Education

Why CalSTRS fix is impossible: It would force cut in teacher take-home pay

The California State Teachers’ Retirement System is terribly underfunded. The last official report put its shortfall at $74 billion. State officials say it needs an infusion of $4 billion more money a year for decades to come. This week, as

CA media: GOP dysfunction bigger topic than mass poverty

Chris Reed April 10, 2014

The Los Angeles Times’ news analysis about how recent controversies are likely to hurt California Republicans with two constituencies they are trying to woo — Latinos and women — isn’t loaded or biased. It’s likely true. Here’s a bit of

CA Latino lawmakers value careers over Latino students

Chris Reed April 2, 2014

The recent dissent in California Democrat ranks — in which Asian lawmakers balked at racializing UC admission policies in a way that would punish current smart Asian students for the history of white racism — drew lots of deserved attention.

UC prof charged with assaulting student

John Seiler March 24, 2014

What’s going on in California’s public universities? Fox News reported: “A feminist studies professor at a California state university is facing criminal charges after a videotaped run-in with a teenage pro-life demonstrator in which she snatched an anti-abortion sign and appeared

Asian-Americans halt CA affirmative action revival

James Poulos March 23, 2014

As many Californians are well aware, more than half of students at UCLA and UC Berkeley are Asian or Asian-American. Yet, in California, proportions like these haven’t made for a political football — until now. After almost 18 years of

CA Asians finally grasp that under affirmative action, they’re victims

Chris Reed March 10, 2014

The fact that Asian-Americans in California tend to be Democratic seems to me to be almost entirely a function of the perception of Democrats are more welcoming to minorities and Republicans more hostile. Surveys and anecdotal evidence show that Asian-Americans

‘Inspiring’ de Blasio channels CA Dems: White teachers > minority students

Chris Reed February 28, 2014

In the run-up to Bill de Blasio’s recent election as mayor of New York City, I lost count of how many times I heard pundits describe the tall Democrat with the mixed-race marriage as offering an inspiring new progressive vision

Democrats mostly silent on UC strike amid declining union approval

John February 25, 2014

As public opinion in California turns against labor unions, few Democrat politicians — most of whom rely on union support to win elections — have publicly embraced workers at the University of California. 21,000 members of AFSCME 3299 are planning a five-day

Study of Los Angeles: Prosperity increases income inequality

Chris Reed February 23, 2014

Coverage of income inequality is shockingly slanted and inept. Lazy, populist demonization of the 1 percent is the standard default starting position for explaining why poor people make a small fraction of what the very wealthy do. But as I’ve

Push to restore CA bilingual education dubious in more than one way

Chris Reed February 21, 2014

When software tycoon Ron Unz’s Prop. 227 campaign to end bilingual education in California won landslide approval in 1998, one reason was that a lot of Latinos and white liberals shared Unz’s fundamental view that bilingual ed wasn’t working well