Lance Izumi
California
Biased Classroom Politics: Reason For School Choice
During the week of January 22-28, we mark National School Choice Week and efforts to empower parents to choose the best public or private education option for their children. For years, school choice efforts have mainly focused on the poor performance of traditional public schools. Growing political bias in the ...
Blended Learning
Can Technology Help Students and Save Education in California?
Click here to watch a video of PRI’s recent panel discussion on ed tech and blended learning in the classroom. Much of the debate in education over the last few years has centered around issues of standards, curricula and testing. While very important, these issues should not obscure the possibilities ...
Charter Schools
Donald Trump Says He Will Be “Biggest Cheerleader” for School Choice
Republican nominee Donald Trump says that, if elected president, he will make school choice the center of his education plan and will use $20 billion to establish a block grant to fund school choice for children living in low-income areas. Public schools are “our government-run monopoly” that has “trapped millions ...
Charter Schools
Black Lives Matter vs. Charter Schools
The Movement for Black Lives Matter coalition has recently issued education-policy “demands” that demonstrate that not all the lives of black children matter to the group. In the preamble of the BLM demands, the group uses language that seems drawn straight from teacher-union talking points. BLM talks about “an international ...
California
Vergara Decision: Remember the Children the Court Forgot
In 2014, California Superior Court Judge Rolf Treu ruled that the state’s teacher tenure, layoff and dismissal laws violated the state’s constitutional guarantee of a quality education for every student. Judge Treu based his decision on compelling trial testimony, much of it from students, which he said, “shocks the conscience.” ...
Commentary
Hey America, your middle-class schools are not as good as you think
In comfy suburbs from the East Coast to the Midwest and from the Rockies to the Southwest, large proportions of middle-class students are failing to perform well in their core academic subjects. That’s the disturbing conclusion of a massive two-year, five-state series of studies by the Pacific Research Institute. The ...
Commentary
School choice should encompass religious institutions
What do rubber tire scraps have to do with school-choice options like vouchers? A lot, it turns out, and a case involving those tire scraps that is now before the U.S. Supreme Court could have a wide-ranging impact on whether parents can access those choice options. The case, Trinity Lutheran ...
California
Courts shouldn’t make education policy
In a recent decision, the California Court of Appeal ruled that it was up to the California Legislature, not the judiciary, to set the level of spending for schools. The court’s ruling makes good sense, not only for legal reasons, but also in light of judicial history and education research. ...
California
Friedrichs decision isn’t end in fight against public-sector unions
As expected, in the wake of Justice Antonin Scalia’s death, the U.S. Supreme Court delivered a 4-4 tie vote in the critical Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association case, which sought to determine whether non-union public employees could be forced to subsidize union collective bargaining. While the tie vote means that ...
California
Key Brown Education Legacy Program Comes up Short
In his 2016 State of the State address, Governor Jerry Brown touted the centerpiece of his education agenda, the Local Control Funding Formula, which simplifies the way in which local school districts are funded. Yet his key legacy program has experienced critical implementation problems and has exposed, once again, the ...
Biased Classroom Politics: Reason For School Choice
During the week of January 22-28, we mark National School Choice Week and efforts to empower parents to choose the best public or private education option for their children. For years, school choice efforts have mainly focused on the poor performance of traditional public schools. Growing political bias in the ...
Can Technology Help Students and Save Education in California?
Click here to watch a video of PRI’s recent panel discussion on ed tech and blended learning in the classroom. Much of the debate in education over the last few years has centered around issues of standards, curricula and testing. While very important, these issues should not obscure the possibilities ...
Donald Trump Says He Will Be “Biggest Cheerleader” for School Choice
Republican nominee Donald Trump says that, if elected president, he will make school choice the center of his education plan and will use $20 billion to establish a block grant to fund school choice for children living in low-income areas. Public schools are “our government-run monopoly” that has “trapped millions ...
Black Lives Matter vs. Charter Schools
The Movement for Black Lives Matter coalition has recently issued education-policy “demands” that demonstrate that not all the lives of black children matter to the group. In the preamble of the BLM demands, the group uses language that seems drawn straight from teacher-union talking points. BLM talks about “an international ...
Vergara Decision: Remember the Children the Court Forgot
In 2014, California Superior Court Judge Rolf Treu ruled that the state’s teacher tenure, layoff and dismissal laws violated the state’s constitutional guarantee of a quality education for every student. Judge Treu based his decision on compelling trial testimony, much of it from students, which he said, “shocks the conscience.” ...
Hey America, your middle-class schools are not as good as you think
In comfy suburbs from the East Coast to the Midwest and from the Rockies to the Southwest, large proportions of middle-class students are failing to perform well in their core academic subjects. That’s the disturbing conclusion of a massive two-year, five-state series of studies by the Pacific Research Institute. The ...
School choice should encompass religious institutions
What do rubber tire scraps have to do with school-choice options like vouchers? A lot, it turns out, and a case involving those tire scraps that is now before the U.S. Supreme Court could have a wide-ranging impact on whether parents can access those choice options. The case, Trinity Lutheran ...
Courts shouldn’t make education policy
In a recent decision, the California Court of Appeal ruled that it was up to the California Legislature, not the judiciary, to set the level of spending for schools. The court’s ruling makes good sense, not only for legal reasons, but also in light of judicial history and education research. ...
Friedrichs decision isn’t end in fight against public-sector unions
As expected, in the wake of Justice Antonin Scalia’s death, the U.S. Supreme Court delivered a 4-4 tie vote in the critical Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association case, which sought to determine whether non-union public employees could be forced to subsidize union collective bargaining. While the tie vote means that ...
Key Brown Education Legacy Program Comes up Short
In his 2016 State of the State address, Governor Jerry Brown touted the centerpiece of his education agenda, the Local Control Funding Formula, which simplifies the way in which local school districts are funded. Yet his key legacy program has experienced critical implementation problems and has exposed, once again, the ...
