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Election Guide 2019: The who, what, when and where for Tuesday’s LAUSD Board District 5 runoff
Tuesday is the runoff election to fill the school board seat in L.A. Unified’s Board District 5. The person elected — either teachers union favorite Jackie Goldberg or former mayoral aide and parent Heather Repenning — will become part of the seven-member school board that decides on policies, budget and approval of charter schools in...
By Taylor Swaak | May 13, 2019
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Commentary: An open letter to LAUSD’s school board candidates before Tuesday’s vote — and a plea to address Board District 5’s educational disparities
Dear Board District 5 candidates: Tomorrow is the runoff election in L.A. Unified’s Board District 5, a mostly Latino district. The next board member representing BD5 will not be Latino, and therefore, as educators and leaders of color, we believe it is critical that the ultimate winner in this election makes an explicit commitment to...
By Yolie Flores and Layla Avila | May 13, 2019
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Pre-election rundown: Where Jackie Goldberg and Heather Repenning stand on hot-button issues in LAUSD’s school board race
Residents of L.A. Unified’s Board District 5 are headed to the polls Tuesday to select their next representative — one who will help shape a school board grappling with the district’s financial instability and a lack of consensus on how to improve student learning. On the ballot is Jackie Goldberg, who amassed just shy of...
By Taylor Swaak | May 10, 2019
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Goldberg and Repenning find little to disagree about in their last forum in LAUSD Board District 5’s southeast section before Tuesday’s vote
In their last candidate forum in the southeast section of L.A. Unified’s Board District 5, the two candidates vying for the open school board seat in next Tuesday’s election mostly stuck to familiar themes and gave few glimpses of how they differ. Jackie Goldberg and Heather Repenning met Wednesday evening at Turner Hall Community Center in...
By Esmeralda Fabián Romero | May 9, 2019
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Robin Lake: Assessing charter schools’ impact on districts is too important to get wrong
Several months ago I critiqued a report by Dr. Gordon Lafer that was published by In the Public Interest (ITPI), a think tank that has long been critical of charter schools and recently helped rally supporters of a five-year moratorium on new charters. Unfortunately, the report continues to inform policy deliberations in California, where Gov. Gavin Newsom has tasked a commission to...
By Robin Lake | May 8, 2019
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KIPP weighs in on Higher Education Act rewrite, calls on Congress to make college more accessible to low-income kids
In a report released today, the KIPP Foundation called on Congress to make college more affordable and help students begin a path to finding good careers. By using federal money to pay for more high school guidance counselors and expand already-successful college completion programs, the organization said, lawmakers could open the door to millions more...
By Kevin Mahnken | May 8, 2019
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Antonucci: UTLA is already planning to spend Measure EE money twice
*Updated May 8 Mike Antonucci’s Union Report appears weekly at LA School Report. Measure EE, the proposed L.A. Unified parcel tax on the June 4 ballot, has a steep hill to climb. It needs a two-thirds majority to pass, and a wide assortment of business groups have lined up to oppose it. What’s more, a last-minute change...
By Mike Antonucci | May 7, 2019
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Commentary: How California’s legislation targeting public charter schools shows that blue states can oppress black people too
Blue states oppress black people too. Nowhere is this more obvious than in policing and public education in California. California’s Legislature is grappling with these issues this session. Assemblymember Shirley Weber (D-San Diego), a progressive voice and chair of the California Legislative Black Caucus, is authoring AB 392, which seeks to change the use of...
By Margaret Fortune | May 6, 2019
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3 California NAACP chapters break with state and national leaders, calling for charter moratorium to be overturned
*Updated May 9 NAACP branches in three California cities that have some of the state’s largest populations of black students are calling to end the charter school moratorium adopted by their national board in 2016. The San Diego, Southwest Riverside and San Bernardino branches have submitted separate resolutions to NAACP’s state board saying they oppose...
By Esmeralda Fabián Romero | May 3, 2019
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Nearly 300 public schools in Los Angeles County are closing the achievement gap for low-income black and Latino students — but only 2 out of 10 of these students are enrolled in them, new study finds
Of the 1 million low-income African-American and Latino public school students in Los Angeles County, only 2 out of 10 of them are enrolled in a high-quality school, a first-of-its-kind study found. There are 279 public schools closing the achievement gap for low-income Latino and black students, the study found. That’s out of a pool of...
By Esmeralda Fabián Romero | May 2, 2019