LA School Report

CA lawmakers consider summer benefits for school classified workers A bill that would allow classified workers to collect unemployment insurance even though their school expects them back to work in the fall is expected to come to a vote Wednesday. It would cost the state $90 million the first year and $360 million the fourth. In...

LA Unified has so many different kinds of schools it’s hard to keep them all straight. With such varied terms as affiliated charter, independent charter, magnet school, pilot school, continuation school, option school and others, it can be a challenge to understand what they are, what they offer and how they differ. This is the...

As charters grow, public schools see sharp enrollment drop In financially struggling urban districts from LA to Philadelphia — and most notoriously, Detroit — the increasing popularity of charter schools, combined with family flight to the suburbs and declining birth rates, have caused enrollment to plummet. By Christine Armario, Associated Press Special ed tutor accused...

Students who depend on eating at school for their one — and sometimes only — meal of the day will be able to more easily find a location for free meals during the summer. The expansion of the federal Summer Food Service Program will provide more meals to children and teens 18 years and younger...

A small after-school program, branded i.am College Track in homage to founding partner musician will.i.am and his i.am angel foundation, launched in Boyle Heights four years ago with 45 students. Last week it graduated all 45 of them. At a ceremony and reception hosted by College Track Los Angeles’ Advisory Board last Thursday, local leaders Los...

  As Michelle King wrapped up her “listen and learn” tour in her first semester as LA Unified superintendent, she said she still has more listening to do before announcing her priorities, a strategy that some experts said could make her more successful than her predecessors. Many people have been asking her about her plans, but “It’s...

A vocal and sometimes disruptive group of mostly student activists declared victory this week over federal weaponry being used by LA Unified police. The group received letters of explanation and apologies from two board members and the school police chief. The Labor/Community Strategy Center’s Fight for the Soul of the Cities, a nonprofit civil rights...

Charter school groups spending big in California legislative races Groups that support the expansion of charter schools in California are spending big this year to support the campaigns of sympathetic Democrats vying for open seats in the state Legislature. By Aaron Mendelson, KPCC Building California’s initial college, career readiness metric could prove challenging, EdSource Holocaust...

The California Joint Legislative Audit Committee voted Wednesday to audit Alliance College-Ready Public Schools over the charter management organization’s use of funds in its unionization conflict with the LA teachers union, UTLA. Alliance operates 27 independent charter schools in LA Unified. The organization’s management has for more than a year been resisting an attempt by UTLA...