December 2012 | Page 2 of 5

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School bond abuses: Ignoring the motive behind the scandals

Dec. 19, 2012 By Chris Reed The California media are finally beginning to figure out that school bonds are being abused, with money being borrowed on horrible terms or with funds being spent on things that school bonds historically have

Pension reform puts teacher take-home pay in cross hairs

CalWatchdog Staff December 19, 2012

Dec. 19, 2012 By Chris Reed The conventional wisdom about the 400,000 members of the California Teachers Association and the 120,000 members of the California Federation of Teachers is difficult to dispute: Their unions dominate Sacramento in a way no other

LAUSD board confirms its union-occupied status

CalWatchdog Staff December 18, 2012

Dec. 18, 2012 By Chris Reed When I heard that the Los Angeles Unified school board had passed a resolution barring its superintendent from seeking grants without board approval, I was 10,000 percent certain it was because John Deasy had

Rail Series: Who will own it? Who will pay for it?

CalWatchdog Staff December 18, 2012

This is Part 6 of a series on Medium-Speed rail alternatives to California’s High-Speed Rail project. Click to read Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, and Part 5. Dec. 18, 2012 By Stan Brin In any discussion of rail expansion, two gorillas always appear: How

More ‘educators,’ less education

Katy Grimes December 17, 2012

Dec. 17, 2012 By Katy Grimes I attended California public schools, kindergarten through college, starting in the late 1960s through the mid 1980s. While I don’t claim to have received a brilliant education, I did receive a solid liberal arts

Rail Series: Surmounting the Tehachapi Barrier

CalWatchdog Staff December 17, 2012

This is Part 5 of a series on Medium-Speed rail alternatives to California’s High-Speed Rail project. Click to read Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5 and Part 6. Dec. 17, 2012 By Stan Brin Now comes the hard part. As Ned Ryerson, that great observer

Much required of Democratic Legislature

Joseph Perkins December 14, 2012

Dec. 14, 2012 By Joseph Perkins I met Darrell Steinberg last week. The state Senate president pro tem said that he and his fellow Democrats recognize the awesome responsibility that comes with the supermajorities they now enjoy in both chambers

Teacher unions the enemies of ‘social justice,’ not the champions

CalWatchdog Staff December 14, 2012

Dec. 14, 2012 By Chris Reed Here’s the intro to my take for City Journal on the absurdity of the California Federation of Teachers pretending to care about minorities. “The online premiere last week of the California Federation of Teachers’

Rail series: Single-track bottleneck slows CA trains

CalWatchdog Staff December 13, 2012

This is Part 3 of a series on Medium-Speed rail alternatives to California’s High-Speed Rail project. Click to read Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5 and Part 6. Dec. 13, 2012 By Stan Brin So why are California’s trains so sluggish? Aside from political inertia,

McClintock schools Congress and President on fiscal cliff

CalWatchdog Staff December 13, 2012

Dec. 13, 2012 By Katy Grimes If you really want to cut through all of the media noise about the ‘”Fiscal Cliff,” Rep. Tom McClintock, R-CA4, does this succinctly in a speech on Wednesday. In a nutshell, McClintock explains: “In their