Education

UC budget fight: Brown playing 3D chess, Napolitano playing tic-tac-toe

Gov. Jerry Brown has upped the stakes in his fight with University of California President Janet Napolitano over who is ultimately in charge of UC budget and tuition decisions. Napolitano’s success last fall in getting UC regents to approve a

Brown may hint at Vergara plans with state education board picks

Chris Reed January 17, 2015

Gov. Jerry Brown has been vague about whether he agrees with the incendiary premise of last June’s decision in the Vergara case: that state teacher tenure and job protection laws are so likely to steer poor teachers to struggling mostly

College kids read at 7th-grade level

John Seiler January 9, 2015

This is shocking. After 13 years in U.S. public schools, our college kids read only at a 7th-grade level, on average. Reported Breitbart Texas: The premise behind the Common Core State Standards is that all public school students will be college

Brown increases power over UC

John Seiler January 7, 2015

With NFL playoffs and BCS championship here, on whom would you bet? The four-term governor of California, who learned politics at his father’s knee 70 years ago? Or the former head of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security? So the

Harsh impact of CalSTRS bailout begins to emerge

Chris Reed January 2, 2015

The deal struck in spring 2014 to bail out the underfunded California State Teachers’ Retirement System will lead school districts, the state and teachers to increase their annual contributions to CalSTRS from $5.9 billion in 2014 to at least $10.9

CA public schools can’t charge students for parking

Chris Reed December 28, 2014

San Diego tech entrepreneur Michael Robertson is also a libertarian civic activist challenging government nuttiness and illegality. In a public Google Docs file, he explained how to fight a petty abuse of power used in some school districts to free

Will young CA justices use Vergara case to audition for SCOTUS?

Chris Reed December 27, 2014

The Volokh Conspiracy, the wonderful legal blog founded by UCLA law professor Eugene Volokh, had a provocative post about what might happen now that Gov. Jerry Brown has named three acclaimed youngish scholars to the California Supreme Court. George Washington

Call her Prof. Dr. Big Sis

John Seiler December 24, 2014

It was Matt Drudge who dubbed Janet Napolitano “Big Sis” when she was the head of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Given her duties of spying on Americans and repressing us in the strangely Teutonic-sounding “homeland/heimat” department, it was

Teacher pay raises gobble up Prop 30, LCFF funds

Chris Reed December 18, 2014

In 2012, California voters approved Proposition 30, which temporarily raised sales taxes on everyone and income taxes on the wealthy. The measure was sold with the promise it would directly help public education. It was “for the kids.” In 2013,

Should U.C. be ‘independent’?

John Seiler December 13, 2014

As I’ve noted in two recent posts, here and here, 50 years after the Berkeley Free Speech Movement, there’s no more academic freedom or free speech at California universities. Only politically correct repression. Meanwhile, costs are soaring for students and