LA School Report

New child care spending a good first step Child care funding included in the final state budget adds thousands of new slots and restores reimbursement rates, but still leaves California nearly 40 percent short of the monies it provided for those programs prior to the recession. The $264 million Fair Start proposal aims to invest...

Via Sacramento Bee | By Evelyn Alemán Macias “Maybe you’re just not good at math. Some people are good at some things, and others aren’t. Maybe math isn’t your thing.” Those were the words my child, Julia Macias, heard from her second-grade teacher at a San Fernando Valley elementary school when she struggled to learn new math...

*UPDATED The revised budget is in the hands of the LA Unified Board of Education, but the public has a final opportunity tomorrow to weigh in on how the district’s $7 billion budget will be spent. The board has set a limit of 30 speakers to address the six members for two minutes each, to...

Via Los Angeles Times | By Steve Lopez Commentary: If Stuart Magruder knew how to play the game, he might still have his volunteer watchdog job today. But he just had to speak up. The arrogance, the temerity, the insolence. How dare he challenge the leadership of the Los Angeles Unified School District? Exactly what...

Teachers’ union leader blasts U.S. Education secretary over comments American Federation of Teachers president Randi Weingarten sharply criticized U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan last week for his praise of a ruling by a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge deeming certain job protections for teachers in California as unconstitutional. The ruling represents a major...

The LA Unified board meeting on June 17 might be more crowded than usual. UTLA, the teachers union, is planning a noon press conference outside the district’s downtown headquarters and handing out leaflets to call attention to the board’s demand for “a fair pay raise” for the coming years. The union’s activities come at a...

Via Edsource | By John Fensterwald A joke around Sacramento is that it takes a Ph.D. in Proposition 98 to understand how California schools are funded and governed. The truth is that agood short course is probably all that’s needed for the basics of California’s complex education policies. And now there is one – Ed100.org. Created by...

The long, bitter saga of a westside charter’s move to a new home after an unpleasant year at Stoner Elementary School has finally ended. Officials representing Citizens of the World Mar Vista said yesterday they have accepted an offer from LA Unified to relocate on the campuses of two Westchester elementary schools about 1.4 miles...

Via The New York Times | By Jesse Rothstein BERKELEY, Calif. — In his decision on Tuesday to strike down California’s teacher-tenure system, Judge Rolf M. Treu of Los Angeles Superior Court ruled that laws protecting teachers from dismissal violated the state’s constitutional commitment to provide “a basically equal opportunity to achieve a quality education”...