At last week’s monthly meeting of the UTLA House of Representatives, President Warren Fletcher made a surprising announcement: he’s taking a pay cut, effective July 1. “Warren voluntarily took a pay cut to show solidarity with LAUSD teachers who have not had a raise in six years,” said UTLA spokesperson Suzanne Spurgeon in an email...

Last week, we reported that the charter school called Academia Semillas had not complied with an audit by LAUSD’s Office of the Inspector General, despite only barely being renewed last year. Yesterday, Superintendent John Deasy responded directly to the school: “If you can’t comply with this, then I can’t recommend that school’s renewal,” said Deasy. “It looks...

Earlier this week, the LA Weekly honed in on the outsized influence California’s largest teachers union is perceived to have on education policy issues, including recent efforts to speed the removal of sexual predators from the classroom. “That’s how CTA infamously killed a [2012] law to fire sex-pervert teachers, SB 1530,” LA Weekly writer Matthew Mullins wrote. “A...

Check out Fox LA’s video coverage of some of the Los Angeles parents who are using the parent trigger to shake things up at Weigand Elementary: Los Angeles Local News, Weather, and Traffic

The Mayoral debates now flow like wine as the campaign enters its final month. A recent poll put candidate Eric Garcetti ahead by 10 points, so it was his opponent, Wendy Greuel, who was largely on the attack last night as the candidates debated on the USC Health Sciences campus. (She also admitted, twice, to...

If UTLA’s referendum on John Deasy meant little to the Superintendent himself, and wasn’t persuasive to UTLA-endorsed mayoral candidate Eric Garcetti, it was, perhaps, a sign of just how little clout teacher groups like Teach Plus, Educators 4 Excellence and Teachers for a New Unionism have exhibited thus far within the union. Those groups, which...

In recent months, the teachers union United Teachers of Los Angeles has been criticizing Breakfast in the Classroom (BIC) for delaying the start of instruction, among other things. But Nicola Edwards, who works for California Food Policy Advocates, told LA School Report that a recent union survey doesn’t really reflect how most LAUSD teachers feel about the program....

The LA Times‘ most recent education story tells you several things you already know about the District 6 (East Valley) School Board runoff, including recent contributions to the Coalition for School Reform account and the stalemate over the dual UTLA endorsements of Monica Ratliff (pictured) and Antonio Sanchez that “helps Sanchez by keeping UTLA on the...

Monday, April 22 is the first day Los Angeles voters will receive and can apply for vote-by-mail ballots for the May 21 East Valley District 6 runoff election, which means that campaigning will finally begin in earnest. (Go here to apply for a vote-by-mail ballot.) The election will pick between Monica Ratliff and Antonio Sanchez...

For the last two years, parents at Haddon Elementary in Pacoima have been gathering signatures for a parent trigger petition much like the one seen recently at 24 Street Elementary School. According to Parent Revolution, the petition drive gathered signatures from about a third of all parents. But in January, parents voted to put the process...