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TX routs CA in education test scores
Every time I write or speak on a radio show favorably about Texas compared with California, I get harsh online comments, emails and phone calls. The usual theme isn’t just that California is a nicer place to live. It’s that
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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
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Study of Los Angeles: Prosperity increases income inequality
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
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Is John Chiang a CTA-spiting kamikaze? Or a slick posturer?
California politics tend only to surprise with the extremes to which unions will go in flexing their power. Protect classroom sexual predators? No problem. Openly subvert direct democracy? Sure. Argue that only union nurses should be allowed to administer life-saving
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‘Subsidiarity’: About broad push for local control? Or upping teacher pay?
Joel Fox has an analysis piece at Fox & Hounds that looks at the governor’s push for “subsidiarity” on education policy and wonders if what Jerry Brown is touting will segue to a larger agenda: “… is there a next
Read MoreSenate Ed committee balances school needs, parents, unions and worms
At a meeting of the Senate Education Committee on Wednesday, a dirty little secret about the Capitol came out. There are apparently worms in the drinking fountains. SB 687 was on the agenda in the education committee. The bill would
Read MoreCTA wins: Brown lobbies to weaken own school-funding reform
Gov. Jerry Brown made a surprise appearance Thursday at a State Board of Education meeting to call for board members — most of whom he appointed — to approve loophole-ridden regulations for the implementation of the sweeping education funding changes
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Brown: No teachers' pension fix until after November election
Gov. Jerry Brown has a basic problem when it comes to the California State Teachers' Retirement System: the most powerful forces in state politics oppose the standard fix for an underfunded pension system, even if it is now enshrined in
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No Nixon-goes-to-China for Obama on CA school-testing retreat
U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan said last week that testing students was vital to measuring their progress and to improving student and teacher performance. Duncan warned California not to proceed with a reckless move away from standardized testing. That didn’t
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CA public schools: ‘Brownie, you’re doing a heck of a job’
The notion that one heard fairly often about Sacramento for much of 2013 — Abel Maldonado’s election reforms actually had led to a more moderate batch of lawmakers coming to town — was annihilated in the final week of the
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