Cursing the Light

By Larry Sand
07/16/2013
Teachers unions continue to use empty rhetoric to bash promising school privatization efforts. It is a given – and understandable – that teachers unions deplore vouchers or opportunity scholarships, arrangements whereby public monies are used to fund a private school education; it hurts their bottom line. With very few exceptions, private schools are not unionized,...

TAGS: Andrew Coulson, Cato Institute, D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program, Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice, Jason Bedrick, Jay Greene, Larry Sand, opportunity scholarships, Patrick Wolf, teachers unions, vouchers

Red – and I Do Mean Red – Herrings of the Left

By Larry Sand
06/25/2013
June – Father’s Day, Flag Day, weddings … and loopy ideas on poverty. Last September I wrote about those who believe that poverty causes ignorance and how we must “fix” poverty before we can fix education. I suggested that maybe, just maybe, a good education is the best antidote to poverty and that school choice...

TAGS: American Federation of Teachers, Chicago Teachers Union, Friedman Foundation, Greg Forster, Illinois Policy Institute, Karen Lewis, Larry Sand, Randi Weingarten, school choice, socialism, teachers unions, vouchers

Mothers Against Bunk Jiving

By Larry Sand
05/14/2013
Teacher union twaddle is not fooling the nation’s moms any more. National Education Association president Dennis Van Roekel wrote a tired piece for Huffington Post last week in which he trotted out all the usual phrases and suspects that we have come to expect from a union boss who is trying to scare us into...

TAGS: American Legislative Exchange Council, Dennis Van Roekel, Friedman Foundation for Educational Choice, Greg Forster, Larry Sand, National Education Association, school choice, teachers union, vouchers

The Good, the Ugly and the Uglier

By Larry Sand
04/02/2013
After a loss in Indiana, the teachers unions’ war on education intensifies in Chicago and California. In 2011, Indiana passed a school choice bill which currently allows 9,300 kids from low and middle income families with household income below 150 percent of school lunch eligibility to receive vouchers equal to between 50 and 90 percent...

TAGS: American Federation of Teachers, Blaine Amendment, California Federation of Teachers, California Teachers Association, Indiana State Teachers Association, Karen Lewis, Larry Sand, Mike Antonucci, National Education Association, Randi Weingarten, RiShawn Biddle, school choice, seniority, Students Matter, teachers unions, Vergara, vouchers

Milwaukee: Happy Days, Schlitz, Harley-Davidson … and School Choice

By Larry Sand
03/26/2013
Schlitz may be the beer that made Milwaukee famous, but recently the spotlight has been shining on the city’s school choice efforts. Back in 1990, the Pleistocene Era of education reform, the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program became the nation’s first publicly funded school choice program for low-income children. Born of an interesting political marriage –...

TAGS: Bill Ayers, Larry Sand, Milwaukee Parental Choice Program, National Education Association, Patrick Wolf, Paul Peterson, school choice, Scott Walker, teachers union, vouchers

Unanswered Questions

By Larry Sand
03/19/2013
Thoughts on my recent encounter with the president of the California Teachers Association. I was quite surprised when California Teachers Association president Dean Vogel agreed to join a panel that consisted of Gloria Romero, Terry Moe and me a couple of weeks ago at an event sponsored by The Conservative Forum of Silicon Valley. Gloria...

TAGS: California Teachers Association, Dean Vogel, Gloria Romero, Larry Sand, Parent Revolution, Parent Trigger, teachers union, Terry Moe, vouchers

Letting Schools Compete: A Boon to the Economy

By Larry Sand
02/05/2013
The National Education Association continues to throw out stale bromides in an attempt to salvage a failing and very costly education enterprise. National School Choice Week has just ended and what a week it was! It spanned the country with 3,600 events in all 50 states and D.C., with proclamations and endorsements from 29 governors,...

TAGS: Ben DeGrow, Benjamin Scafidi, Indiana State Teachers Association, Larry Sand, Mike Antonucci, National Education Association, National School Choice Week, Patrick Wolf, school choice, vouchers

School Choice for Kids? Ravitch and NEA Say No

By Larry Sand
01/22/2013
Widely discredited ex-reformer and teachers union try to deny families a fundamental right. Diane Ravitch has yet again exposed herself as an unserious spokesperson for the sclerotic anti-education reform movement. This crowd is made up of people – typically special interests – bureaucrats, teachers unions, etc. – who desperately cling to the ridiculous notion that...

TAGS: California Teachers Empowerment Network, Charter schools, Diane Ravitch, Greg Forster, Larry Sand, National Education Association, National School Choice Week, Patrick Wolf, school choice, teachers union, vouchers