Lance Izumi

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Newsom’s Mental Health Plan for Kids: Way Too Late for Problem He Caused

Governor Gavin Newsom’s proposed mental health plan for children reminds me of the arsonist who starts a fire, but then calls the fire department to put out the blaze he started. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Newsom closed California’s public schools for a longer time period than most other states, which ...
Blog

CAPITAL IDEAS—Not April Fool’s Day: Newsom Gets Education Award as California Students Suffer and Fail

DOWNLOAD THE PDF When Governor Gavin Newsom recently received a national award for education, just as student learning craters due to his disastrous school policies, one could hear California parents collectively exclaim, “Seriously?”   The Education Commission of the States, which is an interstate agency that is supposed to create ...
Blog

A Student Issues a Stark Warning on the State of California Schools

While Governor Gavin Newsom was accepting a laughable award for California’s supposed innovation in education, student achievement in the state’s classrooms is spiraling downward due to failed government education policies. The Education Commission of the States, which gave the innovation award to California, lauded all the tax dollars that Newsom ...
Blog

New Study Dispels Special Ed Funding Myth About Charter Schools

The wide funding gap between regular public schools and charter schools is often explained by charter opponents as due to the larger number of special-education students in regular public schools versus charter schools.  A just released study, however, debunks this claim. There is no doubt that regular public schools receive ...
Blog

Mandatory Kindergarten: Bad Idea for Kids and Taxpayers

As if California parents and children have not had enough mandates from Sacramento, the Legislature is considering mandating kindergarten, even though research, international experience, and teacher testimony undercut the idea. SB 70 by State Senator Susan Rubio (D-Baldwin Park) would, according to her press release, “require all students to complete ...
Commentary

Teachers unions causing schools and students to fail

Recently in Time magazine, American Federation of Teachers head Randi Weingarten argued, “Far-right advocates of privatizing public education are using Big Lies to undermine public schools.” However, in an eye-opening resignation letter, Oakland school board member Shanthi Gonzales, a former labor organizer, shows that it is the teachers union that ...
Blog

The Math Deficiencies in California’s Proposed Math Curriculum

While California’s proposed K-12 math curriculum framework has taken justifiable hits for its woke politicization of math instruction, it is also rife with subject-matter deficiencies that will result in students being ill-prepared for higher education and the workplace. The second draft of the proposed math curriculum framework, which was released ...
Classroom Ideology

Woke Math Returns to California

Like the return of the undead, woke math has come back to haunt California’s classrooms and make it even harder for the state’s struggling students to receive a quality education. Last year, the California Department of Education released the first draft of a new curriculum framework for K-12 mathematics, which ...
Blog

California’s Woke Curricula Built on Research Quicksand

While activists pushing to impose woke curricula in California’s classrooms claim that their ideological innovations are based on research, it turns out that these claims are really built on research quicksand. Take, for example, the proposed California K-12 math curriculum framework, which seeks to serve as a guide for math ...
Blog

CAPITAL IDEAS: The 2022 Education Landscape and the Coming Homeschool Tsunami

Lance Izumi, senior director of PRI’s Center for Education, recently delivered the following speech to the Northern California Lincoln Club.
Blog

Newsom’s Mental Health Plan for Kids: Way Too Late for Problem He Caused

Governor Gavin Newsom’s proposed mental health plan for children reminds me of the arsonist who starts a fire, but then calls the fire department to put out the blaze he started. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Newsom closed California’s public schools for a longer time period than most other states, which ...
Blog

CAPITAL IDEAS—Not April Fool’s Day: Newsom Gets Education Award as California Students Suffer and Fail

DOWNLOAD THE PDF When Governor Gavin Newsom recently received a national award for education, just as student learning craters due to his disastrous school policies, one could hear California parents collectively exclaim, “Seriously?”   The Education Commission of the States, which is an interstate agency that is supposed to create ...
Blog

A Student Issues a Stark Warning on the State of California Schools

While Governor Gavin Newsom was accepting a laughable award for California’s supposed innovation in education, student achievement in the state’s classrooms is spiraling downward due to failed government education policies. The Education Commission of the States, which gave the innovation award to California, lauded all the tax dollars that Newsom ...
Blog

New Study Dispels Special Ed Funding Myth About Charter Schools

The wide funding gap between regular public schools and charter schools is often explained by charter opponents as due to the larger number of special-education students in regular public schools versus charter schools.  A just released study, however, debunks this claim. There is no doubt that regular public schools receive ...
Blog

Mandatory Kindergarten: Bad Idea for Kids and Taxpayers

As if California parents and children have not had enough mandates from Sacramento, the Legislature is considering mandating kindergarten, even though research, international experience, and teacher testimony undercut the idea. SB 70 by State Senator Susan Rubio (D-Baldwin Park) would, according to her press release, “require all students to complete ...
Commentary

Teachers unions causing schools and students to fail

Recently in Time magazine, American Federation of Teachers head Randi Weingarten argued, “Far-right advocates of privatizing public education are using Big Lies to undermine public schools.” However, in an eye-opening resignation letter, Oakland school board member Shanthi Gonzales, a former labor organizer, shows that it is the teachers union that ...
Blog

The Math Deficiencies in California’s Proposed Math Curriculum

While California’s proposed K-12 math curriculum framework has taken justifiable hits for its woke politicization of math instruction, it is also rife with subject-matter deficiencies that will result in students being ill-prepared for higher education and the workplace. The second draft of the proposed math curriculum framework, which was released ...
Classroom Ideology

Woke Math Returns to California

Like the return of the undead, woke math has come back to haunt California’s classrooms and make it even harder for the state’s struggling students to receive a quality education. Last year, the California Department of Education released the first draft of a new curriculum framework for K-12 mathematics, which ...
Blog

California’s Woke Curricula Built on Research Quicksand

While activists pushing to impose woke curricula in California’s classrooms claim that their ideological innovations are based on research, it turns out that these claims are really built on research quicksand. Take, for example, the proposed California K-12 math curriculum framework, which seeks to serve as a guide for math ...
Blog

CAPITAL IDEAS: The 2022 Education Landscape and the Coming Homeschool Tsunami

Lance Izumi, senior director of PRI’s Center for Education, recently delivered the following speech to the Northern California Lincoln Club.
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