LA School Report

In addition to the high-pressure appearance of the candidates for Mayor of Los Angeles, the United Way summit at the LA Convention Center yesterday also included a morning discussion featuring LAUSD Superintendent John Deasy, School Board President Monica Garcia, and school reform funders Casey Wasserman and Eli Broad, Not surprisingly, the like-minded panelists generated little...

It was a packed house at Vaughn Next Century Learning Center Wednesday night  for a forum with the three District 6 candidates —  Maria Cano, Monica Ratliff and Antonio Sanchez — sponsored by Families First and moderated by  Fidel Ramirez, a parent and after-school coordinator for the Youth Policy Institute. The crowd of more than 250, mostly parents, sat quietly during...

L.A. School Board Race Tops Spending Records The city’s ethics commission, which tracks campaign finances, reported this week that independent expenditures in the three board races represent a 977 percent increase over the primary four years ago, the last time these three seats were up for grabs. EdWeek See also: LA School Report Mayoral Rivals Talk...

It was perhaps no surprise that District 4 School Board member Steve Zimmer was visibly upset when he happened to run into Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s Deputy Mayor for Education, Joan Sullivan, at today’s United Way education event. “RFK, Joan? Really?” said Zimmer as the two rode the escalator together. “That’s just wrong.” “I don’t know what...

Prior to today’s United Way mayoral candidate’s forum, we had been told to expect Wendy Greuel to “come out” as an “education reformer.” But instead it was Eric Garcetti who took the opportunity to align himself with the so-called reform movement, voicing unequivocal support for LAUSD Superintendent John Deasy, the parent trigger law, and even...

The teachers union political action committee has allocated the majority of its expenditures in the East LA District 2 School Board election — almost $90,000 — to attack incumbent LAUSD Board President Monica Garcia and bolster the chances of forcing a runoff between Garcia and one of her three union-endorsed candidates. But are the attacks accurate...

Follow LA School Report‘s Hillel Aron and others at the United Way Education summit going right now!

Anyone (like me) who thought that American Federation of Teachers (AFT) president Randi Weingarten was going to follow up on her recent trip to LA with a big, fat Lotto-sized check for District 4 candidate Steve Zimmer and UTLA-PACE is going to be sorely disappointed. Word is out that the AFT has sent a $75,000 check to...

Deasy Group Aids 3 School Board Candidates Los Angeles schools Supt. John Deasy isn’t on the ballot Tuesday, but you’d hardly know it, based on the undercurrent of the school board election. LA Times Special Interests Spend Millions, Greuel and James on the Attack Nearly $4 million in independent spending has poured into Los Angeles...

A massive spending spree of $3.4 million by outside groups has broken records in the Los Angeles School Board races with still seven days left before the election. That’s an increase of $1 million in just a week, according to the latest figures available at the LA City Ethics Commission. Low voter turnout and a...