Should California’s Teachers Vote With The Governor? Nearly half a million of California’s voters are teachers. Like other voters, they will soon have to decide how to mark their November ballots. They will certainly scratch their heads over Propositions 30 and 38, competing measures that would ease the damage of four years of steady budget...

Tomorrow morning at 10 am, the Board of Education’s Budget, Facilities and Audit Committee will meet (see agenda here). According to LAUSD spokesman Tom Waldman, one of the issues to be discussed tomorrow is propositions 30 and 38, and what effect they will have on the district should they pass or fail. Both propositions are...

A new Los Angeles Times / USC poll shows support for Governor Jerry Brown’s Prop 30 ballot initiative – which would temporarily raise income tax on high earners – has slipped to 54%, down 10 points from March. Despite the erosion, Democratic voters still overwhelmingly favor it, 69-20%.  Meanwhile, Molly Munger’s competing tax measure, Prop...

California Limits Role of Student Tests in API Scores California’s key measure of public school quality will be redefined to lessen the impact of standardized test scores under a bill signed into law Wednesday by Gov. Jerry Brown. The law will broaden how the Academic Performance Index is calculated by limiting test scores to 60% for high...

Just about everyone who watches LAUSD is scratching their heads wondering just what board member Steve Zimmer is doing — lately more than ever. He’s introduced two incredibly polarizing motions recently– one to reject the use of Academic Growth Over Time in teacher evaluations, and one to provide greater oversight for charter schools and, more...

Prop 30 Is a Ransom Note. But Should We Pay It Anyway? NBC / Prop Zero: Structured around a budget that would trigger big cuts to schools and universities in the event it loses in November, Prop 30 takes California’s kids, and future, hostage, and demands payment. Fuentes agrees to compromises on AB 5: Are they enough? Ed Source: At...

• A tale of two headlines: Results of the California High School Exit Exam were released yesterday, and for LAUSD there’s good news and bad news, reflected in two headlines: The LA Times has it like this: “Two-thirds of sophomores pass exit exam, a record high for LAUSD”. Wonderful news! But the Daily News says: “LAUSD trails...

• Yes on 30 up, Yes on 38 down: A USC poll finds that 54.5% of likely voters support Proposition 30, Governor Brown’s tax hike to spare public schools from budget cuts. Only 40% support Molly Munger’s measure, Prop 38, which raises even more revenue. (Via John Myers) The LAUSD board voted yesterday to support both measures....

This morning, the school board unanimously and without discussion passed a symbolic resolution in support of both Propositions 30 and 38, two separate state ballot measures that would raise taxes to fund education. Then, for good measure, when the board came back at noon after a closed session, it voted to pass two additional symbolic...

When the LAUSD Board meets tomorrow morning at 9 am, the first item of business will be which of the competing tax measures on the November ballot to support. Governor Jerry Brown is pushing proposition 30 while Molly Munger is pushing prop 38. The state’s rank-and-file Democrats are lining up to support the governor’s measure,...