Tomorrow night’s School Board candidate forum for the Westside’s District 4 could be a fascinating event, if for no other reason than it will feature just two candidates — challenger Kate Anderson and incumbent Steve Zimmer — going head to head.  (Jeneen Robinson is registered as a write-in candidate, and was not invited to participate)....

Iris Zuniga, who was running to replace School Board member Nury Martinez in the East Valley’s Distrct 6, has dropped out. She made the announcement on her campaign’s Facebook page earlier today: “Over the past several months, many of you have encouraged me to run for the Los Angeles school board to represent the school children...

We listed notable contributions to the Garcia campaign yesterday and updated contribution reports are due tomorrow, but while we’re waiting let’s take a look at the contributions to candidates from earlier this month: •District 6 School Board member Steve Zimmer has raised $27,688 from notable donors including former State Assemblymember Betsy Butler (who lost her bid for...

We’re still looking for high-resolution (color?) versions — if you’ve seen them let us know — but in the meantime we thought you might want to see what the first couple of campaign flyers look like, especially since they’re so nice. Here’s a favorable one on behalf of District 6 candidate Antonio Sanchez. Click here...

Wondering how to track all the money flowing into and out of the different campaigns for School Board and the independent expenditure (IE) committees that support them? It’s still not as easy to figure out as it might be — but we’re here to help. The most up-to-date filing schedule can be found here, on...

In case you somehow missed it, here’s the viral GIF of 11 year-old Sasha Obama yawning just as the President was talking about education: On a more serious note:  Some liberal commentators don’t think that last week’s Obama plan to help schools hire armed guards will help. And:  according to the Huffington Post the Obama team is said to...

School Board President Monica Garcia’s latest campaign finance statement includes some familiar names — including a $1,000 contribution from LAUSD Deputy Superintendent of Instruction Jaime Aquino, a top aide to Superintendent John Deasy. While it’s illegal to solicit campaign contributions from Los Angeles city employees, it is perfectly legal for  employees to give on their own accord,...

Over the three-day weekend, two powerful unions — the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor and the SEIU Local 99 (which represents classified LAUSD employees) kicked off what is expected to be an intense period of activity by independent expenditure (IE) committees over the next few months. The two organizations spent a combined $54,564 in support of School...

Last week, classroom teachers voted overwhelmingly to approve a new system of evaluations, which include data from California Standardized Tests.  “I’m gratified our members ratified the agreement that clearly states, individual AGT (Academic Growth Over Time) scores will not be used as part of a teacher’s final evaluation,” said UTLA chief Warren Fletcher in a...

Los Angeles Teachers Union Approves Use of Testing Data in Evaluations A landmark agreement to use student test scores for the first time to evaluate Los Angeles Unified instructors was approved by the teachers union Saturday. LA Times See also: LA Daily News, KPCC, LA School Report ‘Parent Trigger’ Organizers Find Willing Partner in Los...