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...

Good news coming from Washington, according to Erika Hoffman, lobbyist for the California School Boards Association. And it comes just after California Gov. Jerry Brown proposed boosting spending on public education from the state. In a release from her group yesterday, Hoffman says Federal education funding would approach pre-sequestration levels in a two-year federal appropriations bill that’s expected...

Debate at times was intense as ever yesterday. Tamar Galatzan and Steve Zimmer still didn’t seem to agree on much, the board ignored a recommendation from the Bond Oversight Committee and nobody thought Monica Garcia had a great idea in giving the entire board responsibility for taking District 1 interests into consideration with their votes. But...

Via the Sacramento Bee | By Dan Walters Years – even decades – of intense academic and political debate over closing the stubbornly wide “achievement gap” that separates Latino and black students from their white and Asian classmates are reaching a climactic point. This week, the State Board of Education is poised to approve hotly...

The LA Unified School Board made two major decisions today that will go a long way toward shaping the months ahead. The six members green-lighted Phase 2 of the iPad plan, ensuring enough tablets for standardized testing in the Spring, and they approved the appointment of a non-voting representative to serve District 1 until later...

Minutes after voting against a motion to place an interim board member in the vacant seat on the LA Unified board, Bennett Kayser changed his mind, allowing the process to go forward. As a result, he broke the 3-3 deadlock and changed it to a 4-2 vote. A committee will form under Steve Zimmer to develop the parameters of...