Green Dot, based in L.A., plans to open schools in other states Green Dot Public Schools, a locally based group of charter campuses, announced this week it has set up a national organization to manage expansion into Tennessee and Washington. Green Dot has been one of the best known local charter organizations and one of...

Alex Caputo-Pearl today assumed the office of President of United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA), a union battling with LA Unified for a larger salary increase than the two percent the district has offered. UTLA remains one of the last of the district’s labor partners to reach agreement on a contract. The teachers had initially asked...

Today the LA Unified Board of Education will hold three meetings, the first, being their Annual meeting to elect a new president. It is expected, however, that the current president, Richard Vladovic, will win a second term with no contest, as no challengers have stepped forward. The agenda for that meeting is here. Following the...

Final ruling in Vergara could be years in coming Vergara v. California, in which a Superior Court judge struck down California’s teacher tenure, layoff and dismissal laws, may be headed for a lengthy appeals process. A clue to how long may lie in another far-from-resolved education lawsuit. This month marks three years since Alameda County...

Via New York Times | By Motoko Rich Rebekah and Kevin Nelams moved to their modest brick home in this suburb of Baton Rouge seven years ago because it has one of the top-performing public school districts in the state. But starting this fall, Ms. Nelams plans to home-school the couple’s four elementary-age children. The...

Upstart LA School Report took first place for Best Blog at the 56th annual SoCal LA Press Club awards ceremony yesterday. The winning entry, Why Teachers Teach, Need You Ask? was written by contributor and teacher Ellie Herman,  who spent the past year chronicling the challenges facing teachers in the classroom. Herman also took third...

Firing bad teachers: A superintendent and a union official debate Commentary: Dr. John E. Deasy, Superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District, supports the California lawsuit against the state’s tenure, layoff and termination rules. He believes that the current system has a disparate impact on the quality of education offered to poor students and...

Via Sacramento Bee | By Jim Miller A multibillion dollar water bond isn’t the only borrowing measure that could show up on voters’ ballots this fall. This week, legislation that would place a state school bond before voters Nov. 4 cleared another legislative committee with support from both sides of the aisle. Yet there remain...

Obama alums join anti teachers union case Teachers unions are girding for a tough fight to defend tenure laws against a coming blitz of lawsuits — and an all-out public relations campaign led by former aides to President Barack Obama. The Incite Agency, founded by former White House press secretary Robert Gibbs and former Obama campaign...