Marc Litchman has an idea. As far as his campaign for Congress, challenging Representative Brad Sherman, a Sherman Oaks Democrat, it’s his only idea. He wants to break up LA Unified. But not into two districts, one on either side of the hill, as others have advocated. “We need six or seven,” Litchman said in...

In its first analysis of LA Unified schools, Stanford University found that the typical student in a charter school made greater academic gains than a counterpart in a traditional school. “Charter School Performance in Los Angeles,” a report from Stanford’s Center for Research on Education Outcomes (CREDO), found that a student in an urban LA charter...

The original field of 13 candidates vying for the vacant LA Unified school board seat just got smaller. Thirteen had expressed interest in the South LA District 1 race, but by the 5 p.m. deadline today, only nine filed the required petitions to stay in the race. The June 3 special election was called after...

The Los Angeles teachers union, UTLA, is planning to blanket the district with leaflets tomorrow to build support among parents for smaller class sizes, fully staffed schools and raises. With help from health and human services workers, teachers intend to pass out informational leaflets before and, in some cases, after school. The leaflets ask parents...

Fresh off his (unsuccessful) effort to get a District 1 voice onto the LA Unified school board right away, trustee Steve Zimmer is returning to the monthly board meeting tomorrow with a plan that would lead to another voice with influence on the board: Students. Zimmer is introducing a measure — the Student Engagement and...

Another LA Unified school is under threat of closing. The Academy of Environmental and Social Policy (ESP) is hosting a Back to School/Save our School event tonight to help fend off efforts to shut it down or relocate it because of shrinking enrollment, As one of the district’s Partnership for Los Angeles schools, it is...

LA Unified, the second-largest school district in the country, is getting the largest amount of any school district in California in the latest round of funds from Prop 39, the 2012 California Clean Energy Jobs Act. The measure makes changes to corporate income taxes, providing $550 million annually for five fiscal years beginning with the...

LA Unified took another step today toward completing the roster of parents who will serve on an advisory panel charged with helping set spending goals for new state money coming into the district through the Local Control Funding Formula. In recent days, meetings of parents and guardians at the district’s five Educational Service Center areas...

George McKenna, a former LA Unified administrator, has become the first of thirteen school board candidates vying in the special election for the District 1 seat to submit a nominating petition. The Los Angeles City Clerk’s office requires at least 500 signatures to qualify for a position on the ballot. The filing period, which began...