In announcing the end of the DACA program two weeks ago, President Trump seemed to fulfill a campaign promise to kill a program he once declared unconstitutional. But later, the president seemed to call for a permanent legislative solution that would grant resident status to people brought illegally to the country as minors. Tweeting that...

“Teachers Unions Take a Beating in Midterm Races” “Teachers Unions Take a Shellacking” “Teachers Unions Get Schooled in 2014 Election” The above is just a small sampling of post-election headlines which flooded the media after last Tuesday’s historic election, which generated a major political shakeup in the nation’s capital as well as state houses from...

Results from the Nov. 4 yielded both hits and misses regarding prospects for advancing education reform in the Golden State, along with a few immediate lessons: Understand your fight You can’t buy elections – especially the obscure post of superintendent of Public Instruction, a constitutional office created seemingly to operate as a wholly owned subsidiary...

 Unions demand apologies, but refuse to make any themselves. The cover of the November 3rd edition of Time Magazine reads “It’s nearly impossible to fire a bad teacher; some tech millionaires may have found a way to change that.” Accompanying the text is a photo of a judge’s gavel about to pound an apple. The...

Reformer battles with teachers union darling for top education position in Sacramento. “Teachers Unions Are Putting Themselves On November’s Ballot” was the headline in a recent article by Haley Edwards in Time Magazine. Okay, this is hardly news, but the extent of the largess is eye-opening. Considering that this is not a presidential election year,...

Once again it is time for taxpayers to get a good grip on their wallets because Sacramento politicians are looking to extend the “temporary” taxes imposed by Proposition 30, approved by voters less than two years ago. There is nothing more permanent than a temporary tax. They are as immortal as a vampire and nearly...

CA announces a budget surplus — and legislators can’t wait to blow it. It’s hardly surprising, but California’s we-never-met-a-big-budget-bill-we-didn’t-like Democratic lawmakers and State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson have joined hands to sponsor SB 837, new legislation that would provide free public preschool to every four-year-old child in California. The Kindergarten Readiness Act of 2014, introduced...

Tom Torlakson’s panel comes up with edubabble and little else in an attempt to turn around a troubled California public school system. Just when we thought we were safe from yet another “master plan for educational improvement,” A Blueprint for State Schools is bestowed on us. This 31 page monstrosity was unleashed by State Superintendent...

No one should be surprised at the actions of teachers unions and their acolytes who laid their cards on the table a long time ago. In an op-ed published in the San Jose Mercury News last Wednesday, I made the point that while the rest of the country had made some positive movement toward badly...