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CA law promoting school choice, competition barely used

Advocates of education choice in California have been fighting the good fight for decades. They’ve gotten nowhere with school vouchers but have a strong record with charters — albeit a record that requires a constant struggle to defend against the

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Four years of JC down the drain

One of the best lines in the 1978 comedy “Animal House” occurs when the Delta frat rats have been thrown off campus, and Bluto groans, “Seven years of college down the drain.” I was reminded of that when reading this report

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Wretched teacher discipline law: CTA shows it’s still in charge

More than three years after appalling evidence emerged that a teacher at a school in an impoverished neighborhood in south Los Angeles had been feeding semen-laced food to his students, California finally has a law on the books that makes

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Vergara’s grim implications for CA Dems ignored

When Asian-American lawmakers objected to efforts by black and Latino lawmakers to gut Proposition 209 and bring racial quotas back to college admissions and other state government programs, the California media thought that was news. Nexis shows 85 stories about

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Three powerful liberal papers hail Vergara ruling

That the Vergara vs. California ruling last week is a landmark that will affect U.S. public education going forward — even if it is appealed and thrown out — is a general consensus among the pundits and education experts I’ve read.

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In CA, Smarter Balanced testing shapes fate of Common Core

It’s crunch time for California supporters of the new Common Core educational standards. On several fronts, key business, education and political interests have heightened their push for the changes. Although opposition remains strong, pro-Common Core groups sense that a tipping point may be

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UTLA boss goes Orwell: Teachers=students

Tuesday’s historic Vergara vs. California ruling was likened to Brown vs. Board of Education by none other than Rolf Treu, the judge who issued the decision. But has anyone noticed how quiet Latino Democrats are about the ruling, outside of

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The left-wing theory driving Vergara ruling

A point that hasn’t been made nearly enough by the MSM is that the Vergara vs. California ruling rejecting the state’s lax teacher tenure practices depends on a legal doctrine associated with lefty causes. That doctrine deals with “disparate impact” and

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Post-Vergara: Civil war possible among CA Dems

The Vergara storm is coming, and I’ve got a feeling that it’s going to be gigantic. The ruling’s potential impact on California public education — and public education nationally — could be immense. Even if it doesn’t stand, it will

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Vergara ruling: Silicon Valley titan KOs teachers unions

In 16 pages, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Rolf M. Treu dealt California’s teachers unions an unprecedented defeat. Using unsparing, uncompromising language, Judge Treu ruled that job protections passed at these unions’ behest violated the state Constitution by denying equal educational opportunity

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