In a wrap-up of the week’s news, it’s impossible to ignore the eruption (again) of Roe v Wade, America’s political Pompeii.
May 6, 2022
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Dear John,
In a wrap-up of the week’s news, it’s impossible to ignore the eruption (again) of Roe v Wade, America’s political Pompeii. We’ll leave to others – seemingly all others – the legal arguments over Roe (for that, CPC’s board chairman Robert Loewen, who clerked for Justice Byron White, directs your attention to White’s concise dissent in Roe ([link removed]) ) or the moral arguments over abortion.
We take from the week’s brawl this lesson: persistence pays. There’s no doubt that anti-Roe activists and legal scholars struggled doggedly for nearly half a century against seemingly immovable objects – changing social mores, a revised rationale in Casey, the notion of settled law (or “stare decisis,” as our Latin-inclined friends in the legal community would put it), and the steady expansion of abortion rights like concentric circles rippling out from a Roe decision dropped into the center of American politics in 1973.
So an important lesson learned this week is that reform-minded Californians can win our nearly 50-year battle against the tyranny of government unions – if we are patient, strategic, and doggedly determined.
The state’s teachers unions have wrecked public education, taking our schools from a top performer to the worst while systematically limiting parental control over their children’s education. Government unions have funded the politicians who’ve bankrupted our local governments, driven our neighbors to find new homes in freer states, and shut down business through cobwebby regulation. Those union-funded politicians have jacked up taxes, failed to solve the problems of crime, homelessness, and housing, and they’ve deprived us of water to drink and fuel to heat, cool and drive. They’ve turned the greatest state in the greatest nation on earth into a mediocrity.
Reclaiming California will take money, strategic thinking, energy and patience. This week’s news about Roe reminds us that persistence is rewarded.
Support the California Policy Center. Donate Today. ([link removed])
National Charter Schools Week (May 8-14)
Charter schools nationwide will be celebrated next week during National Charter Schools Week (May 8-14). Despite their overwhelming success over the last 30 years, charters are under attack by politicians in Washington and California as teachers unions take aim at their competition.
On September 20, 1992, California Governor Pete Wilson signed the Charter Schools Act to create a new public school model that gave teachers and school administrators more autonomy, free from the bureaucracy and failed policies of union-controlled traditional schools.
Today, California has nearly 1,300 charter public schools serving close to 700,000 students. The California Charter Schools Association reports ([link removed]) that a full 11.5% of K-12 public school students in the Golden State are enrolled in charter schools, making California “the largest charter sector in the nation.”
According to EdSource ([link removed]) , LAUSD, the nation’s second-largest school district, is home to the largest concentration of charter schools in the country.
“In 2009-2010, there were 61,000 charter school students and 618,000 students in district schools," EdSource explains. "By last year, charter school enrollment had more than doubled, to its peak of 114,431, while district enrollment had fallen to 456,964. In LAUSD, 1 in 5 public school students attended a charter.”
It’s no wonder that California’s teachers unions have set their sights on charter schools.
Unions don’t like losing students to neighborhood charters where higher student achievement scores expose the abysmal failure of union-run schools. They also can’t stand that low-income students of color make up the bulk of the charter school student body.
Which explains why the teachers unions are pushing Assembly Bill 2484 ([link removed]) , which would cut off a vital source of funding for charter schools. Years ago, Senate Bill 740 implemented a grant program to help charters recoup some of the substantial costs associated with leases, as long as the charter prioritizes students from the local neighborhood.
Now, AB 2484 seeks to weaken or even eliminate access to those grants, which would make it prohibitively expensive to maintain a lease, thereby shutting down charter schools.
The bill is authored by East Bay Assemblywoman Mia Bonta (D), who took over her husband Rob Bonta’s district after he became California’s Attorney General. Mia Bonta won the California Teachers Association’s favor by pushing for a tax increase to raise union wages while on the local school board.
In her campaign, the CTA gave Bonta a max contribution and dumped $100,000 into an independent expenditure ([link removed]) to support her.
Teacher unions spend millions to get their candidates elected. Anti-charter bills like AB 2484 are what they get in return ([link removed]) .
California Senate Judiciary Committee Passes SB 866
Senate Bill 866 ([link removed]) , the bill that would allow children as young as 12 to receive the COVID-19 vaccine and any other FDA-approved vaccine without their parents' consent or notification, passed out of California’s Senate Judiciary Committee Thursday.
More than 200 parents, nurses, doctors, teachers, grandmas and concerned citizens testified in opposition to the bill both in-person and by phone. For 75 minutes straight, people from every part of the state called in to oppose the bill. When the allotted time for “opposition” ended and legislative staff opened the lines for people “in support” of the bill, a handful of supporters were quickly diluted by the ongoing calls from those opposing the bill. Citing technical difficulties and people “not following the rules,” the Committee prematurely closed the public comment period.
Despite the public outcry, the Committee passed SB 866 by a 7-0 vote. If you have not done so already, you can join the hundreds of people who have signed CPC‘s petition opposing the bill and contact your legislator directly through our Take Action portal. ([link removed])
Support the California Policy Center. Donate Today. ([link removed])
More from CPC
* National Review’s Radio Free California: A Woman Is a Woman When She Demands an Abortion (http:// [link removed]) – CPC president Will Swaim and CPC board member David Bahsen discuss Gov. Newsom’s grandstanding on the draft SCOTUS decision on Roe as the ultimate attack on women’s rights, upending his prior belief that “women” as such do not exist.
* Are Private Sector Unions Passé? ([link removed]) Larry Sand, president of California Teachers Empowerment Network, explains why union membership is way down and their collective future is not rosy.
CPC and allies in the news
* NEW VIDEO: Seven Economic Truths ([link removed]) - You can learn a lot about basic economics from great quotes. CPC board member David Bahnsen, author of "There's No Free Lunch: 250 Economic Truths," shares some of the best in this not-to-be-missed 5-minute video from PragerU.
* Education Lawmaking in California is Overshadowed by Teachers Unions ([link removed]) : Wenyuan Wu, Ph.D., Executive Director of Californians for Equal Rights Foundation, reveals the scale of teachers unions' influence in state education lawmaking, along with an itemized review of campaign donations from unions to education committee members in California’s state legislature.
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