LAUSD Superintendent John Deasy sat down with ABC LA to discuss the state of the district’s budget, which he plans to present at the Board meeting next week: “This budget comes to the board with no proposed new reductions and no furloughs. And that will be the first time that’s happened in six years in...

StudentsFirst, an education advocacy group headed by former Washington Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee, released a education policies report Monday that gave 11 states, including California, failing grades. Not many other states fared much better—no states received A’s, and nearly 90 percent of states scored lower than a C grade. Rhee and former NYC superintendent Joel...

Fraud Allegations Swirl Around Firm Run by Two LA Candidates Two would-be candidates for the Los Angeles school board have accused a campaign consulting firm — run by two contenders for city office — of botching their efforts to get on the ballot. LA Times Contested UTLA Panel Elections Signal Internal Fissures Some union members...

Happy holidays, readers. LA School Report will be on a break for the next couple of weeks. See you in the new year!

Conventional wisdom is that voter turnout is always relatively low for local elections—especially so for school board races. And this is often true.  In off-year election cycles, when the only offices up for vote are City Council or Board seats, turnout can be as low as 11 percent.  Relatively small numbers of voters can sway...

Los Angeles Gives Students More Control Over School Lunch Many school districts nationwide have stepped up efforts to increase the nutritional value of the food they serve and reduce the consumption of foods that drive a growing childhood obesity epidemic. Los Angeles Unified School District has been at the forefront of this movement. Education News...

LAPD Has Few Easy Answers on School Safety The dozens of educators packed into a police station meeting room Wednesday had a lot of questions about how to protect their students. But LAPD Capt. Tom Brascia made it clear he didn’t have a lot of answers. LA Daily News, KCET, LAist California Teachers Retirement Fund Threat...

Teacher Vote on Whether to Use Student Test Scores in Performance Evaluations Teachers in Los Angeles Unified will vote Jan. 14-18 on a tentative agreement that would allow the use of student test data in performance evaluations. LA Daily News Calif. Teachers Fund Reviewing Firearm Holdings The nation’s largest teachers’ pension fund announced Tuesday that...

In the aftermath of Friday’s deadly school shooting, the California teachers pension fund — the largest teachers’ retirement fund in the United States — is rethinking its $500 million investment in Cerberus, a private equity firm that owns a gun manufacturer called Freedom Group, according to this story in the LA Times. After the teachers pension fund announced Monday...

LAPD to Step up Presence at Elementary, Middle Schools Chief Charlie Beck sets a goal of having uniformed officers visit campuses every day, saying this was the ‘new reality’ the department must address. LA Times See also: KCET, KPCC, LAist Districts Face Questions in Spending Long-Term Bonds for Short-Lived Technology Last month, the Bond Oversight...