Education

Debate: Kashkari says Brown should be ashamed of Vergara appeal

Chris Reed September 4, 2014

In response to a question about AB 32 driving up gasoline prices next year, Brown ducks and talks broadly about CA’s role as a trendsetter and the need to fight climate change. Moderator interrupts and tries to get him to

Teacher compensation database undercuts CTA claims

The Transparency California group’s database of school district compensation undercuts teacher unions’ claims that teacher pay scales are ungenerous and capped at unfairly low levels. When very generous health benefits and good pension benefits are factored in, that doesn’t look

AG’s low-key Vergara appeal has damage-control vibe

Chris Reed August 31, 2014

Without fanfare, Attorney General Kamala Harris appealed the Vergara decision throwing out state teacher tenure and job-protection laws late Friday at the direction of Gov. Jerry Brown and with the encouragement of state Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson. Unlike

Torlakson says real problem is low teacher pay, not tenure

Chris Reed August 30, 2014

This was predictable: Friday’s announcement that state Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson wanted an appeal of Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Rolf Treu’s ruling that teacher tenure laws are unconstitutional because they funnel the worst teachers to struggling schools

Historic Vergara ruling finalized; state has weighty decision on appeal

Chris Reed August 28, 2014

A court decision that puts the interests of Latino and black students and parents on a collision course with those of the mostly white members of the California Teachers Association and the California Federation of Teachers has been finalized: The

iPad scandal latest in long line for L.A. Unified — but different

Chris Reed August 26, 2014

The abrupt decision Monday by Los Angeles Unified Superintendent John Deasy to suspend the district’s $1 billion iPad program after reports that he manipulated the decision that led to Apple winning the big contract is hugely juicy. The program already

Vergara appeal decision: Nixon goes to China for Jerry Brown?

Chris Reed August 24, 2014

To an astounding degree, prominent California Democrats have so far avoided substantive comment on Judge Rolf Treu’s landmark — but tentative — June 10 ruling in Los Angeles Superior Court that teacher tenure laws are so harmful to minority students in

Scam exposed: UTLA wants $ for troubled students to fund 17.6% raise

Chris Reed August 8, 2014

When Gov. Jerry Brown signed the Local Control Funding Formula for state schools into law in the summer of 2013, it was billed as the biggest education reform in California in decades. The premise of the law — and the

Behind push against truancy/absenteeism: unions’ money hunt

Chris Reed August 4, 2014

What is by far the single most important factor in how California government functions? I stand by my theory that I wrote up last year for Cal Watchdog: Like Neo figuring out how life was coded to work in “The

A look at CA’s mixed-bag teacher firing reform

James Poulos July 20, 2014

In some respects, it’s now easier to fire teachers in California. In others, it’s more complicated. That’s the verdict on AB 215, the version of several different firing reform bills that cleared the Legislature and received Gov. Jerry Brown’s signature