LA School Report

This is a guest post by Jason Mandell, Director of Public Affairs at United Way of Greater Los Angeles Recently I was talking with someone about the city’s March 5th election, which includes three hotly contested school board races, and this was her response: “I don’t have children in public schools, so I don’t really care...

LAUSD Board candidates running for a District 2 seat representing East LA will participate tonight in the final candidate forum hosted by United Way of Greater LA. Most of the candidates — Annamarie Montanez, Abelardo Diaz, Isabel Vazquez, and incumbent LAUSD Board President Monica Garcia — are expected to appear at the forum. Robert Skeels has not confirmed,...

On Tuesday, the Coalition for School Reform announced an eye-popping $1 million contribution from Michael Bloomberg, Mayor of New York City — whom LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa described in a press release as “the most important voice in education reform today.” UTLA denounced the Bloomberg contribution in a press release sent out Tuesday night, calling it...

Los Angeles Unified School District Approves Historic Parent Trigger, L.A. Mayoral Candidates Weigh in or Stay Mum Garcetti and Greuel have been hesitant to say exactly where they stand on the Parent Trigger issue, even though it has been supported by such Democratic political stars as Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Newark Mayor Corey Booker....

On the grounds that wireless internet radiation “causes cancer,” six people showed up to Tuesday’s School Board meeting to protest a $500 million plan that will give all students and teachers portable computing devices by 2014. But it was all to no avail. In a strangely contention-less meeting — the last before the March 5 elections...

He may never have won direct control over LAUSD and he may or may not ever get a Cabinet appointment.  He may have only a few more weeks before his replacement is picked. But outgoing LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa still enjoys some big days on the education reform front. Today included news that Villaraigosa had...

LA School Report‘s unstoppable reporter, Hillel Aron, will be at today’s School Board meeting. You can follow our live updates here: As you already know from today’s morning news roundup, the issue of layoffs is likely to be a topic of serious debate.  For highlights of the other issues the Board is likely to debate, click...

New independent expenditure (IE) numbers posted late yesterday on the Los Angeles City Ethics Commission website show a spike in spending on behalf of supported candidates, including $138,000 spent by UTLA-PACE, the political arm of United Teachers Los Angeles, the first such spending that’s been posted. In the meantime, the Coalition for School Reform has...

Challengers at last night’s District 2 debate in El Sereno rarely invoked School Board President Monica Garcia‘s name, even though she was sitting there onstage with them. But they attacked the incumbent indirectly, with vehement criticisms of LAUSD policies and decisions (regarding standardized tests,  charters schools and budget cuts) as well as Superintendent John Deasy, who...

LAUSD School Board to Consider Laying Off Nearly 200 The Los Angeles Unified School Board will take up whether to lay off 194 staff in the 2013-14 school year. KPCC See also: FOX LA, KTLA, LA School Report L.A. Unified Aviation Training Center Gets $100,000 Donation The mechanics vocational school had been facing closure or...