The Morning Read
Your Daily Roundup of LAUSD news from across the web | 10.05.21
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EDlection2018: To a divided nation, teachers running for office are telling America: We are just what you need
After watching a year’s worth of ugly fights over how to keep kids safe, how to value teachers, and how to get schools what they need, hundreds of educators across the country are running for office, many with the message that teachers are just what the nation needs because they know how to help people...
By Laura Fay | November 2, 2018
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LAUSD sends new offer to its teachers union nearly meeting its salary demands, but class sizes keep the two sides apart
*Updated Oct. 31 LA Unified moved close to agreeing to all its teachers union’s salary demands, but the union called the new offer “insulting” for not matching its plan to lower class sizes. And the sweetened offer did not seem to put a damper on the union’s threats to strike. In a statement, its president...
By Esmeralda Fabián Romero | October 31, 2018
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Countdown to EDlection2018, California & beyond: As midterms approach, here’s what new polls show in 16 key races with big stakes for schools
It has been a whiplash two years in American politics, and that has trickled down to education policy, from the controversial appointment of Betsy DeVos as education secretary to heated debates about school safety that have arisen in the wake of several mass school shootings. Now, with midterm elections only days away, it’s time for...
By Carolyn Phenicie and Kevin Mahnken | October 31, 2018
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Commentary: We should invest in kids and their support networks, not juvenile justice systems
Los Angeles is currently home to the largest juvenile justice system in the nation. In my hometown of Inglewood, improving public safety is among our biggest priorities. We care about safety and care about the wellbeing of our communities. However, I firmly believe that losing faith in and ceasing to invest in our young people...
By D’Artagnan Scorza | October 31, 2018
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Exclusive: The campaign cash for your local school board candidates isn’t local
Mike Antonucci’s Union Report appears weekly at LA School Report. Whenever stories about the political spending of California’s teacher unions appear in the news, they focus on the major statewide races. This year is no different, with school employee unions devoting about $15 million in independent expenditures so far to elect Tony Thurmond as state superintendent of...
By Mike Antonucci | October 30, 2018
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School safety tops young people’s list of election concerns. But will it lead them to vote?
The February school shooting in Parkland, Florida, and subsequent student activism around school safety and gun control are fueling young people’s political engagement ahead of next week’s midterm elections. “We can argue all we want, but the only way we win the argument [for more gun control] is when we go and we vote on...
By Carolyn Phenicie | October 29, 2018
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Commentary: Addressing inequality in Long Beach Unified through We The People High School
I grew up in Sudbury, Massachusetts, zip code 01776, home of the very first town meeting on this continent in 1649. My mother, a Daughter of the American Revolution, and my father, an immigrant from India, attended this town meeting monthly and instilled in me a deep sense of civic responsibility and civic engagement. These...
By Anita Ravi | October 29, 2018
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Taking your kid out of school for vacation? This California beach town asks parents to cough up the cash it loses for every absence
What’s the value of one day of school? While the learning and development that happen for each child may be priceless, at least one California district has put a monetary value on it. Manhattan Beach Unified School District, in Los Angeles’s tony South Bay, asks parents to make a $47 donation each time a student...
By Laura Fay | October 29, 2018
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LA parent voice: After-school tutoring, literacy programs, finding community partners — this mom has learned to ‘do whatever it takes’ to help English learners
Every week, we sit down with Los Angeles parents to talk about their students, their schools, and what questions or suggestions they have for their school district. (See our previous interviews.) Hilda Ávila has a very clear educational goal for her fourth-grade son this year: She wants him to move out of the English learner...
By Esmeralda Fabián Romero | October 24, 2018
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Commentary: Educators, show your students the value of activism
Ask most adults when their U.S. history textbook stopped. Was it World War II? Maybe Korea? Perhaps it was the Vietnam War, but the last few chapters were rushed as you hurtled towards summer vacation. Then ask most adults what they know about the defining social and political movement of the modern era, the civil...
By Jeff Steinberg | October 24, 2018