Public Schools
Commentary
Teachers unions causing schools and students to fail
Recently in Time magazine, American Federation of Teachers head Randi Weingarten argued, “Far-right advocates of privatizing public education are using Big Lies to undermine public schools.” However, in an eye-opening resignation letter, Oakland school board member Shanthi Gonzales, a former labor organizer, shows that it is the teachers union that ...
Lance Izumi
June 6, 2022
Blog
The Math Deficiencies in California’s Proposed Math Curriculum
While California’s proposed K-12 math curriculum framework has taken justifiable hits for its woke politicization of math instruction, it is also rife with subject-matter deficiencies that will result in students being ill-prepared for higher education and the workplace. The second draft of the proposed math curriculum framework, which was released ...
Lance Izumi
May 25, 2022
Blog
Been There, Done That on Attacking Charter Schools
Been There, Done That on Attacking Charter Schools Inspired by a recent California law, the Biden Administration has proposed federal regulations that would require new charter schools to “demonstrate community need” before being approved, and also restricts the ability of new and existing charter schools to receive federal funds. California ...
Pacific Research Institute
May 9, 2022
Charter Schools
Biden Administration Copying California Law to Stifle Charter Schools
By Lance Izumi & McKenzie Richards Imagine a world where budding businesses would be required to both obtain permission to enter the marketplace from competitors and then prove to the government that their business would serve community needs. Makes no sense, right? Well, welcome to education policy, where the Biden ...
Pacific Research Institute
April 27, 2022
Blog
California’s Woke Curricula Built on Research Quicksand
While activists pushing to impose woke curricula in California’s classrooms claim that their ideological innovations are based on research, it turns out that these claims are really built on research quicksand. Take, for example, the proposed California K-12 math curriculum framework, which seeks to serve as a guide for math ...
Lance Izumi
April 21, 2022
Blog
CAPITAL IDEAS: The 2022 Education Landscape and the Coming Homeschool Tsunami
Lance Izumi, senior director of PRI’s Center for Education, recently delivered the following speech to the Northern California Lincoln Club.
Lance Izumi
April 11, 2022
Blog
California’s Poor Literacy Rates Makes Case for School Choice
When PRI pointed out a few years ago that California had the highest poverty rate in the nation, it’s fair to say it caught many by surprise. How could the biggest state economy in the country, brimming with tech, entertainment, and financial institution wealth, have so many poor? Turns out ...
Kerry Jackson
March 10, 2022
California
CEQA: The high cost of good intentions
By Chris Carr and Ken Broad California is in a quagmire due in no small part to the weaponization of CEQA, the California Environmental Quality Act. We are not providing the physical infrastructure befitting the world’s 5th-largest economy and leading crucible of innovation. Too often, critical projects don’t get built, ...
Pacific Research Institute
February 27, 2022
Blog
The Recall Heard ‘Round the Country
It was William F. Buckley who defined a conservative as someone who stands athwart history, yelling Stop! But earlier this month, San Francisco residents — a city where Democrats number nearly two-thirds of the voters — decided that it was their turn to yell, Enough! Residents of the City by ...
Rowena Itchon
February 25, 2022
Commentary
PRI Lance Izumi Discusses SF School Board Recall in Northern California Record
Sarah Downey With last week’s overwhelming vote to recall three San Francisco school board members, it’s raising questions about how the referendum could impact public education and politics across California as parents go to the polls in year three of the COVID-19 pandemic. The recall results (72 percent to 79 percent in ...
Pacific Research Institute
February 24, 2022
Teachers unions causing schools and students to fail
Recently in Time magazine, American Federation of Teachers head Randi Weingarten argued, “Far-right advocates of privatizing public education are using Big Lies to undermine public schools.” However, in an eye-opening resignation letter, Oakland school board member Shanthi Gonzales, a former labor organizer, shows that it is the teachers union that ...
The Math Deficiencies in California’s Proposed Math Curriculum
While California’s proposed K-12 math curriculum framework has taken justifiable hits for its woke politicization of math instruction, it is also rife with subject-matter deficiencies that will result in students being ill-prepared for higher education and the workplace. The second draft of the proposed math curriculum framework, which was released ...
Been There, Done That on Attacking Charter Schools
Been There, Done That on Attacking Charter Schools Inspired by a recent California law, the Biden Administration has proposed federal regulations that would require new charter schools to “demonstrate community need” before being approved, and also restricts the ability of new and existing charter schools to receive federal funds. California ...
Biden Administration Copying California Law to Stifle Charter Schools
By Lance Izumi & McKenzie Richards Imagine a world where budding businesses would be required to both obtain permission to enter the marketplace from competitors and then prove to the government that their business would serve community needs. Makes no sense, right? Well, welcome to education policy, where the Biden ...
California’s Woke Curricula Built on Research Quicksand
While activists pushing to impose woke curricula in California’s classrooms claim that their ideological innovations are based on research, it turns out that these claims are really built on research quicksand. Take, for example, the proposed California K-12 math curriculum framework, which seeks to serve as a guide for math ...
CAPITAL IDEAS: The 2022 Education Landscape and the Coming Homeschool Tsunami
Lance Izumi, senior director of PRI’s Center for Education, recently delivered the following speech to the Northern California Lincoln Club.
California’s Poor Literacy Rates Makes Case for School Choice
When PRI pointed out a few years ago that California had the highest poverty rate in the nation, it’s fair to say it caught many by surprise. How could the biggest state economy in the country, brimming with tech, entertainment, and financial institution wealth, have so many poor? Turns out ...
CEQA: The high cost of good intentions
By Chris Carr and Ken Broad California is in a quagmire due in no small part to the weaponization of CEQA, the California Environmental Quality Act. We are not providing the physical infrastructure befitting the world’s 5th-largest economy and leading crucible of innovation. Too often, critical projects don’t get built, ...
The Recall Heard ‘Round the Country
It was William F. Buckley who defined a conservative as someone who stands athwart history, yelling Stop! But earlier this month, San Francisco residents — a city where Democrats number nearly two-thirds of the voters — decided that it was their turn to yell, Enough! Residents of the City by ...
PRI Lance Izumi Discusses SF School Board Recall in Northern California Record
Sarah Downey With last week’s overwhelming vote to recall three San Francisco school board members, it’s raising questions about how the referendum could impact public education and politics across California as parents go to the polls in year three of the COVID-19 pandemic. The recall results (72 percent to 79 percent in ...