California is taxing our patience

It’s a new year and for Californians, that invariably means new taxes. But there are many questions the tax-grabbing state bureaucrats should be forced to answer first. Why is California the only state in the country that stubbornly refuses to reveal public spending records to a government watchdog, which has now prompted threats of legal […]

Teach For America, not California

Assembly Bill 221 in California would prohibit school districts from entering into a contract with a third-party organization that employs teachers “who commit to teaching in the organization for less than five years.” This is an obvious bullet aimed at Teach For America, whose name was invoked but then removed from an earlier version of […]

UTLA’s crisis is here

United Teachers of Los Angeles President Alex Caputo-Pearl’s long sought-after teachers’ strike is set for January 10th. He began the long march back in 2016 when he forecast a walkout and also boasted about the union’s ability to “create a state crisis” in 2018. Though he threatened a state crisis, the UTLA honcho interestingly pooh-poohs the […]

The Looming Apocalypse at LAUSD and Beyond

The “state crisis” threatened by Los Angeles teacher union boss two years ago is upon us. In two recent posts, I detailed the United Teachers of Los Angeles contract demands on the school district and reported that a strike was likely. And of late, the situation has gone from bad to dire. Perhaps the biggest issue revolves around […]

Janus Reality Check

With a SCOTUS decision just weeks away, a little perspective is in order. As one who has closely followed the Janus v AFSCME case, I am amazed at the hyperbolic ranting about it from certain quarters that bombards us on a daily basis. If successful, the suit would allow government workers in 22 states the right to […]

Teachers Union Leaders Hypocrisy on Corporations and the Rich

The teachers unions really need to get some new talking points. Granted, straw men and hyperbole are common in political discourse, but union verbiage needs a serious makeover – the old model is giving hypocrisy a bad name. In a simply awful piece, American Federation of Teachers president Randi Weingarten railed against Donald Trump’s new […]

It’s Janus in February

The U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments in the Janus v AFSCME case on February 26, with a decision scheduled to be announced in June. If successful, it would free public employees in 22 states from having to pay any money to a union as a condition of employment. Many union leaders are beside themselves with the thought that […]

Anti-Trump Hysteria Plagues Our Schools

Worse than anything Donald Trump ever said, the backlash to his election has been horrifying. While the hysteria and teddy-bear-clutching over the election of a Republican president is nothing new – remember “Bushitler?” in which some on the left equated W to Der Führer – the present-day Trumphobes are second to none. In Los Angeles, […]

Charter Schools Under Attack

For years, teachers’ unions have tried to kill charter schools—but only on odd-numbered days. On even-numbered days, they tried to organize them. Things lately have become very odd, at least in California; the unions are in full-assault mode. United Teachers of Los Angeles president Alex Caputo-Pearl has long groused about how charter schools don’t play by the […]

Union Kingpin Threatens California

United Teachers of Los Angeles president Alex Caputo-Pearl gave a speech for the ages a couple of weeks ago, securing a wing in the pantheon-of-vile, a place which includes such memorable outbursts as National Education Association general counsel Bob Chanin’s “right-wing bastards” farewell-to-troops speech in 2009 and Chicago Teacher Union boss Karen Lewis’ talk to […]