Government sanctioned child abuse

By Larry Sand
02/25/2020
Wisconsin parents fight the transgender lobby, while California is going in the other direction. Fourteen Wisconsin parents represented by Alliance Defending Freedom and the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty, public interest legal firms, have filed a lawsuit in an attempt to stop a policy they say “instructs teachers to assist and encourage children in...

TAGS: California Teachers Association, Larry Sand, teachers union, transgender

Leveling with Louie on education funding

By Larry Sand
02/18/2020
A recent chat with my cousin illuminates the chasm between fact and fantasy. After a recent post in which I detailed California’s abuse of taxpayers, I got a call from my cousin Louie, an aging Hollywood screenwriter. Known as the “red sheep” of the family, he firmly believes that pouring more money into government schools...

TAGS: Alex Caputo-Pearl, education spending, James Agresti, Lance Izumi, Larry Sand, National Assessment of Educational Progress, Pacific Research Institute, Prop. 13, Reason Foundation, Richard Rider, teachers union, United Teachers of Los Angeles

Fighting the One-Party State at the Local Level in California

By Edward Ring
02/12/2020
It isn’t a partisan observation to say that California is a one-party state. It’s just stating a fact. The Democratic Party controls all the levers of political power in California. Consider the evidence: GOP registration is down to 23 percent of registered voters. There is a Democratic “mega-majority” (75% or more) in both chambers of the...

TAGS: corporate cronyism, corporate welfare, Democratic Party, Edward Ring, Gavin Newsom, homelessness, initiatives, teachers union, Tom Steyer, Transparency

Teachers unions lose it over State of the Union address

By Larry Sand
02/11/2020
Union leaders are enraged at Trump and DeVos for the audacity of promoting parental choice. Last week, the President’s State of the Union address was a typically upbeat affair. President Trump outlined his many successes and Congressional Republicans were jubilant, while Democrats scowled. One of the features of Trump’s talk was a revival of Texas...

TAGS: American Federation of Teachers, Betsy DeVos, California Teachers Association, Donald Trump, Lance Izumi, Larry Sand, Lily Eskelsen Garcia, National Education Association, Neal McCluskey, Pacific Research Institute, Randi Weingarten, teachers union, United Teachers of Los Angeles

Teachers Union Promotes Property Tax Increase

By Edward Ring
02/06/2020
Last week what is arguably California’s most powerful political special interest, the California Teachers Association (CTA), or teachers union, held its quarterly State Council of Education meeting at the plush Westin Bonaventure Hotel in downtown Los Angeles. The CTA reported revenues of $209 million on their most recent IRS Form 990 (results through 8/31/2018), and their total assets increased...

TAGS: CTA, Edward Ring, Edward Ring, Prop. 13, teachers union

Los Angeles School District Needs a Hard Reset

By Larry Sand
02/04/2020
LAUSD and UTLA leaders are leading us down the road to financial ruin. A few weeks ago, I wrote that tax-grabbing state bureaucrats were pushing hard-working Californians to the brink. Incompetence, mismanaged money and union greed have turned the formerly Golden State into a failing enterprise. Here, I will focus on the Los Angeles Unified...

TAGS: Alex Caputo-Pearl, Austin Beutner, Dan Walters, education spending, Larry Sand, Los Angeles Unified School District, NAEP, Prop. 13, teachers union, United Teachers of Los Angeles

Power to the parents!

By Larry Sand
01/21/2020
The abusive education monopoly must go. Having retired as a teacher over ten years ago, I often look back on some of the great educators that I worked with during my 28-year career, and how lucky their students were to have them. I also think about the stinkers I encountered, and how sad it is...

TAGS: American Federation of Teachers, Howard Zinn, Indoctrination, Larry Sand, NAEP, National Education Association, National School Choice Week, PISA, teachers union, tenure

A solution to the free rider problem

By Larry Sand
01/14/2020
Union leaders grumble when non-members get union perks; here’s a way out. As a result of the Janus decision in June 2018, workers are no longer forced to pay any money whatsoever to a public employee union as a condition of employment. While teachers and other government workers were freed from paying union dues or...

TAGS: Alexander Willen, Andrew Coulson, collective bargaining, Greg Forster, Janus decision, Larry Sand, Michael Lovenheim, Mike Petrilli, National Education Association, teachers union, Terry Moe, wage compression

More Red than Ed

By Larry Sand
01/07/2020
Radical teacher’s movement picks up some steam in 2019 and national unions join in. #RedforED began as a grassroots teachers’ movement that was organized on Facebook in early 2018. Cooked up by Noah Karvelis, a 24-year-old music teacher and socialist from Arizona, its raison-d’etre is ultimately class warfare. Karvelis’ own words are ripped from The...

TAGS: #RedforED, American Federation of Teachers, Bernie Sanders, California Federation of Teachers, Indoctrination, Larry Sand, Prop. 13, Randi Weingarten, teachers union