Education

Blog

Teacher Unions’ Agenda Derailed by LA Parcel Tax Defeat

A funny thing happened on the way to teacher-union political hegemony: common sense kicked in and the people threw the unions for a huge loss with the defeat of the proposed parcel-tax increase in Los Angeles. In fight after fight across the country, and especially here in California, the teacher ...
Charter Schools

Lance Izumi Writes About Importance of Charter Schools in TeachThought

While most traditional public schools continue to adhere to a one-size-fits-all model of curriculum, instruction, and learning, sometimes dubbed the ‘McDonaldization’ of education, public charter schools have the flexibility to implement more individualized learning models that promote curiosity, inquiry, and critical thinking. In a recent article, Terry Heick observed, “in education as ...
Blog

Union Membership Doesn’t Mean a Job Forever

PRI has a helpful calculator that shows how much a union member could save throughout his or her working years from not paying union dues.  In California, the average fee-paying teacher owes $650 a year while the average worker owes $1,000.  A 45-year old teacher who leaves the union and ...
Commentary

Common Core Has Failed America’s Students

Bill Gates, a key godfather of the Common Core subject-matter standards, wrote five years ago that the national standards “will improve education for millions of students,” but a groundbreaking new study shows that Common Core has actually decreased the level of student achievement. With irresistible prodding by Gates and then-President Obama, the ...
Charter Schools

PRI’s Lance Izumi Discusses NAACP & Charter Schools on Phil Cowan Show

Listen to Lance Izumi, Senior Director of PRI’s Center for Education, discuss his recent article on Southern California NAACP chapters breaking away from the state and national groups to support charter schools on the Phil Cowan Show on AM 1380 The Answer in Sacramento. The interview begins at the 1:50:30 ...
Charter Schools

SoCal NAACP Chapters Break with Unions Because Charter Schools Work

While a powerful front of liberal lawmakers and groups push for a moratorium on the creation of new charter schools in California, individual chapters of the NAACP have broken ranks to support charters that are improving the education for thousands of African-American children. To end teacher strikes in Los Angeles and Oakland, local school ...
Blog

Latest Evidence of California’s Pension Crowd-Out: Less Classroom Funding

My colleagues and I have written often about California’s pension crowd-out, or how state and local governments budgets are increasingly gobbled up by public pension payments. Last fall, PRI’s Wayne Winegarden released a new study showing that, using a more realistic accounting measure, California’s unfunded public employee pension obligations stood ...
Business & Economics

Educational Choice is Essential to a Skills-Based Economy

The skills and education of every American will form the basis of our nation’s long term success, as well as the solution to many of the most divisive issues in American politics. Issues such as wage stagnation, income inequality, unaffordable housing, and income mobility can be directly addressed through a ...
Charter Schools

School Riots Underscore Why Parents Prefer School Choice

Over the last two months, riots at public schools across the country have underscored why parents choose safer charter schools for their children. In April, ten Stamford, Connecticut high school students were charged with numerous crimes, including first-degree riot and assault on a police officer, after a riot that involved hundreds of ...
Blog

Left vs. Left Round 2: Teach for America and the Unions

When Right by the Bay heard that Assemblyman Kevin Kiley’s vigorous defense of Teach for America (TFA) landed him in the “dog house” (the smallest office at the Capitol), we couldn’t help but be intrigued, for nothing in politics is worse than being caught eating one’s own. But we don’t ...
Blog

Teacher Unions’ Agenda Derailed by LA Parcel Tax Defeat

A funny thing happened on the way to teacher-union political hegemony: common sense kicked in and the people threw the unions for a huge loss with the defeat of the proposed parcel-tax increase in Los Angeles. In fight after fight across the country, and especially here in California, the teacher ...
Charter Schools

Lance Izumi Writes About Importance of Charter Schools in TeachThought

While most traditional public schools continue to adhere to a one-size-fits-all model of curriculum, instruction, and learning, sometimes dubbed the ‘McDonaldization’ of education, public charter schools have the flexibility to implement more individualized learning models that promote curiosity, inquiry, and critical thinking. In a recent article, Terry Heick observed, “in education as ...
Blog

Union Membership Doesn’t Mean a Job Forever

PRI has a helpful calculator that shows how much a union member could save throughout his or her working years from not paying union dues.  In California, the average fee-paying teacher owes $650 a year while the average worker owes $1,000.  A 45-year old teacher who leaves the union and ...
Commentary

Common Core Has Failed America’s Students

Bill Gates, a key godfather of the Common Core subject-matter standards, wrote five years ago that the national standards “will improve education for millions of students,” but a groundbreaking new study shows that Common Core has actually decreased the level of student achievement. With irresistible prodding by Gates and then-President Obama, the ...
Charter Schools

PRI’s Lance Izumi Discusses NAACP & Charter Schools on Phil Cowan Show

Listen to Lance Izumi, Senior Director of PRI’s Center for Education, discuss his recent article on Southern California NAACP chapters breaking away from the state and national groups to support charter schools on the Phil Cowan Show on AM 1380 The Answer in Sacramento. The interview begins at the 1:50:30 ...
Charter Schools

SoCal NAACP Chapters Break with Unions Because Charter Schools Work

While a powerful front of liberal lawmakers and groups push for a moratorium on the creation of new charter schools in California, individual chapters of the NAACP have broken ranks to support charters that are improving the education for thousands of African-American children. To end teacher strikes in Los Angeles and Oakland, local school ...
Blog

Latest Evidence of California’s Pension Crowd-Out: Less Classroom Funding

My colleagues and I have written often about California’s pension crowd-out, or how state and local governments budgets are increasingly gobbled up by public pension payments. Last fall, PRI’s Wayne Winegarden released a new study showing that, using a more realistic accounting measure, California’s unfunded public employee pension obligations stood ...
Business & Economics

Educational Choice is Essential to a Skills-Based Economy

The skills and education of every American will form the basis of our nation’s long term success, as well as the solution to many of the most divisive issues in American politics. Issues such as wage stagnation, income inequality, unaffordable housing, and income mobility can be directly addressed through a ...
Charter Schools

School Riots Underscore Why Parents Prefer School Choice

Over the last two months, riots at public schools across the country have underscored why parents choose safer charter schools for their children. In April, ten Stamford, Connecticut high school students were charged with numerous crimes, including first-degree riot and assault on a police officer, after a riot that involved hundreds of ...
Blog

Left vs. Left Round 2: Teach for America and the Unions

When Right by the Bay heard that Assemblyman Kevin Kiley’s vigorous defense of Teach for America (TFA) landed him in the “dog house” (the smallest office at the Capitol), we couldn’t help but be intrigued, for nothing in politics is worse than being caught eating one’s own. But we don’t ...
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