The California Arts Council is partnering with the Department of Water Resources in a student poster contest meant to raise awareness about water conservation. Students around the state in the 4th and 5th grade are invited to create posters for the Conservation Creativity Challenge that illustrate fun and unique ways to conserve water as the...

With an umambiguous victory in the Vergara lawsuit last year, the advocacy group that supported it financially, Students Matter, has developed a blueprint for the new legislature in Sacramento to rewrite the laws struck down by the trial court. Never mind that the case is on appeal by the defendants — the state and its...

Via Los Angeles Times | By Howard Blume  As a three-term Colorado governor, Roy Romer, a Democrat, had to deal with a combative Republican majority in his state Legislature. He later headed his party’s fractious national committee. But nothing was as difficult, he said, as running the Los Angeles Unified School District. “Educating kids in...

School testing gets a bit of state support It may not be much, but school districts will be reimbursed some $12.3 million to help offset costs associated with administering the state’s new Common Core tests. SI&A Cabinet Report New York’s school schedule wastes billions of dollars: Report School schedules contribute to an achievement gap between...

Brown’s budget would add billions to K-12 funding Gov. Jerry Brown, in his inaugural speech, announced public schools will receive $65.7 billion next year. SI&A Cabinet Report Inglewood High School vandalized with swastikas over holiday break Students returned Monday to an Inglewood high school to find graffiti on campus and classrooms vandalized. CBS Los Angeles...

Gov. Jerry Brown had a few words to say about public education in his State of the State address today. In effect, he saluted his effort to return more control over spending to the state’s school districts. Here’s what he had to say: “Last year, I spoke of the principle of subsidiarity, a rather clunky...

EdWatch 2015: 10 issues to watch 2015 promises to be a pivotal year for several major reforms in public education. Ed Source Wi-Fi-enabled bus connects students in poor Calif. community The school bus Wi-Fi program started this fall is one example of how a poor and underserved community is trying to help students get better...

A bargaining update from LA Unified Superintendent Ramon Cortines yesterday to district employees may prove ominous for the teachers union, UTLA, and ultimately the district’s 650,000 students. In his three-page review of negotiations so far, Cortines concedes that all workers “deserve additional salary increases, particularly in view of the recent past years of salary freezes...

Costs for LAUSD special ed services climb as parents feel the pinch Changing demographics, advances in care and stronger advocacy by families are all combining to drive up the expense of special ed. KPCC Inglewood Unified: Filth, exposed wires, roaches still at some schools An LA County inspector found 23 “extreme deficiencies” at Inglewood High...