Teachers Unions
Can Taxpayers Afford New Union Giveaways?
The LAUSD Strike and the State Budget Deficit: Train Wreck Ahead
While coverage of the recent strike by Los Angeles teachers and school staff members has focused on the immediate wage demands of the unions and the impact on students and their families, the bigger and looming issue is how California’s growing state budget deficit could impact any collective bargaining agreement. …
Public Employee Unions Are Obstacle to Urban Progress
Public Employee Unions Are Obstacle to Urban Progress A Free Cities Center Interview One of the key ways to improve urban life is to improve the level of public services offered in cities. People who flee some premier city for the suburbs or rural life will typically point to their …
Why Are Student Test Scores Plunging? Look at Politicized Education
By Lance Izumi & Wenyuan Wu Recent national student test scores showed a massive decline in learning in reading and math. This achievement implosion has several explanations – one is the increasing politicization of classroom instruction, which is reducing rigor and diverting attention from improving students’ foundational knowledge and skills. …
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 …
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 …
L.A. School District and Teachers Union Keep Mask Mandate Despite Science
It is St. Patrick’s week, but there is little Irish luck for school kids in Los Angeles who are still being forced to wear masks, despite strong science showing that mask mandates result in little benefit. At the end of February, Governor Gavin Newsom finally relented and issued a statement …
Newsom’s education agenda: More of the same means more failure
While school mask mandates have garnered headlines, Californians should be as concerned about Gov. Gavin Newsom’s proposed education agenda, which he championed this week in his State of the State address. It pours more tax dollars into a failing system without any requirement for better results. Newsom proposes total education …
Read how changing funding won’t lead to public school reforms
A new proposal to continue high levels of funding for California school districts would, if enacted, remove incentives for the public schools to improve themselves. State Sen. Anthony Portantino (D-La Cañada Flintridge), chair of the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee, recently proposed SB 830, which would switch the way public schools are …
Proposed School Choice Measure Would Change California Education Status Quo
Under a headline that will alarm many, the Sacramento Bee covered the story of 2022 ballot proposals that would change the California Constitution and require the state to help parents with private school tuition. “Gut unions and boost private schools? 2022 ballot proposals aim at California labor,” reads the Nov. …
