Great news! The LA Press Club has named LA School Report as a finalist in two categories (group blog, online-only website) for this year’s Southern California Journalism Awards. That’s pretty exciting news for a media outlet that launched just last August.  Much appreciated.

If you haven’t already read Hillel Aron’s profiles of the District 6 candidates Monica Ratliff and Antonio Sanchez on the campaign trail this past weekend, be sure and do so here and here. Did you know, however, that one of the two candidates was in a 2012 Nazi revenge film (straight to DVD) and the...

This is a guest commentary from Ama Nyamekye,  Executive Director, Educators for Excellence (E4E) Los Angeles: School Board races can sometimes seem like inside-baseball, but they actually define the leadership and agenda of Los Angeles Unified School District, which serves over 660,000 children. With that in mind, Educators 4 Excellence and EdVoice recently interviewed both...

In today’s School Board District 6 election, Antonio Sanchez remains the strong favorite over his opponent, Monica Ratliff, thanks in part to the overwhelming advantage in campaign contributions to both Sanchez’s campaign and two independent campaigns on his behalf. Sanchez’s Latino surname and fluency in Spanish is also a built-in advantage (though Ratliff’s mother is from Mexico). “You’re...

Three more states — Alaska, Hawaii and West Virginia — have been awarded so-called “waivers” from some of the key provisions of the federal education law known as No Child Left Behind (NCLB). But there’s still no news on the fate of LAUSD’s application, or whether the state will try and get a statewide waiver. *UPDATE:...

Antonio Sanchez always introduces himself to voters the same way, telling them within ten seconds that he grew up in Pacoima, went to San Fernando High School, and graduated form Cal State Northridge before going on to UCLA. And so when he canvases precincts in San Fernando on Saturday, he knows most of the streets. He...

Going door-to-door in the Sunland section of the East Valley one evening this past weekend, District 6 School Board candidate Monica Ratliff‘s pitch to voters goes something like this: “Hi, my name is Monica Ratliff. I’m a teacher, and I’m running for the Board of Education. Do you have any questions or concerns about the school district?”...

  The most recent LA Times / USC poll has candidate Eric Garcetti up 7 points over his rival Wendy Greuel in tomorrow’s Mayoral runoff. However, the poll suggests that education is not a very big factor for voters making up their minds — despite all the policy proposals, campaign trail back-and-forth between the candidates, and school...

Governor Jerry Brown continued to promote his Local Control Funding Formula proposal at a Friday morning press conference at East LA’s Humphreys Elementary. Joining him was an All-Star cast that included LA Chamber of Commerce CEO Gary Toebben, United Way CEO Elise Buik, School Board member Bennett Kayser, former State Senator and City Council candidate Gil...