New polling shows COVID-19 shifted California voters’ opinions on schools

By Chantal Lovell
06/02/2021
Majority think public schools are failing minority students, want more choice June 2, 2021 – TUSTIN, Calif. – After more than a year of school closures, new polling suggests California voters – and importantly, parents – are ready for more choices in public education. Statewide polling commissioned by the California Policy Center (CPC) found that,...

TAGS: Covid, Education Savings Accounts, ESA, school choice, teachers union

Awakening to woke

By Larry Sand
04/27/2021
The mainstreaming of Marxism is meeting resistance from anti-woke warriors, but more people must lose their fear and fight back. Here in California, the woke train rolls merrily along.  If AB 101 passes in its current version, a one-semester high school course in ethnic studies will be mandated starting in the 2029–2030 school year. Each...

TAGS: critical race theory, curriculum, education reform, Larry Sand, school choice, woke

Educational Freedom Is on the Move

By Larry Sand
04/06/2021
School choice is rapidly advancing across the U.S. On March 9th, I wrote that Covid-related lockdowns were leading many states to implement or advance already existing school choice measures. Just four weeks later, it is happening at breakneck speed. Legislators and parents have become fed up, and are doing what they can to regain control...

TAGS: Greg Forster, Kevin Kiley, Larry Sand, Lindsey Burke, Patrick Wolf, school choice, teachers union

Teachers Unions Are Promoting School Choice

By Larry Sand
03/09/2021
As a result of their insistence on school closings, the unions are inadvertently leading the charge to educational freedom. As I wrote last week, opposition to teacher union-mandated lockdowns is growing. Parent groups are springing up all over the country, demanding that schools reopen. They see the irreparable harm being done to their kids on...

TAGS: American Federation of Teachers, California Teachers Association, EdChoice, Eric Hanushek, Larry Sand, Randi Weingarten, school choice, teachers union

School Choice Initiative Quietly Gathers Support

By Edward Ring
01/27/2021
In the November 2020 election, California’s powerful teachers’ unions spent over $20 million promoting Prop. 15, which would have increased taxes on commercial properties. Other unions, mostly in the public sector, spent another $17 million to promote Prop. 15. But voters weren’t buying it. Prop. 15 failed. Overall, in November 2020, California’s government unions spent nearly $70...

TAGS: Charter schools, Education Savings Accounts, school choice

Monopoly Games

By Larry Sand
12/08/2020
With a Biden presidency looming, charter schools are once again under attack. “I remember seeing a bumper sticker when the telephone company was all one…and it said ‘We don’t care. We don’t have to.’ And that’s what a monopoly is. That’s what IBM was in their day. And that’s certainly what the public school system...

TAGS: Charter schools, Corey DeAngelis, Joe Biden, Larry Sand, Marcus Winters, monopoly, National Education Association, Patrick Wolf, school choice, teachers union

Schools for Scandal

By Larry Sand
11/03/2020
As shown by the 2019 NAEP, most of our students are being badly shortchanged. The latest bad education news comes to us courtesy of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). The most recent exam was administered to high school seniors in early 2019, a full year before the COVID-19 lockdowns. The so-called “Nation’s Report...

TAGS: collective bargaining, education spending, Greg Forster, Larry Sand, NAEP, Neal McCluskey, Randi Weingarten, school choice, seniority, teachers union, tenure

My Latest Missive to Randi Weingarten

By Larry Sand
09/15/2020
This is the sixth in a series of open letters to the president of the American Federation of Teachers. (The first five can be accessed here.) Yo Randi! I am really concerned about you, girl! First, at Al Sharpton’s National Day of Action lefty-fest in D.C. a couple of weeks ago, you informed the throng...

TAGS: Al Sharpton, American Federation of Teachers, EdChoice, Larry Sand, Randi Weingarten, school choice, student spending, teachers union

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