As the operators of El Camino Real Charter School High School prepare to ask the LA Unified board for approval to turn three vacant elementary school sites into new charter schools, one of the main hurdles they face is the growing skepticism of board President Steve Zimmer. The sites are located in the western San Fernando...

Folks, this one was down… to… the… wire! Our poll asking readers to share their opinions on the Broad Foundation‘s massive charter expansion plan got lots of votes and even some national attention (thank you, Diane Ravitch). In the end, it was a virtual tie between readers responding with answers that strongly favored the Broad...

The “Great Public Schools Now Initiative” was unveiled recently and has caused great controversy at LA Unified. Led by the Broad Foundation, it has set a goal of adding 260 charter schools to low-income areas to enroll half of all LA Unified students within eight years. The plan is estimated to cost almost half a...

While teachers protested a proposed charter expansion plan outside the LA Unified school board meeting yesterday, union leaders involved with the district and a former board president, spoke out against it inside. On the street, about 100 teachers rallied against the effort by the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation that would more than double the number of...

There is something special happening at Kipp Raíces Academy School in East LA, an independent charter school which recently became LA Unified’s only National Blue Ribbon School for 2015. While 90 percent of the students at KIPP Raíces are from low-income families and 96 percent are Latino and more than half of all students are English...

Protestors and supporters of a variety of causes started gathering at 8 a.m. today for the 1 p.m. LA Unified school board meeting, facing intense heat outside and an overcrowded meeting room inside. Among the earliest to appear were 50 people with green shirts and buttons showed up for the Green Dot Public Schools, which...

As the LA Unified board is holding its monthly meeting tomorrow, the teachers union, UTLA, is planning a sidewalk protest against the Broad Foundation’s plan to expand the number of charter schools in the district. The demonstration follows the release today of a Broad-commissioned poll, showing that a large majority of city residents want more choices...

By Howard Blume If a proposal for a massive expansion of charter schools in Los Angeles moves forward, the casualties probably would include thousands of teachers who currently work in the city’s traditional public schools. As new charters open, regular schools would face declining enrollment — and would need fewer teachers. Under the $490-million plan being spearheaded...

Accusations that charter schools screen out special education students or discourage them from enrolling have returned with a controversial plan by the Broad Foundation to expand charter enrollment at LA Unified. After the president of the LA teachers union, Alex Caputo-Pearl of UTLA, raised the issue a year ago, telling the Los Angeles Times a year...

With his massive plan to enroll half of all LA Unified’s students into charter schools, billionaire philanthropist Eli Broad is threatening major disruptions at LA Unified, cementing his role as Public Enemy No. 1 to many district and local union leaders. But Broad’s enduring support for public charter schools now appears to be contributing to...