Blogs 2010

November 1, 2010, Tony Beall, Red County - There is a real life David and Goliath story playing out right now here in Orange County. It's the courageous campaign being waged by the conservative Republican Reform Trustees in Capistrano Unified against the most powerful special interest group in the State of California -- the Teachers Union. Powerful union leaders and their supporters are campaigning to take control of the Capistrano Unified School District on Election Day – seeking to replace the existing conservative Reform Trustees with a new pro-union majority, and with their ballot initiative known as Measure H, to literally take away from every voter 6 of our 7 school board votes. The Reform Trustees can't even compete with the union when it comes to campaign money -- but their continuing willingness to stand up to the union bosses against all odds has captured the hearts and minds (and loyalty) of the electorate. The Orange County Register now confirms...

October 31, 2010, John Alpay, Orange Juice Blog - Vern was correct. In my prior post I did not provide specifics of the OCSD Information Report Case #10-154332. Therefore I will post it now and let you the readers decide if John Alpay has his act together … I find it amusing when Vern says that John is considering filing a law suit after the election. If he has a bullet proof claim why is he waiting? Vern. This is an angry man. We have seen his type in Mission Viejo. I commend the Deputy for standing his ground. John Alpay is lucky he didn’t get into an accident causing serious injuries to a family as he raced home at speeds exceeding 90 MPH. That racing was his statement to the Deputy, not a creation of my imagination. Vern. The ball is now in your court. Try to defend John based on this update. Do voters in the CUSD wish to be represented on our Board of Trustees by this man? I don’t think so. That is why I did not recommend nor did we vote for him.

October 25, 2010, Tony Beall, Red County - The Orange County Register just published a significant editorial officially opposing the unjust, union-backed effort to recall Capistrano Unified School District Trustees Mike Winsten & Ken Lopez Maddox. Powerful union leaders and their supporters are campaigning to take control of the Capistrano Unified School District on Election Day – seeking to replace the existing conservative Reform Trustees with a new pro-union majority, and with their ballot initiative known as Measure H, to literally take away from every voter 6 of our 7 school board votes. Thankfully, things just keep getting worse and worse for the power hungry teachers union in Capistrano Unified as their insidious scheme continues to unravel...

October 19, 2010, Anthony Pignataro, Cal Watchdog - One of the few actual, honest issues in the California governor’s race has also been one of the least reported. And while it’s an old issue – dating back to 1977 – it’s nonetheless fascinating. “Back when Jerry Brown was governor nearly 35 years ago, in his first day in office, he gave public service unions the right to collective bargaining,” Republican Meg Whitman said back in April. Her time was off by two years, but the point of her argument was true enough: that granting public employee unions the right to bargain collectively for better pay and benefits paved the way for our state’s current unfunded pension liabilities, which may top half a trillion dollars...

October 19, 2010, Eric Hanushek, Thoughts on Public Education - So we are seeing not a war on teachers, but a war on the blunt and detrimental policies of teachers unions. If unions continue not to represent the vast numbers of highly effective teachers, but instead to lump them in with the ineffective teachers, they will continue doing a disservice to students, to most of their own members, and to the nation...The bottom line is that focusing on effective teachers cannot be taken as a liberal or conservative position. It’s time for the unions to drop their polemics and stop propping up the bottom...

October 13, 2010, Larry Sand, Red County - Every year, especially the even numbered ones, teachers all over California are subjected to a battering by the California Teachers Association and its local affiliates. That’s when union hacks invade schools and school mailboxes, telling teachers who and what they must vote for on Election Day. Their mantra is always the same -- touting the most liberal candidate and the biggest spending initiatives. When I was a teacher, I found the constant politicking to be overbearing – and there is no room for disagreement...

October 12, 2010, Michelle Malkin, Michelle Malkin - I’ve been writing about the rank-and-file union member revolt against forced political spending and power grab schemes taking place under the radar screen across the country. More are saying enough is enough...

October 11, 2010, Vern Nelson, Orange Juice Blog - First, a press release from my friends at Capistrano Unified Children First, the group behind the recall of wasteful incompetent trustees Ken “Lopez-Maddox” and Mike Winsten. This is pretty spectacular, and reminiscent of back in May when they first collected signatures for this recall, and got WAY more signatures in WAY too little time. This movement really has the wind at its back...

October 8, 2010, Red County, Matt Cunningham - "We're not the union candidates!" We've heard that line so many times from the "Children First" slate of candidates for the Capistrano Unified School District Board of Trustees -- as well as from their apologists -- that it is almost like a mantra. And those of us who have been watching events unfold down there know equally well that it is untrue. Wondering who is correct? Take a look at the latest campaign report from the CUSD teachers union...

September 28, 2010, Tony Beall, Red County - The OC Register published a significant editorial today officially opposing Measure H -- a ballot initiative promoted and supported by the public employee unions in Capistrano Unified School District which would change the way CUSD school board members are elected in the future.  Today voters in CUSD get 7 votes -- 1 for each of their school board members.  If Measure H passes – voters would lose 6 of their votes…The editorial…Confirms the Real Agenda of Public Employee Unions. Kudos to the OC Register for confirming the public employee unions in CUSD are really making a power play to take over control of Capistrano Unified (the 9th largest school district in California) on Election Day in order that they can, in their own words, “elect their own bosses.”  Here are some key excerpts from the OCR’s Editorial:

September 28, 2010, Lance Izumi, The Flash Report - It’s ironic that it takes a trip to the movies to shine the light on an ugly truth that has been lurking for years, but so far has failed to spark the necessary revolution to fix our schools. The new movie, “Waiting for ‘Superman’”, might just be that spark. It is a tough lesson for anyone who cares about the future of our country and our state. We can no longer afford to complain about our schools and then do so little to make changes. It’s a national disgrace. In California, a state that considers itself the world’s innovation factory, it’s a travesty. The big screen treatment by Academy Award winner Davis Guggenheim exposes the brutal facts: We are neglecting our children’s welfare for the benefit of adults. Our schools are failing our children all over, not just in less affluent neighborhoods, and many parents don’t even know it. Our education system is strangled by an inflexible bureaucracy that effectively smothers innovation and new thinking…

September 24, 2010, Tony Beall, Red County - The City of Rancho Santa Margarita just adopted a resolution officially opposing “Measure H” – a ballot initiative promoted and supported by the public employee unions in Capistrano Unified School District which would change the way CUSD school board members are elected in the future.  Today voters in CUSD get 7 votes -- 1 for each of their school board members.  If Measure H passes – voters would lose 6 of their votes. The Rancho Santa Margarita Resolution reads in part:

September 21, 2010, Tony Beall, Red County - The Orange County Republican Party has officially endorsed the entire Capistrano Unified School District Reform Slate, which includes the following: Support the re-election of the “ABC Reform Trustees” (Addonizio, Bryson & Christensen); Vote “NO” on the Recall of Mike Winsten; Vote “NO” on the Recall of Ken Lopez Maddox; Vote "NO" on the Union’s “Measure H”...

September 18, 2010, Tony Beall, Red County - The California Republican Assembly has officially endorsed the entire Capistrano Unified School District Reform Slate, which includes the following: Support the re-election of the “ABC Reform Trustees” (Addonizio, Bryson & Christensen); Vote “NO” on the Recall of Mike Winsten; Vote “NO” on the Recall of Ken Lopez Maddox; Vote "NO" on the Union’s “Measure H”...

September 18, 2010, Larry Gilbert, Orange Juice Blog - Earlier today I received the following Press Release relating to Vern’s favorite topics of late. The CUSD election and Measure H. Note: This endoresment meeting was not part of the local city council endorsements event. Press Release...

September 8, 2010, Tony Beall, Red County - All three lawsuits brought by supporters of the so-called "Children First" organization (a front for the public employee unions in CUSD) were just rejected in their entirety by Orange County Superior Court Judge Michael Brenner on the merits, vindicating the truthfulness of the official ballot statements submitted by the conservative CUSD Reform Trustees. In all, five separate lawsuits were heard in OC Superior Court, on the merits, and the conservatives won decisive victories in all five. I just published the story of the first two lawsuits in which the conservatives prevailed over the leaders of the union’s so called “Children First” organization – and against their endorsed candidate, John Alpay. This is the story of the three baseless lawsuits brought by desperate union sympathizers against the conservative incumbents and their supporters...

September 8, 2010, Tony Beall, Red County - The City of Mission Viejo just adopted a resolution officially opposing “Measure H” – a ballot initiative promoted and supported by the public employee unions in Capistrano Unified School District which would change the way CUSD school board members are elected in the future.  Today voters in CUSD get 7 votes -- 1 for each of their school board members.  If Measure H passes – voters would lose 6 of their votes. The resolution was proposed by Mayor Trish Kelley and was supported by each of the other City Council members, John Paul Ledesma, Frank Ury, Cathy Schlicht and Dave Leckness.  Kudos to the entire Mission Viejo City Council for taking a public stand to protect democracy and the peoples’ right to vote for their elected representatives.

September 4, 2010, Tony Beall, Red County - “In Capistrano Unified's hotly contested school board race this November, the ferocious rhetoric between two dueling slates of candidates is likely to boil down to two basic talking points – one side accused of being right-wing and anti-public education, the other of being left-wing and pro-labor union.” That’s how the OC Register described the intense court battles that played out in court this week. In the end, five separate lawsuits were heard in OC Superior Court, on the merits, and the conservatives won decisive victories in all five.  This is the story of the first two (which were brought by the conservatives against the union sympathizers).

September 4, 2010, Tony Beall, Red County - “In Capistrano Unified's hotly contested school board race this November, the ferocious rhetoric between two dueling slates of candidates is likely to boil down to two basic talking points – one side accused of being right-wing and anti-public education, the other of being left-wing and pro-labor union.” That’s how the OC Register described the intense court battles that played out in court this week. In the end, five separate lawsuits were heard in OC Superior Court, on the merits, and the conservatives won decisive victories in all five.  This is the story of the first two (which were brought by the conservatives against the union sympathizers).

September 3, 2010, Matthew Cunningham, Red County - COURT VICTORY!!! Judge Dismisses All Three Union-Backed Lawsuits Against CUSD Reform Trustees. All three cases brought by the so-called "Children First" organization (a front for the public employees' union in CUSD) were just rejected in their entirety by Orange County Superior Court Judge Michael Brenner on the merits, totally vindicating the truthfulness of the official ballot statements submitted by the reform trustees. More to come...

September 2, 2010, Larry Gilbert, Orange Juice Blog - On Tuesday Sept 7th the Mission Viejo city council will consider a recommendation to approve a Resolution opposing the adoption of Measure H. If approved by voters it “Would Require that the Capistrano Unified School District Elect its Trustees by Segregated Trustee Area Elections” ... “If a Trustee is only held accountable by the geographic area which elects that Trustee, he/she will be less interested in working for children who live in every part of CUSD. This will hurt Mission Viejo. The Agenda report cites an example where “a parent may have children in two or three different Mission Viejo Trustee Areas, yet only be able to elect one Trustee” ... Gilbert comment. I wonder if those supporting Measure H ever considered that real possibility before drafting this ballot Measure? Almost half of our children are in the CUSD with the balance in the SVUSD. No brainer. Vote NO on H

August 31, 2010, Larry Sand, Red County - The bottom line is this. If VA is a reliable measure and that a student score on standardized tests is a fair way to at least partially assess a teacher’s value, why not publish the scores with a caveat that the VA score should be but one part of a teacher’s evaluation? Why shouldn’t parents, whose children’s education is at stake, know something about the effectiveness of someone as important as a teacher? And why shouldn’t taxpayers who pay teachers’ salaries be aware of what bang they are getting for their buck...

August 23, 2010, Larry Sand, Red County - Kudos to Adam Schaeffer, education policy analyst at the Cato Institute, for exposing a lie perpetrated on taxpayers by the Los Angeles Unified School District. LAUSD claims to spend about $10,000 for each of its nearly 700,000 students. However, that $10,000 figure omits a few things like the cost of building schools, interest on various payments, etc. When all the withheld expenses are added in, the spending figure comes to a whopping $29,780 per student per year...

August 17, 2010, Larry Sand, Red County - Granted, a test should not be the only measure of a teacher’s quality, but it is certainly better than what we have now, which is nothing. The LA Times has done us a great service by initiating this study, informing the public whose hard earned dollars are paying for our substandard education system and taking this issue to another level. It’s about time parents and taxpayers had a way to evaluate the quality of a teacher. Now let’s build on it.

July 26, 2010, Larry Sand, Red County - The Washington D.C. public school system announced Friday that it was letting 241 teachers go – some due to licensing issues, but most due to poor performance. Amazingly, firing teachers for poor performance has been almost unheard of since teachers’ unions became a force in public education some 40 years ago. But in a contract essentially brokered by D.C. Chancellor of Public Schools, Michelle Rhee and American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten, there is room for teachers to lose their jobs under the IMPACT program...

July 20, 2010, Larry Sand, Red County - On July 14, Education Next posted an article by Mike Antonucci, teacher union watchdog and the man behind the Education Intelligence Agency (EIA), that must be read by everyone who has an interest in education and the future of our country – which is to say, hopefully, everybody. The Long Reach of Teachers Unions describes the amazing power and political influence of the country’s largest union...

July 12, 2010, Larry Sand, Red County - Last week, the San Jose Mercury News published an op-ed I wrote which centered on the arrogance of the California Teachers Association. I noted that CTA, state affiliate of the National Education Association, is quite out of touch with its members when it comes to political spending. While its members are politically mixed, CTA’s political spending goes only in a leftward direction...

July 5, 2010, Larry Sand, Red County - It means that in the past year the public has awakened to the fact that the NEA has been given a free pass for many years, but no more. Partially because of the lousy economy, the president’s involvement in education reform, and generally speaking, an idea whose time has come, public education is being scrutinized as never before. The proposed fixes -- more charter schools, getting rid of seniority and tenure, merit pay, teacher accountability, reforming runaway public employee pensions, etc. -- are all meant to shake up a failing system. And “shaking up” is the last thing an entrenched interest is interested in. It is clearly in the best interest of unions like the NEA to maintain the status quo no matter how detrimental that status quo is to children, their parents and the general public...

July 3, 2010, Mission Viejo Watchdogs One characteristic of the 2010 Capo recall group (also known as Children First and Parents for Local Control) is its attempt to distance its supporters from the teachers union, Capistrano Unified Educators Association. Press releases repeatedly state the recall is a "parent-backed effort." While opinions may differ, campaign finance reports and Registrar of Voters' records are not opinion. Following is information that shows who funded the signature drive and signed on as proponents. Official recall documents list proponents (two separate attempts to file paperwork to recall Trustees Mike Winsten and Ken Lopez-Maddox)…

June 22, 2010, Chip Hanlon, Red County - From now until November, you will hear endless whining from Jerry Brown about the financial resources Meg Whitman is committing to this campaign. Now you know exactly how empty such crying truly is. In reality, when one understands the true value of the massive financial support Moonbeam will enjoy from his union boss cronies, it’s pretty easy to see that Meg Whitman is actually the underdog in this race, financially. The battle for California is on, and the opposing sides couldn’t be more clear: it’s union bosses vs. taxpayers…

June 16, 2010, Corey G. Johnson, California Watch - Over the last two years, $17 billion in educational budget reductions have prompted nearly 400 school districts to cut back on maintenance, class materials and critical faculty, according to a state survey released last week. In May, 387 school districts, county offices of education and charter schools answered questions from the state Department of Education about how they have balanced their budgets in light of state budget cuts. State officials wanted to know which programs, if any, were cut or eliminated in the last two school years and if staff reductions, school closures, or reduced school years were occurring as the result of funding cuts. The results of the survey are as follows…

June 16, 2010, Mark Standriff, Flash Report - In 1978, then Governor Jerry Brown signed into law the legislation granting collective bargaining rights to state employees. Since then the state legislature has fulfilled its constitutional obligation to pass a balanced budget by June 15th a total of four times over the past 31 years.  The Bad News Bears had a better batting average. By unionizing the state workforce, Brown and the Democrat majority in the Legislature set in motion the single most destructive process in California’s political history; union lobbying and campaign contributions paid for with taxpayer dollars…

June 14, 2010, Larry Sand, Red County - Lawyer and journalist Peter Scheer has written an excellent article which asserts that our public employee unions are now in defense mode. (HT – Warner Todd Huston.) Cities on the verge of bankruptcy, six figure pensions for retired 50 year olds, tales of employees who have successfully gamed the system and blatant influence buying have earned the unions in question a trip to purgatory. And of course all the lavish perks of being a public employee are at the expense of a populace beleaguered by our anemic economy. And, we are now starting to see the political ramifications of an angry citizenry…

June 7, 2010, Larry Sand, Red County - While I am not the first to post this terrific video of Chris Christie calling out the New Jersey Education Association at a recent town hall meeting in NJ, the significance of its content necessitates yet another repost. In this brief video, he refers to the teachers’ union as a bully and assures us that he isn’t backing down from a fight.  I think it’s especially important to keep Mr. Christie’s fighting words in mind when we go to the polls tomorrow. (Note to CA teachers: In this video, Mr. Christie laments that the average NJ teacher pays $730 in dues yearly. He doesn’t realize how lucky they are. In CA, you are paying on average over $1,000 per year for the “privilege” of being a member of the teachers’ union.)

June 11, 2010, Orange Punch, The Orange County Register - Governors around the country should take note of governor Christie if they really want to reform the public education system.

June 11, 2010, Matthew Vadum - ACORN’s radical allies are now attempting to rewrite history to cast the organized crime syndicate as victim instead of as the prolific victimizer that it has been ever since it was created in 1970. ACORN online campaign director Nathan Henderson-James served notice in February that a propaganda effort was about to begin. “[T]here will be a fight over the narrative of ACORN’s demise,” he wrote to members of Townhouse, a discussion forum run by Matt Stoller, senior policy adviser to Rep. Alan Grayson (D-Fla.). The other side wants “a narrative about the corruption of popular organizations and how they are simply vehicles for the personal enrichment and power fantasies of their top staff members while pushing public policies that destroy middle America.”

June 9, 2010, Liberty Chick, Big Journalism - In the academic world, employees are very often public employees. This means that they are also very often union employees. At all levels. This includes everyone from janitors, to dormitory housekeepers, cafeteria workers, clerical staff, and computer techs, to even the graduate assistants and professors. While the salary gap between a cafeteria worker and a senior professor may be huge, the solidarity of the unions is a powerful magnet that creates an unbreakable bond amongst them. Unions are fond of bashing capitalism with seething rhetoric, decrying the economic system as irredeemably corrupted by greed and racism and classism. But the ideology they themselves embrace is itself driven by the same ugly characteristics they profess to detest. Except in their case, power is the motivating force, the passion that drives them…

June 9, 2010, Liberty Chick, Big Journalism - A small committee of professors and academic professionals, normally held in high regard, have blatantly betrayed the trust of the public and quite possibly smeared the reputations of all colleges and universities nationwide.  By soliciting “paid activists” to create research papers that are intentionally designed to silence opposing viewpoints, they have undermined the political system and manipulated the governmental policy making process.  And in the meantime, they’ve also implicated all of academia in the manufacturing of their propaganda. It is an abuse of their power, and an abuse of the institutions they represent.  It is appalling and repellent.  Perhaps even against their employers’ rules or the industry’s ethical code. Consider it an ominous warning — this will have a dire impact on our political and economic system in the future, if we remain apathetic in the face of such a rhetorical and intellectual assault…

June 8, 2010, Warner Todd Huston, Red County - A new documentary film is debuting this week entitled, "The Lottery." The film highlights the ever failing public education system we have in America today and how our children's future is being seriously harmed by greedy, uncaring teachers unions. As the trailer says, these unions are protecting failure in our schools...

June 1, 2010, Larry Sand, Red County - Teachers, who have always been one of the most respected groups in America, have been losing some love recently. It seems that the New Jersey Education Association has convinced many of its members that they are victims. And this unfortunate turn hasn’t gone unnoticed by the recession-inflicted general public, which has become contemptuous of the greedy educators. It’s all spelled out in this article by Kevin Manahan. He says, “An overwhelming majority of teachers refused to accept a pay freeze. They could have won taxpayers’ eternal gratitude, but instead demanded their negotiated raises and fought against contributing a dime toward budget-breaking health insurance benefits. Teachers could have pitched in, but they dug in.”

May 27, 2010, Ed Morrissey, Reason TV, HotAir.com - With much of the national focus on education and compensation falling on New Jersey and Governor Chris Christie, Reason TV takes a look at a standoff on the opposite end of the country. South Orange County, California is a wealthy area with plenty of good schools, but even those districts have to meet a budget, and the school board has already had one recall over mismanagement in the past decade. With the economic collapse, state funding has been seriously reduced, and the Capistrano Unified School District has to find ways to get its budget balanced. Eighty-five percent of that budget goes to employee compensation, and that made it the most logical target for savings — but the teachers disagreed and went on strike rather than agree to an across-the-board pay cut:

May 24, 2010, Larry Sand, Red County - On May 14, Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott delivered an opinion that could have national educational and political ramifications for years to come. In short, the decision stated that school districts may not fund political action committees of teacher unions via payroll deductions … What are the ramifications of the ruling for those of us in California? As one who worked on the Citizen Power Initiative – a measure that if passed would have accomplished the same thing as the Texas AG ruling - I will tell you that this is great news...

May 21, 2010, California School Finance, YubaNet.com - May 20, 2010 - A historic lawsuit was filed today against the State of California requesting that the current education finance system be declared unconstitutional and that the state be required to establish a school finance system that provides all students an equal opportunity to meet the academic goals set by the State. The case, Robles-Wong, et al. v. State of California, was filed in the Superior Court of California in Alameda County. Specifically, the suit asks the court to compel the State to align its school finance system-its funding policies and mechanisms-with the educational program that the State has put in place. To do this, plaintiffs allege, the State must scrap its existing finance system; do the work to determine how much it actually costs to fund public education to meet the state's own program requirements and the needs of California's school children; and develop and implement a new finance system consistent with Constitutional requirements…

May 20, 2010, Jon Fleischman, Red County - "Shawn Nelson is the only candidate for Supervisor with the guts to take on the government employee unions..."

May 18, 2010, Larry Sand, Red County - For those of you in California who are too busy trying to make a living and otherwise managing your busy lives, I’ll bet that you didn’t know that this Saturday is a holiday of sorts – yup, it’s Harvey Milk Day. Now, while you may not have been aware of this, there is a good chance that your children are and will be celebrating it to some extent in their schools, with the help of the California Teachers Association … If the CTA hagiography of Milk is what many in the teaching profession will be using as source material, your children will be getting a wretchedly sanitized and bowdlerized view of an undistinguished and possibly evil man. Parents, you might want to investigate what kind of Kool-Aid your child’s school is planning for this “holiday.”

May 14, 2010, John Festerwald, The Educated Guess - A Superior Court judge has served notice to school districts statewide that the seniority rights of teachers do not trump the fundamental right of students to an equal opportunity for a good education. Los Angeles Superior Court Judge William Highberger issued a preliminary injunction Wednesday preventing any teacher layoffs for budgetary reasons at three Los Angeles Unified middle schools where large numbers of teachers have been given pink slips…

May 12, 2010, Mission Viejo Dispatch - Last night the Capo Board of Trustees voted 6-0 to hire Joseph Farley to a four year contract as Superintendent. CUSD released additional information about the new leader of the Capistrano Unified School District, saying Dr. Farley is credited with resolving significant instructional, fiscal, and public relations issues during his five years as Superintendent of the Anaheim Union High School District...

May 11, 2010, Mission Viejo Dispatch - The SVUSD Board of Trustees will vote tonight (Tuesday) on a proposed tentative salary agreement with District teachers. A ratification vote by the Teachers Union will take place this Wednesday through Friday...

May 11, 2010, Mission Viejo Dispatch - CUSD Trustees are scheduled to vote Tuesday to hire a new superintendent. The candidate is Joseph Farley, Superintendent of the Anaheim Union High School District. Farley has served AUHSD for five years. His contract was renewed in 2008 after highly favorable reviews by Anaheim Trustees ... His proposed contract with Capo would pay him $275,000 to jump from his 33,000 high school students to Capo’s 51,000 K-12 population...

May 10, 2010, Larry Sand, Red County - We the people must tell all who are running for public office in next month’s primary and in the November election that if they will not promise to work to stop our road to ruin, they will not get our vote. Period. If we don’t do that, then we will be complicit in the crime that is now being perpetrated on us by the public employee unions and their lapdogs in Sacramento…

May 10th, 2010, Jan Norman, On Small Business, The Orange County Register - California is tied for last place on yet another study of how and what states tax. The new report, entitled “Taxifornia,” is part of the California Prosperity Project by the Pacific Research Institute, a nonprofit, free-market advocate based in San Francisco. It assesses California’s tax burden, the structure of its tax system, and how they affect the state’s competitiveness. Taxifornia takes a different approach in analyzing states’ tax structure and illustrates that no matter how you slice and dice the data, California is a high-tax state...

May 6, 2010, Dick Morris And Eileen McGann, DickMorris.com - A perfect storm is brewing for the nation’s schools and the teachers’ unions that have them in a stranglehold. Voter anger at the socialist, big government solutions of the Obama Administration and its Democratic lookalikes in state capitals throughout the country is about to combine with massive education funding shortfalls brought on by the unions’ waste of taxpayer money. These forces will combine in November, 2010 to force gigantic changes in school financing and governance, leading to the prospect of genuine school choice for the poor and middle class as the rich have always had…

May 6, 2010, Mission Viejo Buzz - Press Release from the Committee to Reform CUSD, WWW.CUSDrecall.com, With the nation watching, KFI radio hosts John & Ken confirmed that the teachers union capitulated: the strike in the Capistrano Unified School District is over. The reform board scored a victory for the students and taxpayers...

May 4, 2010, Larry Sand, Red County - Last week, before the apparent settlement of the San Juan Capistrano teachers strike, Dennis Van Roekel, president of the National Education Association, made a brief video in support of the striking teachers. After watching his talk on YouTube, I saw yet again that statements from leaders of teachers’ unions are a form of newspeak, essentially comprised of happy talk, grand terminology, lies, shibboleths and demagoguery. I believe that he and others in similar positions do this is because they realize on some level that simple statements outlining their real agenda and true beliefs would be antagonistic and alienating to the general public. As one who has spent a fair amount of time listening to their misleading platitudes, I know well how to interpret their words into a language that most of us can fully comprehend.

May 3, 2010, Vern Nelson, Orange Juice - Parents for Local Control press release: Over the past 60 days, petitions have been circulated within the Capistrano Unified School District to recall Mike Winsten and Ken Maddox from the CUSD Board of Trustees. Parents for Local Control is pleased to announce that, as of May 2, 2010, more than 32,000 signatures have been collected on recall petitions for both Winsten and Maddox.

May 11, 2010, Mission Viejo Dispatch - The effort to recall CUSD Trustees Ken Maddox and Mike Winsten has gathered about 64,000 signatures, 32,000 each against the two Trustees, according to Jonathan Volke. The Registrar of Voters will need to certify 21,000 valid signatures each for Maddox and Winsten to proceed with a recall election...

Aril 27, 2010, O.C. NOW, The Los Angeles Times - The Capistrano Unified School District announced late Monday night that it had reached a tentative contract agreement with teachers, which would end a strike that began Thursday over the duration of pay and benefit cuts imposed in response to a $34-million budget shortfall.

April 27, 2010, Larry Sand, Red County - In state houses and city halls all over the country, legislators and educational leaders are doing their best to change education laws that will hopefully reverse the long downward slide that the country has experienced. Due to the recession, an activist president and other factors, the country seems to be having a national conversation about education reform. The major fly in the ointment is - no surprise here – the teachers’ unions. What is different now is that public has finally realized that the nations’ teachers’ unions are bankrupt – no, not in the financial sense, but rather that their ideas, claims, positions are hollow and serve no one but themselves.

April 27, 2010, Orange Punch, The Orange County Register - The strike has ended. Teachers went back to school today after a late-night settlement with the Capistrano Unified School District, a tentative three-year agreement. The agreement is still a bit unclear, but the following seems to be the overall consensus:

April 27, 2010, Melissa, Orange Juice - The great news today is that the teachers’ strike at Capistrano Unified School District is over. For months, the teachers at CUSD attempted to negotiate with an ideologically rigid and anti-public education board of trustees that refused to bargain in good faith. Instead, the trustees attempted to use the budget crisis as an excuse to destroy the teachers’ union and force a strike.

April 26, 2010, Tony Beall, Red County - In the middle of the nation’s worst economic crisis since the great depression, with the State of California buckling under the weight of unprecedented budget deficits that have crippled the ability of local cities and school districts to provide basic services to their constituents…2,200 members of the teachers union in the 9th largest school district in California have abandoned their students and walked out on strike!

April 26, 2010, John Festerwald, The Educated Guess - All eyes are  on Capistrano Unified, the state’s eighth largest school district, as its teachers’ strike enters into a second week today. Negotiators reported progress over the weekend but not enough to forestall a third day of picket lines. The Orange County Register reported that teachers and school boards have reached an impasse at 100 districts in California, but Captistrano Unified, with 52,000 students, is the only one so far facing a strike. That could change Thursday, when teachers in Oakland Unified go on a one-day strike over the no-raise contract that the school board imposed after two years of negotiations...

April 26, 2010, Larry Sand, Red County - “We’re twisting arms… we’re threatening people….” So says United Teachers of Los Angeles President A.J. Duffy at the beginning of a recent three minute Reason.tv video. And it would seem that the twisting and the threatening has been working out like gangbusters for the teachers’ unions.

April 25, 2010, Tony Beall, Red County - There is a great letter in the Orange County Register today by Art Sanchez, a longtime and well-respected reformer in the battle to restore honesty, integrity and accountability to Capistrano Unified. He does a good job of connecting the dots about the hidden agenda and deceptive tactics being employed in the CUSD teachers union strike by powerful union leaders, including union representatives from the California Teachers Association (CTA) and the National Education Association (NEA):

April 25, 2010, JL "Buzz" Aguirre, Red County - Arguably, there is a need for a paradigm shift in public education. That is, a radical transformation, as opposed to the continuous partisan bickering, such as the one going on in CAPO.

April 24, 2010, Larry Sand, Red County - In Hot for Teachers, possibly the most insipid video ever made, the PTA of Wonderland Avenue Elementary School in Los Angeles attacks Governor Schwarzenegger because of his “withholding” money for education. To paraphrase the late Frank Zappa, this was a video made by people who can’t write, for people who can’t act to be shown to people who are so ill-informed that they can’t see beyond the ends of their noses.

April 23, 2010, O.C. NOW, The Los Angeles Times - What was supposed to be a one-day teachers’ strike in Capistrano Unified School District continued for a second day Friday morning after negotiations with the district over pay and benefits failed to be resolved Thursday.

April 22, 2010, O.C. NOW, The Los Angeles Times - Teachers and supportive parents walk the picket line in front of Carl Hankey School in Mission San Juan Capistrano on Thursday morning. Contract negotiations broke down between the teachers union and the Capistrano Unified School District board over a permanent 10% pay cut.

April 22, 2010, Carl Rivera, L.A. NOW, The los Angeles Times - Hundreds of Orange County teachers were walking picket lines Thursday, the first day of a strike protesting pay and benefits cuts in the Capistrano Unified School District.

April 22, 2010, Larry Sand, Red County - It has been a bad week for those public employees among us – present and future – as well as for the rest of us, who fund their retirement accounts. There is no quarter any more for those blithely skipping along, pretending that all is well in Pensionland.

April 21, 2010, JL "Buzz" Aguirre, Red County - It is an understatement to say that the teachers’ union dislikes the transformation going on in the Capistrano Unified School District (CUSD) aka CAPO. – What with the last three elections placing Seven Republican trustees, dubbed the Lucky Seven, on the board. On day one of the Lucky Seven, union members threatened to recall the new board members from office. Local union bosses called in reinforcements from Then California Teachers Association (CTA). Representatives have traveled to CUSD where they have held meetings at each of the district's 55 schools in order to rally and organize union members in opposition to the Board, including picketing at Trustees’ homes on weekends. The union has now authorized a strike for April 22, 2010.

April 21, 2010, LA Times Staff, O.C. NOW, The Los Angeles Times - Thousands of Orange County teachers say they will strike Thursday to protest stalled salary negotiations with the Capistrano Unified School District.

April 21, 2010, Matthew Cunningham, Red County - This item from today's Political Diary contains some food for thought for the Capo Unified School District teachers unioin, which is threatening to go on strike tomorrow:

April 21, 2010, O.C. NOW, The Los Angeles Times - Thousands of Orange County teachers say they will strike Thursday to protest stalled salary negotiations with the Capistrano Unified School District. The district on Wednesday said it is scurrying to assemble substitute teachers to fill in for the more than 2,200 teachers who plan to strike.

April 20, 2010, Gretchen Meier, OC Now, The Los Angeles Times - ALISO VIEJO — The head of the union representing Capistrano Unified School District teachers said Monday teachers will accept a 10 percent pay cut and not go on strike if school officials guarantee the pay cut will expire next year.

April 20, 2010, Gretchen Meier, O.C. NOW, The Los Angeles Times - ALISO VIEJO — The head of the union representing Capistrano Unified School District teachers said Monday teachers will accept a 10 percent pay cut and not go on strike if school officials guarantee the pay cut will expire next year.

April 20, 2010, Larry Sand, Red County - As one who has butted heads with teachers’ unions for some time now, I was pleasantly surprised to get a call from a producer a few months ago, who asked me to come to New York in March to participate in a debate. Intelligence Squared hosts monthly debates on a wide range of topics and this one was clumsily named, “Do Not Blame the Teachers Unions for Our Failing Schools.” In other words, if you think the unions are to blame, you would vote against the motion. (By the way, our team made it very clear that the teachers unions are not the only cause of failing schools.)

April 19, 2010, Bankrupting America - It would be comforting if the budget crises inflicting states were just a temporary problem.  Unfortunately, as a new report by the Manhattan Institute details, states will face another crisis as their unfunded pension benefits come due.  This report focuses specifically on teachers’ pension, and finds that all fifty-nine pension funds dedicated to public school teachers face shortfalls.   California’s teacher pension alone has an unfunded liability of almost $100 billion.  All together, the unfunded liabilities of these teachers’ pensions amount to between $332 (that’s the estimate derived from the funds’ financial statements) and $933 billion (the report’s authors’ more conservative calculations)...

Arpil 14, 2010, Mission Viejo Dispatch - CUSD Board President Anna Bryson issued a press release Wednesday announcing District staff had been instructed “to formally communicate with the Capistrano Unified Educators Association and encourage further discussions to conclude 2009-2010 contract items.”

April 14, 2010, Orange Juice - As many as 400 people, including some children, showed up at last night’s meeting of the Capistrano Unified School District’s School Board.

April 14, 2010, O.C. Now, The Los Angeles Times - SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO — More than 900 concerned teachers, parents, community members and students attended a packed meeting at the Capistrano Unified School District board room to protest a 10 percent teacher pay cut Tuesday night. Outside the bustling Capistrano Unified School District building, Aliso Niguel High School students handed out pamphlets in support of the Capistrano Unified Education Association while kindergarten-age children held fluorescent signs opposing the strike next to the full parking lot.

April 13, 2010, Mission Viejo Dispatch - Predictions of a large sick-out strike by pro-teacher students largely fizzled, according to figures published by the OCR. It’s initial analysis showed less than 16% of Capo students failed to attend classes, and those numbers were driven primarily at elementary schools. Only 1% of middle and high school students were estimated to have participated.

April 12, 2010, Maura Larkins, San Diego Education Report - SANTA ANA — Some parents in the Capistrano Unified School District are planning to hold their children out of school next week in an attempt to encourage school board members to resume negotiations with the union representing the district’s teachers. An e-mail is being forwarded among parents encouraging them to hold their children out of school Tuesday, the same day school board members will next meet and two days before teachers union members will discuss the possibility of authorizing a strike.

April 12, 2010, Orange Juice - Capistrano Unified School District (CUSD) parents and teachers are in a full uproar. Below is an email touting a “Strike” by the parents tomorrow. It is followed by the official response from the CUSD Superintendent.

April 7, 2010, LA NOW, The Los Angeles Times - The parents at Wonderland Avenue Elementary in Laurel Canyon were irate about the proposed education cuts from the state budget. So instead of going to Sacramento, they went straight to Hollywood. The school’s PTA president came up with the idea of creating a video, and one parent suggested they ask Brian Austin Green (of "Beverly Hills, 90210" fame) to star in it. Green, whose son attends the school, agreed, and he got his girlfriend, actress Megan Fox, to costar.

April 6, 2010, California Healthline - California's three major public pension funds are underfunded by more than half a trillion dollars, according to a report released Monday, the San Jose Mercury News reports. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) commissioned the study, which was prepared by graduate students at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research…

March 31, 2010, Asha Patel, Orange County Local News Network - The Capistrano Unified School District is expected to make official a more than 10 percent teacher pay cut at a special meeting Wednesday, a move which has the entire Capistrano education community worried about a possible teacher strike. The proposed pay cut – to be put before the district board at a public meeting Wednesday – would affect 2,300 CUSD teachers and certificate-holding employees. Capistrano Unified is facing a $34 million shortfall for fiscal year 2010-2011 and an additional $5 million shortfall in 2011-2012…

March 31, 2010, Teri Sforza, OC Watchdog - ...Orange County...stands to lose $152.2 million, or an average of $321 per student. That’s due to lots of complicated factors, such as local property taxes available and formulas and the like. So who would be the biggest loser in OC? That depends on how you define “loser.” If you’re talking about how many total dollars stand to disappear from Orange County schools in the governor’s proposed budget, OC’s biggest losers would be...

March 14, 2010, Tony Beall, Red County - You're in luck if you missed Friday night’s television premiere of “Not as Good as You Think: The Myth of the Middle Class School.” Five additional show times have been added (including two today)! With 50% of our state budget spent on education, this is an imporrtmant film for everyone to watch. Set your DVRs and make note of the following show times.

March 12, 2010, Tony Beall, Red County - Tonight at 8:30 p.m. on KOCE (Channel 810 on Cox Cable) “Not as Good as You Think: The Myth of the Middle Class School” will make its local television premiere. Don't Miss it!

March 8, 2010, Larry Sand, Red County - It is perhaps well known to some that the public employee unions donate aggressively to Political Action Committees – especially those PACs that will help keep the public employee gravy train in good working order. Ed Lasky at American Thinker has written an article that spells things out quite clearly. The numbers he uses come from the Center for Responsive Politics, a research group which tracks money that flows into in U.S. politics.

March 7, 2010, John Festerwald, The Educated Guess - Civil rights attorneys aren’t the only ones opposed to a teacher layoff system based strictly on seniority. Teachers themselves apparently aren’t crazy about it either. “A Smarter Teacher Layoff System” – a report this month by The New Teacher Project – included a survey of 9,000 teachers in two unnamed urban districts. Seventy percent of  teachers in one district and 77 percent of teachers in the other, including most of  tenured teachers, said that factors other than just seniority should be considered in a layoff…

February 25, 2010, Tony Beall, Red County - The OC Register published a significant editorial yesterday opposing the union-backed recall campaign against Capistrano Unified Reform Trustees Lopez-Maddox and Winsten. This editorial is quite significant for a couple reasons...

February 24, 2010, Tony Beall, Red County - It’s been a brutal week for the public employee unions and their allies who have unjustly targeted Capistrano Unified Trustees Ken Lopez-Maddox and Mike Winsten for recall and removal from office...

February 23, 2010, Larry Gilbert, Orange Juice - School districts around the state have had their budgets cut year after year by Sacramento. The Capistrano Unified School District has been forced to make tough decisions, and is currently planning for a $34 Million budget reduction for the 2010-2011 school year. It can’t afford to waste $800,000 to further the minority agenda of a political organization that has lost the last 3 school district elections. Frankly, our kids can’t afford it.

February 22, 2010, Tony Beall, Red County - California Republican Assembly Unanimously Opposes Union-Backed Recall Of CUSD Trustees Republican Leaders Urge All Voters Not to Sign Recall Petitions

February 20, 2010, Mission Viejo Dispatch - The Capo School District has denied rejecting an offer by teachers for an 8% pay reduction in a new report on union negotiations. The update purports to separate fact from rumors, criticizing the Union for misrepresentations and for releasing information from confidential discussions.

February 17, 2010, Brian Calle, Orange Punch - In the always higgledy-piggledy Capistrano Unified School district, unions will do just about anything to get their way — and this time they are backing a recall of two Cap Unified school board members. I find this particularly humorous because just a couple of weeks ago another union, the deputies union, said they opposed a recall and put in over 100K against it because they claimed it was a waste of taxpayer resources. The teacher’s union in Capo, however, thinks that “wasting” taxpayer money in this case is just fine.

February 16, 2010, Tony Beall, Red County - Republican Party of Orange County Unanimously Opposes Union-Backed Recall of CUSD Trustees County Party Urges All Voters Not to Sign Recall Petitions

January 27, 2010, Teri Sforza, OC Watchdog, The Orange County Register We continue our “obnoxious” trek through the Big Public Pension Club of the California State Teachers Retirement System (CalSTRS) – adding to our list of folks collecting more than $100,000 a year from OC school/community college districts … Capistrano Unified School District has 16: Sundra Hartman $194,015.64, James Fleming $141,331.44, Stella Hubert $129,571.68, Geraldine Gordon $119,301.72, Richard Johnson $117,128.40, Anthony Ferruzzo $115,577.16, Elaine Hart $113,209.08, Patrick Levens $112,482.36, Susan MacConaghy $111,425.88, Austin Buffum $110,602.32, James Walshe $110,255.04, Richard Campbell $105,865.68, Lois Anderson $105,126.60, Ronald Dempsey $103,703.52, David Schlesinger $101,996.52, John Hopkins $100,583.88; Centralia Elementary has 4: Roberta Mahler $149522.40...

January 3 2010, Willie Brown, Willie's World, The San Francisco Chronicle - The deal used to be that civil servants were paid less than private sector workers in exchange for an understanding that they had job security for life. But we politicians, pushed by our friends in labor, gradually expanded pay and benefits to private-sector levels while keeping the job protections and layering on incredibly generous retirement packages that pay ex-workers almost as much as current workers…