Public Schools
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 ...
Lance Izumi
May 10, 2019
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 ...
Tim Anaya
May 6, 2019
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 ...
Lance Izumi
April 24, 2019
Book
Just Released: New Book Shows Parents and Students are Choosing Diversity When Enrolling in Charter Schools
One of the key traits that distinguishes charter schools from traditional public schools is the diversity of educational experiences promoted by the ability to choose, writes Lance Izumi in his new book Choosing Diversity, published by the Pacific Research Institute. Watch a brief video of Izumi talking about his new ...
Lance Izumi
April 5, 2019
Blog
Why Are Teachers Mostly Liberal?
The wave of teacher strikes across the country, with their focus on killing education reforms such as charter schools, have focused attention on the ideology of teachers. Many Americans are now asking: “Why are teachers so liberal?” Tom Rademacher, a Minnesota teacher of the year who writes for the Education ...
Lance Izumi
April 3, 2019
California
California doesn’t have to be like Texas – following Florida’s lead will work
Texas, it’s been said recent years, should inspire California to recapture its lost promise, to polish its fading luster. While the Golden State grapples with a host of Blue State struggles, housing is more affordable in the Lone Star state, taxes are lower, business is welcomed rather than handcuffed, and ...
Kerry Jackson
March 27, 2019
Agriculture
Don’t Scapegoat Charter Schools For School Districts’ Fiscal Woes
Governor Gavin Newsom’s move to have State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond create an expert panel to review the financial impact of charter schools on regular public schools, and put out a report by July, smells like an attempt to scapegoat charter schools. First, comments by the governor’s office ...
Lance Izumi
March 19, 2019
Charter Schools
Across the Country, Unions are Waging War on Charter Schools
A combination of powerful aggressive teacher unions and compliant state and local politicians have produced a perfect storm that threatens to destroy the future of charter schools and the children who benefit from them. Charter schools are publicly funded schools independent of school districts, which have more flexibility and autonomy ...
Lance Izumi
March 18, 2019
Agriculture
Americans Who Want Socialism Should Consider Moving to California
Trump adviser and distinguished economist Larry Kudlow wants to put socialism on trial, challenge it, debate it, rebut it — and convict it. “I don’t want us to stand idly by,” Kudlow said at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Maryland. “I don’t want to let this stuff fester.” It ...
Kerry Jackson
March 10, 2019
Blog
Identity Politics Comes to STEM
In January, PRI had the pleasure of hosting Manhattan Institute fellow Heather Mac Donald at a luncheon in Southern California to discuss her new book The Diversity Delusion: How Race and Gender Pandering Corrupt the University and Undermine our Culture. One of the most disturbing points during her talk was ...
Rowena Itchon
February 5, 2019
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
Just Released: New Book Shows Parents and Students are Choosing Diversity When Enrolling in Charter Schools
One of the key traits that distinguishes charter schools from traditional public schools is the diversity of educational experiences promoted by the ability to choose, writes Lance Izumi in his new book Choosing Diversity, published by the Pacific Research Institute. Watch a brief video of Izumi talking about his new ...
Why Are Teachers Mostly Liberal?
The wave of teacher strikes across the country, with their focus on killing education reforms such as charter schools, have focused attention on the ideology of teachers. Many Americans are now asking: “Why are teachers so liberal?” Tom Rademacher, a Minnesota teacher of the year who writes for the Education ...
California doesn’t have to be like Texas – following Florida’s lead will work
Texas, it’s been said recent years, should inspire California to recapture its lost promise, to polish its fading luster. While the Golden State grapples with a host of Blue State struggles, housing is more affordable in the Lone Star state, taxes are lower, business is welcomed rather than handcuffed, and ...
Don’t Scapegoat Charter Schools For School Districts’ Fiscal Woes
Governor Gavin Newsom’s move to have State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond create an expert panel to review the financial impact of charter schools on regular public schools, and put out a report by July, smells like an attempt to scapegoat charter schools. First, comments by the governor’s office ...
Across the Country, Unions are Waging War on Charter Schools
A combination of powerful aggressive teacher unions and compliant state and local politicians have produced a perfect storm that threatens to destroy the future of charter schools and the children who benefit from them. Charter schools are publicly funded schools independent of school districts, which have more flexibility and autonomy ...
Americans Who Want Socialism Should Consider Moving to California
Trump adviser and distinguished economist Larry Kudlow wants to put socialism on trial, challenge it, debate it, rebut it — and convict it. “I don’t want us to stand idly by,” Kudlow said at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Maryland. “I don’t want to let this stuff fester.” It ...
Identity Politics Comes to STEM
In January, PRI had the pleasure of hosting Manhattan Institute fellow Heather Mac Donald at a luncheon in Southern California to discuss her new book The Diversity Delusion: How Race and Gender Pandering Corrupt the University and Undermine our Culture. One of the most disturbing points during her talk was ...