Education
Commentary
Supreme Court broadens school choice options, but states need to act
By Lance Izumi and McKenzie Richards While freedom has been under attack in many areas of life, the freedom of parents to choose the best education for their children has just expanded thanks to a recent Supreme Court decision. The case, Carson v. Makin, involved a Maine law that prevented parents and their children from using state-provided ...
Pacific Research Institute
July 8, 2022
Blog
SB 1162 Won’t Fix Pay Gap
It’s summertime, and the living may about to get even easier for plaintiff’s lawyers across California. Senate Bill 1162, which is wending its way through the legislature, would require the state to publish the pay data of workers by race, ethnicity, and gender for companies with 100 or more employees, ...
Tim Anaya
July 7, 2022
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 ...
Lance Izumi
July 6, 2022
Blog
When Right Thinking Californians Learn About Tennessee’s Policy Agenda, They Might Be Ready to Call a Realtor
I recently traveled to Nashville to attend the annual Heritage Foundation Resource Bank conference, and annual gathering of conservative policy leaders from around the country. While at the conference, I had the opportunity to hear great speakers including Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee and Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares and attend ...
Tim Anaya
June 14, 2022
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 ...
Lance Izumi
June 6, 2022
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 ...
Lance Izumi
May 25, 2022
Blog
Been There, Done That on Attacking Charter Schools
Been There, Done That on Attacking Charter Schools Inspired by a recent California law, the Biden Administration has proposed federal regulations that would require new charter schools to “demonstrate community need” before being approved, and also restricts the ability of new and existing charter schools to receive federal funds. California ...
Pacific Research Institute
May 9, 2022
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 ...
Lance Izumi
May 7, 2022
Charter Schools
Biden Administration Copying California Law to Stifle Charter Schools
By Lance Izumi & McKenzie Richards Imagine a world where budding businesses would be required to both obtain permission to enter the marketplace from competitors and then prove to the government that their business would serve community needs. Makes no sense, right? Well, welcome to education policy, where the Biden ...
Pacific Research Institute
April 27, 2022
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 ...
Lance Izumi
April 21, 2022
Supreme Court broadens school choice options, but states need to act
By Lance Izumi and McKenzie Richards While freedom has been under attack in many areas of life, the freedom of parents to choose the best education for their children has just expanded thanks to a recent Supreme Court decision. The case, Carson v. Makin, involved a Maine law that prevented parents and their children from using state-provided ...
SB 1162 Won’t Fix Pay Gap
It’s summertime, and the living may about to get even easier for plaintiff’s lawyers across California. Senate Bill 1162, which is wending its way through the legislature, would require the state to publish the pay data of workers by race, ethnicity, and gender for companies with 100 or more employees, ...
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 ...
When Right Thinking Californians Learn About Tennessee’s Policy Agenda, They Might Be Ready to Call a Realtor
I recently traveled to Nashville to attend the annual Heritage Foundation Resource Bank conference, and annual gathering of conservative policy leaders from around the country. While at the conference, I had the opportunity to hear great speakers including Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee and Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares and attend ...
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 ...
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 ...
Been There, Done That on Attacking Charter Schools
Been There, Done That on Attacking Charter Schools Inspired by a recent California law, the Biden Administration has proposed federal regulations that would require new charter schools to “demonstrate community need” before being approved, and also restricts the ability of new and existing charter schools to receive federal funds. California ...
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 ...
Biden Administration Copying California Law to Stifle Charter Schools
By Lance Izumi & McKenzie Richards Imagine a world where budding businesses would be required to both obtain permission to enter the marketplace from competitors and then prove to the government that their business would serve community needs. Makes no sense, right? Well, welcome to education policy, where the Biden ...
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 ...