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After thousands rally for charter schools, LAUSD board votes for a moratorium
*Updated Jan. 30 Hours after about 3,500 charter school supporters rallied at Los Angeles Unified’s headquarters, the school board approved a resolution Tuesday calling for a moratorium on new charters. Only the state can change charter law, so the 5-1 vote directs the district to ask state leaders to study potential changes to the law...
By Taylor Swaak and Esmeralda Fabián Romero | January 29, 2019
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Antonucci: Things you might not know about the Los Angeles teacher contract
Mike Antonucci’s Union Report appears weekly at LA School Report. *Updated The 40-page tentative agreement reached between L.A. Unified and United Teachers Los Angeles in the early hours of Jan. 22 has a lot of details and dense contract language. Teachers did not have much time to read and digest it before they had to vote, and...
By Mike Antonucci | January 29, 2019
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‘A call to action’: School board vote on supporting a charter moratorium leaves a lot unanswered but presents an opportunity for inclusive talk and real change, advocates say
Today’s L.A. Unified school board vote on a resolution calling for a moratorium on new charter schools is the latest fallout in the battle against charters that engulfed the district during the six-day teacher strike. But despite scant detail on the resolution’s origin and impact, advocates believe it poses an opportunity for an inclusive community...
By Taylor Swaak | January 29, 2019
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Commentary: A blanket ban on new charters makes little sense. We need more, not less, of what works
There’s a simple and hard truth to public education in Los Angeles: education access in our city has never been equitable. Most of our well-off families live in neighborhoods with excellent neighborhood schools or can afford, and choose, private school. But for the vast majority of kids in our city — particularly low-income students, students...
By Emilio Pack and Cristina de Jesus | January 28, 2019
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Commentary: With strike, L.A. teachers union came out strong fighting for its members. But who’s fighting for our kids?
As I watched the Los Angeles teachers strike play out over the past couple of weeks, I’ve been impressed by the strength of the teachers union. It is fiercely committed and stops at nothing to fight for working conditions of the adults it represents — the teachers. But lost in the conversation is the most...
By Alma V. Marquez | January 28, 2019
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After teacher strike agreement, LAUSD school board to vote Tuesday on supporting charter school moratorium
The L.A. Unified school board will vote Tuesday on a resolution that would direct the superintendent to pursue a moratorium on new charter schools in the district. The resolution would also require the school board to call on state officials to study the financial impact of charters on the district to inform revisions to the...
By Taylor Swaak | January 25, 2019
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Commentary: Rush to pass ‘backroom’ deal banning charters would be bad for L.A. students — transparency calls should be for all public schools
Despite the fact that parents and students were on the outside looking in when it came to the high-stakes contract negotiations in Los Angeles, the teacher strike drew much-needed attention to public education and secured small but meaningful steps toward providing schools and teachers with more resources, including academic counselors, librarians, nurses and a small...
By Seth Litt, Katie Braude and Ben Austin | January 25, 2019
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A #RedForEd Spread: On Heels of Los Angeles Strike, Denver, Virginia, Oakland and Sacramento Are Poised for Next Wave of Teacher Activism
*Updated Jan. 25 Teachers around the country were watching closely as their Los Angeles counterparts took to the streets, and now teachers throughout Virginia plan to march on their capital Monday and Denver educators are poised to strike next. In California, teachers in Oakland are voting next week on whether to authorize a strike. And...
By Laura Fay | January 24, 2019
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The teacher strike is over. Now parents who felt ignored want to be included as LAUSD and UTLA move forward with their new agreement
While tens of thousands of Los Angeles educators and families on Wednesday celebrated the end of the six-day teacher strike, about a dozen parents held their own news conference outside City Hall to make sure their voices were heard too. Wearing white to signify neutrality, they said they felt that parents, particularly those in high-needs...
By Esmeralda Fabián Romero | January 23, 2019
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A look into the LAUSD, UTLA contract deal ending the 6-day teacher strike
*Updated Jan. 22 L.A. Unified and its teachers union announced Tuesday they had reached a contract deal to end the six-day teacher strike, heralding “a new chapter” in public education that district officials say will protect the district’s fiscal solvency. The deal has to be approved by a majority of United Teachers Los Angeles’s 34,000...
By Taylor Swaak | January 22, 2019