With the third and final phase of LA Unified’s Breakfast in the Classroom rollout ending today, district officials are now assessing how to minimize the amount of wasted and uneaten food left behind. Already, new procedures are in the works for the start of the new school year in August, said Laura Benavidez, the program’s...

By Rob Lapsley Latinos are now the largest ethnic group in California and will continue growing. Half of all children under 18 in California are Latino. The demographic change impacts just about every aspect of our society, none more critically than our economy. With this young and growing population, California has a consumer market and...

There are more children living in poverty today than there were two decades ago. Charter schools are ubiquitous, popping up in more neighborhoods all over the country. And the achievement gap between white students and nearly everyone else is shrinking. Those are a few of the key findings in The Condition of Education 2015, a...

Last month, leaders from Students Matter held a conference call to rail against several bills in the California legislature that the group deemed “anti-Vergara.” Today the group is claiming a partial victory over Assembly Bill 753 after the Assembly Appropriations Committee voted to hold it in committee, essentially killing it for the current session. The bill would...

The LA teachers union, UTLA, has had a busy, visible 2014-15 school year, staging numerous rallies, boycotts and strike threats on the way to securing a new three-year contract and 10.4 percent raise. But before the school year is out — or technically, just after, as the last day of class for LA Unifed is...

Richard Vladovic, who is completing his second and final term as LA Unified board president, won by the widest margin of the three board elections last week, according to a final accounting by the Los Angeles City Clerk, released today. His margin of victory over his District 7 challenger, Lydia Gutierrez, was 12.57 percent. In...

Few topics in California education are as polarizing as the Vergara case, one of the most prominent battlegrounds for the reform vs. status quo wars. The ruling by a California Superior Court Judge last year wiped out job protection laws for teachers when it comes to layoffs, tenure and dismissals, but a new report and...

By The Times Editorial Board It’s all too typical at the Los Angeles Unified School District: Leaders want to make a change to help the district’s students, but instead of investigating costs, options and whether the change is even achievable or desirable, the board forges ahead. Only after it has committed itself do the very...

Dozens of teachers, parents and students protested today at a UTLA rally against LA Unified’s plans to reconstitute one of the district’s most troubled schools. Barack Obama Global Preparation Academy in south LA is one of the district’s few Pilot Schools as well as one of 37 “Reed Investment Schools,” those involved in a legal...

*UPDATED A bitter war of words between the management of  Alliance College-Ready Public Schools and UTLA, the union trying to organize its teachers, got nastier today. UTLA accused Alliance management and the California Charter Schools Association (CCSA) of “anti-teacher activity” by paying alumni to call parents of students to sway their opinion against union efforts to draw the...