Close to 300 LA Unified students who would have ended up in the criminal justice system for minor infractions in years past have been successfully diverted from it this school year, Los Angeles School Police Chief Steven Zipperman told a school board committee yesterday. The effort toward a reduction in student citations and arrests, part of...

UTLA, the LA Unified teachers union, is offering tonight an unvarnished public view of its bargaining position in negotiations with LA Unified for a new teachers contract. Board member Steve Zimmer is scheduled to moderate a panel discussion at Occidental College that includes UTLA President Alex Caputo-Pearl, American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten and...

By Steve Zimmer The vicious lies contained in the California Charter School Association (CCSA) mailer represent a new low in school board campaign tactics. They attack not only Bennett Kayser’s service to his district but his heart and his soul as well. I know these attacks.  They were leveled at me, my life work and...

The chairman of the the political action committee for the LA teachers union, UTLA, said today that, for now, the union has no plan to endorse Board President Richard Vladovic for reelection to the LA Unified District 7 board seat. Marco Flores said the committee’s next meeting, tomorrow, does not include a recommendation to endorse...

This is the next in a series of profiles on candidates running in the March 3 primary for the LA Unified school board. Today’s focus is Scott Schmerelson, a candidate for the District 3 seat.  Scott Schmerelson is bad at being retired. After more than 35 years as an educator — he’s been a teacher,...

With the eyes of the educational world closely watching the Vergara v. California case as it awaits an appeal ruling, the libertarian-tilted publication Reason magazine is the latest national media organization to profile the issue. The magazine and its affiliated Reason.tv website interviewed a number of people involved, including 14-year-old Vergara plaintiff and LA Unified...

After days of silence, the California Charter Schools Association is defending a controversial campaign flyer targeting Bennett Kayser, who is running for reelection for the LA Unified District 5 board seat. Kayser, too, is speaking out about the flyer for the first time, calling its portrayal of him “a pack of vile misrepresentations.” Paid for...

LA Unified Superintendent Ramon Cortines said today President Obama’s proposed 2016 budget would provided strong benefits for the district if approved by Congress. At stake: $1 billion increase for Title I, which supports schools with a high percentage of low-income students and a $3 billion investment in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math instruction, plus additional...

*UPDATED Four years after playing a major role in Bennett Kayser’s election to the LA Unified school board, an Encino-based political consulting firm is now working to defeat him. Shallman Communications in 2011 was paid more than $60,000 by the LA teachers union, UTLA, to help shape Kayser’s image. Through the union’s independent expenditures, it...

* UPDATED This is the next in a series of profiles on candidates running in the March 3 primary for the LA Unified school board. Today’s focus is Carl Petersen, a candidate for the District 3 seat.   If Carl Petersen does not win the crowded LA Unified school board race for District 3, it...