“I don’t have to stress that a billion dollars is an insane amount of money,” Jacques assures me right away. I feel much better. I was starting to think I was the one who was insane. To understand how LAUSD’s billion dollar commitment to Apple iPads makes any sense, I’ve consulted a panel of experts:...

It’s not often that LA Unified board members Tamar Galatzan and Bennett Kayser agree, and Kayser’s abstention on a measure two months ago killed an effort by Galatzan that would have lowered the threshold for schools receiving federal dollars for low-income students. Now, Kayser is returning to the board meeting tomorrow morning with a measure...

Via The LA Times | By Howard Blume The watchdog committee for the Los Angeles school district’s $1-billion iPad program is scheduled to fold, raising questions about oversight of the ongoing effort to provide every student, teacher and administrator with a computer. The decision to disband the panel as of April was announced last week...

Via The Argonaut of Santa Monica  | By Gary Walker In 2012, the Los Angeles Unified School District board voted to make arts education a core subject in its curriculum. Four months ago, the board gave district officials a Dec. 3 deadline to produce a budget for the school district’s Arts Education and Creative Cultural...

LA Unified Superintendent John Deasy yesterday offered unqualified support for the proposed regulations governing how state money for public education will reach individual school districts. Speaking at a meeting of the California Board of Education in Sacramento, he said the new Local Control Funding Formula “strikes the right balance” between districts and the communities they serve,...

Alex Johnson has made his decision. Johnson, who is the Assistant Senior Deputy for Education and Public Safety to Los Angeles County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas, confirmed to LA School Report that he is running for LA Unified’s District 1 seat in the special election this June. In a statement he said: “I’m running because the children...

The clock is ticking on deadlines, now that the City Council has approved a June 3 special election for the LA Unified school board. The candidate fundraising window opened today, according to a press release from the LA City Ethics Commission. Anyone running must form a candidate committee and file a Statement of Economic Interests with the...

The UTLA House of Representatives last night voted to demand a significant salary hike for teachers — an increase of nearly 20 percent. Teachers last received a pay raise in early 2007; their last contract with LA Unified expired in 2011. The union says higher salaries are long overdue, especially since voters passed Prop. 30...