An expert in school board governance says that a censure vote is rare and has the potential to fracture a board even beyond its existing rifts. Christopher Maricle, a policy program officer and governance consultant for the California School Board Association, says the effort to publicly condemn a school district president could be an extremely divisive...

A coalition of community groups known by the acronym, CLASS, finally had a meeting today with LA Unified Board President Richard Vladovic. The groups’ mission was to press the case for individual schools, rather than district administrators, deciding how to spend money coming into LA Unified from Gov. Jerry Brown‘s new Local Control Funding Formula,...

Theodore B. Olson, the former U.S. Solicitor General, previewed arguments yesterday in Vergara v. California, a lawsuit that strives to protect equal educational opportunity in California by ensuring that all students have access to effective teaching. Speaking at the National Summit on Education Reform in Boston, Olson appeared with former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and...

Eight weeks ago Mayor Eric Garcetti named his new education deputy, Thelma Melendez de Santa Ana. In that time, only a few people have any idea who she is what she does or how she’s going to do it. She has met with various board members and some community groups in her official capacity as...

In her resolution before the LA Unified Board seeking a censure of Board President Richard Vladovic, Tamar Galatzan asserts that the harassment charges against him amount to “conduct that has brought dishonor to himself, the School Board, and the Los Angeles Unified School District.” And for that, it says, he should be censured. The resolution also asks...

The National Education Association, the nation’s largest labor union, representing more than three million teachers nationwide, came out this week embracing the Common Core, highlighting how the new standards can be the “game-changer students need.” Through its news branch, NEA Today, the organization published “10 Things You Should Know About the Common Core.” Number One...

One parent wanted more counselors. Another wanted more security personnel. A student came forward with a friend and said, “You’re spending all that money on iPads. We’d prefer you spend it on nurses and librarians and can you please fix the bathrooms.” This was Tuesday night, in the auditorium of Burroughs Middle School in Hancock...