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LAUSD approves $7.8 billion budget for next year: Here’s what it means for high-needs students, lowest-performing schools and district finances

*Updated June 25 L.A. Unified board members passed the 2019-20 budget and accountability plan on Tuesday — but not before acknowledging that they are “unintelligible” documents that provide little insight into specific program and funding changes as the district looks to the next school year. “None of the documents add up to anything you can...
By Taylor Swaak | June 21, 2019
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Government watchdog warns that schools are underreporting the restraint and seclusion of students

The Education Department should take immediate action to remedy underreporting of seclusion and restraint in federal civil rights data, a government watchdog said in a report released Tuesday. Seventy percent of districts reported no incidences of seclusion and restraint in the 2015-16 Civil Rights Data Collection, but an analysis indicates that it likely didn’t capture...
By Carolyn Phenicie | June 21, 2019
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Exclusive: Education Secretary Betsy DeVos talks about why parents deserve more school options, why she supports ‘Freedom Scholarships’ and what it’s like working with a new Congress

Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos sat down for an exclusive interview with LA School Report — her first major interview with California media — on a recent trip to the state to visit a school in San Diego. Her insights ranged from why she believes she’s made progress toward her goals (because “we hear the...
By Esmeralda Fabián Romero and Laura Greanias | June 19, 2019
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California lawmakers consider softening proposed crackdown on medical exemptions from vaccines amid protests, concerns from governor about overstepping parents

Confronting a national measles outbreak, California lawmakers this week are mulling how to tighten the state’s already-strict vaccine policy for students while balancing parental rights. State Sen. Richard Pan, a pediatrician representing Sacramento, on Tuesday announced changes to legislation he previously unveiled intending to stop unnecessary exemptions from mandatory immunizations. According to a statement from Pan’s...
By Laura Fay | June 18, 2019
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Even after ‘historic’ federal spending, today’s child care system serves only 1 in 6 eligible kids. Now Congress might approve billions more to stem the crisis

U.S. child care is widely seen as being in crisis. It’s costly, in many states more expensive than college tuition, and hard for parents to find. Workers in the field receive low wages, leaving many eligible for public assistance. And the programs available for many families are often not up to the quality standards that...
By Carolyn Phenicie | June 17, 2019
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‘Voters are tired of you’: A week after parcel tax defeat, LAUSD parents rail at district leaders during 2019-20 budget hearing

*Updated June 17 Parents blasted L.A. Unified officials at a school board hearing this week — one even bursting into tears — offering an angry glimpse into the fractured trust between the community and the district just one week after voters overwhelmingly rejected a new parcel tax. Many of the more than 20 speakers at Tuesday’s...
By Taylor Swaak | June 13, 2019
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With new report from state task force, pressure mounts on Gov. Newsom to break silence on pending legislation that would restrict charter schools

*Corrected June 20 After three months of meetings, the California charter school task force has released its much-anticipated report, raising questions about the future of legislation that could reshape the state’s growing charter school landscape. The report, sent to Gov. Gavin Newsom on Friday, outlined four unanimously supported recommendations revising the authorizing process for new...
By Noble Ingram | June 12, 2019
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The truth about school equity: Expert Rucker Johnson reflects on how integration helped black students — and why California must do a better job in giving every family access to high-quality early education

Most Americans believe that after the landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision, everyone tried their best to integrate schools and it just didn’t work. But that’s a myth, professor Rucker Johnson argues in a new book. Johnson in his new book “Children of the Dream: Why School Integration Works” argues that integration did improve...
By Carolyn Phenicie | June 11, 2019
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Analysis: From Los Angeles to New York City to Anchorage, it’s time for all of us to start minding the school quality ‘performance gap’

Every parent knows that school quality and student performance can vary widely in any given city. That’s why families look closely at the school quality in the neighborhoods they’re considering when they’re planning to move. What’s less understood is how cities across the country rank in terms of providing consistently good public schools and educational...
By Marcus A. Winters | June 11, 2019
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Q&A with Ryan Smith on what it will take to close the achievement gap in California’s schools

Closing the achievement gap has become one of the most critical educational challenges in California. As part of state Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond’s new initiative to close that gap, he has created a working group to look closely at schools throughout the state that have shown success in improving outcomes for African-Americans, Latinos...
By Esmeralda Fabián Romero | June 10, 2019