LA School Report

Marshall Tuck, a former charter school executive, is challenging incumbent Tom Torlakson to become California’s next State Superintendent of Public Education. The race includes Lydia Gutierrez, a former teacher who also ran four years ago. The three are on the statewide June 3 primary ballot. We caught up with Tuck at a forum last week, and...

Fifth in a series of profiles of candidates for LA Unified’s open District 1 board seat. At 33 years old, Alex Johnson is the youngest of eight candidates running for the open LA Unified school board District 1 seat. He has raised the most money of anyone in the field. He has the support of...

Via the Los Angeles Times | By Stephen Ceasar An initiative intended to foster a college-going culture in East Los Angeles will grant guaranteed admission to Cal State L.A. to certain students at Garfield High School and East Los Angeles College, officials announced Thursday. The collaborative program, named “GO East LA: A Pathway for College...

LA schools’ new parent advisory group grapples with $6.8 billion budget In a Sammy Lee Elementary’s auditorium in Koreatown, 50 parents are combing through the Los Angeles Unified School District’s proposed budget for next year, a 33-page draft of a document called the Local Control Accountability Plan. Inside, bullet points a swath of complex policy...

The Ward A.M.E. Church in South LA was packed for a Wednesday night. But the people filing through doors weren’t there to talk about Jesus (though his name did come up). They were there to talk about the race for LA Unified School Board District 1. Sherlett Hendy-Newbill, Alex Johnson, Genethia Hudley-Hayes and George McKenna — the...

SEIU Local 99, the union of cafeteria workers, custodians, bus drivers, special education assistants who work for LA Unified announced today it is seeking a minimum of $15 an hour for all workers who currently earn less than that and a 15 percent raise for all workers who earn more. The union thus became the...

You think you have problems with the implementation of Common Core? Have a look at a new report from the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), a human rights organization that tracks groups engaging in hate and bigotry to further their causes. The report, “Public Schools in the Crosshairs,” examines the far right’s efforts to eliminate...

Rialto school officials apologize for Holocaust assignment What started as an eighth-grade critical-thinking writing assignment has become a source of relentless controversy for Rialto school officials, who apologized profusely and publicly this week for asking that students consider whether the Holocaust was created for political gain or didn’t happen at all. The assignment, developed by...

*UPDATE At least two candidates running for the LA Unified school board may be skirting campaign finance laws by sending campaign literature to voters without proper disclosure. The candidates, George McKenna, a retired administrator, and Rachel Johnson, who serves on the city council of Gardena, are competing in a large field to fill the open...

Despite the ongoing debate over whether charter schools are better than traditional public schools and the steady increase annually of new charters, the California Charter Schools Association reports a record number of students are on charter school wait lists statewide. In LA Unified, the largest district in the state, an estimated 36,300 students are hoping...