greg Forster, Jeanne Allen, Kevin Chavous, Larry Sand, Randi Weingarten, Rick Hess, school choice, teachers union, vouchers

Anti-Trump Hysteria Plagues Our Schools

By Larry Sand
11/22/2016
Teachers and their unions are front-and-center in advancing Trumpocalyptic fearmongering. Worse than anything Donald Trump ever said, the backlash to his election has been horrifying. While the hysteria and teddy-bear-clutching over the election of a Republican president is nothing new – remember “Bushitler?” in which some on the left equated W to Der Führer –...

TAGS: Chester Finn, Donald Trump, Howard Zinn, Indoctrination, Larry Sand, National Education Association, Rick Hess, teachers union