Universal pre-k is not okay

By Larry Sand
01/08/2019
New governor of the People’s Republic of California wants to expand a dubious universal preschool plan. California’s new Governor Gavin Newsom envisions a future where the state will be involved in your children’s lives from conception to adulthood. Newsom told EdSource in September, “Our role begins when babies are still in the womb and it...

TAGS: Gavin Newsom, Head Start, Kerry McDonald, Kevin McCarty, Lance Izumi, Larry Sand, Rahm Emanuel, Taxifornia, Transitional Kindergarten

California’s push for “transitional kindergarten” is costly and evidence-free

By Larry Sand
03/07/2014
California’s Democrats have dreamed for more than a decade of bringing universal preschool to the Golden State. In the latest push, Democratic state senate leader Darrell Steinberg has unveiled Senate Bill 837, the Kindergarten Readiness Act of 2014, promising free public preschool—what backers now call “transitional kindergarten”—to every four-year-old in the state. The legislation, which...

TAGS: Larry Sand, Transitional Kindergarten

Transitional Kindergarten: A Boondoggle by any other name….

By Larry Sand
01/14/2014
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...

TAGS: California Teachers Empowerment Network, Caroline Hoxby, Darrell Steinberg, Head Start, Jerry Brown, Larry Sand, Lindsey Burke, Lisa Snell, Tom Torlakson, Transitional Kindergarten