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Why is LAUSD spending more money this year even though revenues are down?

Even as LA Unified’s enrollment is projected to continue its downward slide next year, which means less money for the district, spending will increase compared to the previous year. The new budget for 2017-18, approved unenthusiastically last Tuesday by the LA Unified school board, includes a 6.7 percent increase in spending from the last school...
By Sarah Favot | June 27, 2017
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Reading and math learning should not rest during summer break. Here are some options to keep kids learning in LA.

Parents who model reading at home can help their children from falling into a “summer slide” during the long break, says award-winning East LA teacher Joshua Martinez. Martinez laid out a series of tips for parents in a recent interview with LA School Report. His fourth-grade class at KIPP Raíces Academy is 100 percent Latino,...
By Esmeralda Fabián Romero | June 26, 2017
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Where to find free meals for children this summer at LA’s schools and other sites

*UPDATED Regular classes are on break for the summer, but meals are still being served at 300 LA Unified schools until July 28. The schools will offer free breakfast, lunch, and snacks to all youth ages 1 to 18. LA Unified is also partnering with the City of Los Angeles’ Department of Recreation and Parks...
By Esmeralda Fabián Romero | June 26, 2017
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A model for change in South Los Angeles: UCLA steps in to rescue a struggling middle school

An imposing South Los Angeles middle school in a dense neighborhood not far from where the LA Riots erupted 25 years ago once bustled with 2,000 students. Today only 350 students roam its hallways. Families have fled Horace Mann Middle School and its low student achievement, but LA’s largest public university thinks it can turn...
By Sarah Favot | June 26, 2017
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EXCLUSIVE: Successful magnet and affiliated charter schools may suffer in proposed reshuffling of LAUSD’s Title I funds

A realignment of Title I money being proposed at LA Unified could end up hurting some of the district’s most successful schools, many in low-income areas. The school board is discussing funneling more of the federal funding to schools with the highest poverty rates. The plan to reshuffle the federal money was proposed by two...
By Mike Szymanski | June 22, 2017
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New guide outlines how to protect undocumented students and parents in California’s public charter schools

A new guide on how to protect undocumented parents and students in California’s public charter schools was released Thursday to address an increase in student anxiety and absences and a decline in parent participation in school activities in the wake of federal immigration policy changes. The 21-page guide called “Protecting Undocumented and Vulnerable Students” was created...
By Esmeralda Fabián Romero | June 22, 2017
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Here are Latino education advocates’ top priorities and how they fared in LAUSD’s budget

With this week’s approval of a $7.5 billion budget for LA Unified’s upcoming school year, advocates in Los Angeles for Latino education highlighted their priorities to best support Latino students’ success. Here are some of their top goals and how they fared in the budget: Community schools Safe schools, including restorative justice programs Title I...
By Esmeralda Fabián Romero | June 22, 2017
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LAUSD is about halfway through fixing what an independent panel said could lead to bankruptcy

LA Unified has implemented about half of the strategies stemming from an independent panel’s report on the district’s finances, Superintendent Michelle King said at Tuesday’s presentation of the budget. The Independent Financial Review Panel of nine experts commissioned by former Superintendent Ramon Cortines stated that if significant actions weren’t taken, the district was headed toward...
By Sarah Favot | June 21, 2017
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Commentary: Central American and Salvadoran American literature is invisible in public schools

By Randy Jurado Ertll When I was growing up in California, I never read a book in LAUSD schools by a Latino or Latina author. And until college, I never had a Latino or Latina teacher. Gov. Jerry Brown recently signed into law AB 2016, which was spearheaded by former state Assembly member Luis Alejo....
By Guest contributor | June 21, 2017
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LAUSD approves $7.5 billion budget under cloud of declining enrollment and future cuts

The LA Unified school board on Tuesday approved a $7.5 billion budget for the 2017-18 school year even as some board members expressed frustrations about declining enrollment and future cuts that might come as the board faces budget deficits. Spending has increased from the 2016-17 school year by 6.7 percent, while revenues have declined by...
By Sarah Favot | June 20, 2017