The Los Angeles Unified School District is poised to shut down classrooms beginning Tuesday, as Service Employees International Union Local 99, which represents roughly 30,000 custodians, cafeteria staff, bus drivers and other service workers, has announced plans for strike for three days. United Teachers Los Angeles, also in contract talks with the district, has announced...

8 p.m. Update: Los Angeles Unified workers will proceed with a strike early Tuesday morning after efforts to prevent the walkout fell apart Monday afternoon. News of a “confidential mediation” session leaked to the press before Service Employees International Union Local 99’s bargaining team knew about it, according to a union statement.  During an afternoon...

The battle lines over President Joe Biden’s education budget grew clearer this month as the most conservative wing of the House announced its intention to roll spending back to 2019 levels and cancel the president’s student loan forgiveness plan.  If Speaker Kevin McCarthy agrees to their demands, that would wipe out most of the administration’s...

Updated March 20 They sympathize with the workers. Some plan to join them on the picket line at LA Unified schools.  But when it comes to union and district leaders, LAUSD parents are skeptical and angry. SEIU Local 99, LAUSD’s 30,000-member union representing employees like custodians, bus drivers, and special education assistants, plans to strike...

It’s been nearly 11 months since Anastasiia Puzhalina and her family arrived in Tacoma, Washington, after a white-knuckled journey out of Ukraine. With no home, no income and no idea of how their children would adjust to a new school, they were consumed with worry. But, a year after Russia invaded its neighbor, upending the...

When Rory Hu came across a news article about the global decline in honey bee populations, she was inspired to do something about it. Known as Colony Collapse Disorder, it puts the global food supply at serious risk. The teen from San Jose, California, dug deeper, discovering in her research that harmful pesticides can damage...

Update, March 13: SEIU Local 99 announced over the weekend that it plans to hold a 3-day unfair labor practice strike to protest what it characterizes as harassment from LAUSD. The union will announce dates for the strike this Wednesday at a joint rally with the teachers union, UTLA. An FAQ on UTLA’s website says...

For Los Angeles Unified senior Yanxi Rodriguez, there was no sign the school day would deviate from any of the others that had passed in January — until her computer science teacher told her to check her email.  “Mr. Flores told me, ‘Congratulations, did you see your email?’ And I’m like, ‘What email? I don’t...

The percentage of third graders on track in reading hasn’t budged since this time last year, new data shows — a reminder of the literacy setbacks experienced by kindergartners when schools shut down in 2020. Even so, the test’s administrators are interpreting the flatline at 54% as good news. Paul Gazzerro, director of data analysis at curriculum...

Indeever Madireddy, 17, is an avid fish lover. Not as food, but as pets. The San Jose, California teen meticulously raises his freshwater angelfish from egg to adulthood. But when one of his prized fish died, he was struck with an idea: use the fish for genetic mapping. Indeever says this is important for use...