8 p.m. Update: Los Angeles Unified workers will proceed with a strike early Tuesday morning after efforts to prevent the walkout fell apart Monday afternoon. News of a “confidential mediation” session leaked to the press before Service Employees International Union Local 99’s bargaining team knew about it, according to a union statement.  During an afternoon...

The battle lines over President Joe Biden’s education budget grew clearer this month as the most conservative wing of the House announced its intention to roll spending back to 2019 levels and cancel the president’s student loan forgiveness plan.  If Speaker Kevin McCarthy agrees to their demands, that would wipe out most of the administration’s...

Updated March 20 They sympathize with the workers. Some plan to join them on the picket line at LA Unified schools.  But when it comes to union and district leaders, LAUSD parents are skeptical and angry. SEIU Local 99, LAUSD’s 30,000-member union representing employees like custodians, bus drivers, and special education assistants, plans to strike...

Once again, March Madness has taken hold of much of the nation as this month’s NCAA men’s Division I basketball tournament gets off the ground. As we have done over the past six years, we take this opportunity, when the nation is focused on figuring out which colleges produce the best basketball teams, to examine...

It’s been nearly 11 months since Anastasiia Puzhalina and her family arrived in Tacoma, Washington, after a white-knuckled journey out of Ukraine. With no home, no income and no idea of how their children would adjust to a new school, they were consumed with worry. But, a year after Russia invaded its neighbor, upending the...

Imagine a classroom of curious elementary students grasping clipboards, eager to conduct an experiment to see if the small car they built can protect their egg “passenger” in a head-on collision. It’s a lesson that not only reinforces their understanding of engineering design, but also offers practical examples of physics in action. And it’s fun....

Americans are skeptical of science. Public ambivalence has shown itself clearly in concerns over the safety and necessity of vaccines and in the dismissal of public health guidance designed to curtail the spread of COVID-19. None of this is surprising, given the anemic state of science education in the U.S. Far too many young people...

When Rory Hu came across a news article about the global decline in honey bee populations, she was inspired to do something about it. Known as Colony Collapse Disorder, it puts the global food supply at serious risk. The teen from San Jose, California, dug deeper, discovering in her research that harmful pesticides can damage...

Update, March 13: SEIU Local 99 announced over the weekend that it plans to hold a 3-day unfair labor practice strike to protest what it characterizes as harassment from LAUSD. The union will announce dates for the strike this Wednesday at a joint rally with the teachers union, UTLA. An FAQ on UTLA’s website says...

The nation’s schools are facing a crisis. The pandemic slowed student learning, and schools and families are eager to see academic improvement as quickly as possible. Access to trained school counselors can help students succeed in their classes, but there are too few counselors supporting too many kids with too varied challenges. This problem predates...