Two employee unions in Los Angeles Unified are poised to strike this week, shutting down schools and leaving many parents angry that students are — once again — being used as leverage by the unions in contract negotiations. The unions are demanding huge pay raises despite financial reports showing LAUSD is already upside down $16.4...

Fighting for a sane measure for educators. Years ago, when I was teaching, I asked then United Teachers of Los Angeles president A.J. Duffy at a union meeting why teachers weren’t responsible for paying their own dues. He replied, “They might forget.” I didn’t respond, but knew that some of my colleagues were thinking what...

The bulk of L.A. students are not proficient in math or English, but they reportedly know the difference between a riot and a protest. In a stunningly revealing exposé in Los Angeles Magazine, United Teachers of Los Angeles president Cecily Myart-Cruz told the world what many of us already knew – that her primary concern...

In a true testament to the impact engaged parents can have, California officials chose in two separate instances this week to put kids and their education before woke politics. It’s something not seen enough these days, and certainly worth celebrating when it happens. The first student-centric victory came on Tuesday, when the Los Angeles Unified...

This week, the Los Angeles Unified School District Board of Education voted unanimously to support a resolution condemning anti-Israeli rhetoric being pushed by the United Teachers Los Angeles in recent months. Below are the comments offered by a Los Angeles parent on the resolution. Watch the full discussion here.  Good Morning. My name is Margaret...

New episode of the Radio Free California Podcast is out! California Policy Center’s own Will Swaim and David Bahnsen are at it again with their latest episode of National Review’s Radio Free California podcast. In this week’s episode, they discuss a barnyard metaphor used by a Santa Clara County official to describe the tawdry relationship...

Two opinion articles worth a read Summer is almost here, and the tide may finally be turning in the Los Angeles Unified School District.  This week, two notable opinion pieces were published in area newspapers questioning the ongoing, union-orchestrated school closures, and challenging the LAUSD Board of Education to stand up to the United Teachers...

CLICK HERE to see which benchmarks your county has passed this week. After a difficult past few months, Governor Newsom and the leaders of the California Legislature finally announced a $6.6 billion school reopening deal in Elk Grove on Monday. As reported by Politico, the proposal would give grants to schools if they reopened schools...

Wiki Commons The second-largest public school district in the United States is in turmoil. Los Angeles Unified School District, with over 600,000 students in kindergarten through twelfth grade at over 1,000 schools, may not be open for the business of teaching on August 18. How to handle the COVID-19 pandemic is the issue, and there is...

There is now a $300,000 club for California’s firefighters. In the City of Manhattan Beach during 2018, the average pay and benefits for a full time firefighter were $300,242. While the Manhattan Beach firefighters, at least through 2018, belong to an exclusive club, twelve California cities pay their firefighters over $250,000 per year, and 69...