Mike Antonucci’s Union Report appears weekly at LA School Report. The end of the school year is near, but public school employee unions won’t be stopping for summer vacation. They are making final preparations for California’s June 5 primary and the November general election. School unions have already committed millions to various campaigns and committees. For the...

Sacramento politicians have turned their backs on children in California’s lowest-performing schools. In representing the state Board of Education and Superintendent Tom Torlakson in an official response released last week to a lawsuit filed against them in December 2017, California’s attorney general asserted that parents and taxpayers should not be able to complain if only...

Mike Antonucci’s Union Report appears weekly at LA School Report. Austin Beutner, the newly named superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District, is already getting his trial by fire. SEIU Local 99, which represents education support employees in the district, will hold a 24-hour strike on May 15 because of contentious contract negotiations. That is also...

Mike Antonucci’s Union Report appears weekly at LA School Report. The leaders of United Teachers Los Angeles have had many ambitious plans to create a teacher mass movement such as we have seen in West Virginia, Oklahoma, and Arizona. Almost two years ago, UTLA President Alex Caputo-Pearl promised to “create a state crisis” in early 2018. His...

Last Tuesday, the LAUSD school board selected Austin Beutner to be the next superintendent to lead the Los Angeles Unified School District through a historic inflection point. The decisions of this new leader will impact the future of more than half a million children every year, with massive public policy and social justice ripple effects...

Mike Antonucci’s Union Report appears weekly at LA School Report. It is an important election year in California, with fiercely contested races for governor, U.S. senator, and state superintendent of public instruction. But one major campaign battle will not make it to the November ballot — and mixed signals from the California Teachers Association could be a...

We, two public school teachers in Los Angeles, made a choice to teach at Alliance College-Ready Public Schools, the largest public charter network in Los Angeles. It was a deliberate decision rooted in our desire to make a life-changing difference in children’s lives, particularly children from traditionally disadvantaged communities. For both of us, this is...

Mike Antonucci’s Union Report appears weekly at LA School Report. The California Teachers Association is in a unique position this election year. Two men who were once on CTA’s payroll are running for the two highest elected offices in the state — governor and U.S. Senator. It is very possible the union will recommend both of their...