Not content with stifling education reform and school choice, teachers unions have a new target. Dang! The teachers unions have been busier than ever lately. Trying to kill charter schools in California. Fighting teacher evaluations in Florida. Demonizing vouchers, well, everywhere. But now the unions’ have a new bête-noire: Staples. Staples? Yes, Staples. The troubled...

When it comes to education and civil rights, NEA and AFT are part of the problem; the solution is choice. Last Saturday was the 60th anniversary of the Brown v Board of Education decision, which outlawed state-sponsored segregation in schools. Never missing an opportunity to grandstand, the teachers unions groused all last week about various...

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it...

Teacher union sponsored bill is a serious threat to California’s charter schools. It’s hardly a secret that teachers unions don’t like charter schools. These independent, publicly funded schools are typically not unionized (just 15 percent are in California), and therefore can avoid many of the burdensome rules and regulations which are chiseled into the state...

The Walton Foundation has donated millions to help charter schools prosper, but that’s a bad thing according to the teachers unions. It’s no secret that the Walton Family Foundation is a major donor to charter schools. In 2013, it donated over $70 million to these special public schools and charter management organizations across the country....

A California teachers union local is trying to break away from CTA/NEA and why it matters. In 1870, a new town south of Sacramento was to be named for financier William C. Ralston, but he was too modest and asked that another name be used. Thus, the town – eventually immortalized in the film American...

“Landmark settlement” song has hackneyed words but still makes Top 10 in the “Hubris” category. In 2010, the American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit which claimed that seniority-based layoffs take a disproportionate toll on poor and minority schools. The ACLU won the case and the settlement protected students in up to 45 schools from...

NEA and AFT leaders cavil at Supreme Court decision that eases rules on political funding. Nothing gives me an advanced case of the vapors quicker than the subject of political campaign finance laws. Trying to figure out who can give how much to whom and when, and how many dollars can be donated to a...

In a refreshingly candid speech, union leader minimizes bromides about “the children” and relentlessly bangs the class warfare drum. In his March 22nd state-of-the-union talk to the faithful, California Federation of Teachers president Josh Pechthalt made no bones about the ultimate mission of his union. Absent were the usual silly platitudes like “working together with...

Despite bellyaching from the union crowd, the California education code’s last in/first out (LIFO) statute must be tossed. California’s fiscal problems have taken a toll on the teaching profession in California. And the Golden State’s arbitrary seniority system, whereby staffing decisions are made by time spent on the job, has made things much worse. A...