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Charter school founder Steve Barr to challenge Garcetti for LA mayor
By Peter Jamison Charter-school founder Steve Barr will run for Los Angeles mayor in 2017, opening up a potentially challenging front for incumbent Mayor Eric Garcetti in what has so far shaped up as an all but uncontested re-election bid. Barr, a Silver Lake resident and darling of education-reform advocates who has not previously held elected office, said he...
By LA School Report | June 27, 2016
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Steve Barr on weighing a mayoral run and what education reform is getting wrong
By Caroline Bermudez When Steve Barr founded Green Dot Public Schools, a network of charter schools in the Los Angeles area, the district had gone more than 30 years without creating a new high school even as enrollment skyrocketed. And he did so in a no-holds-barred fashion. For example, in 2008, after the school district...
By Guest contributor | April 5, 2016
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Morning Read: Looming Federal Budget Cuts on Education
Sequestration: What Southern California Stands to Lose The Southland is bracing for massive cuts in federal spending at the end of the week, with education and airport officials in particular worried about the impact of the impending reductions. LA Daily News See also: LA Times, KPCC, SI&A Cabinet Report Senator Proposes Pushing Back Teacher Layoff...
By Samantha Oltman | February 26, 2013
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Review: Initial Lessons from “Blackboard Wars”
The first episode of the Oprah Winfrey Network reality series, “Blackboard Wars,” has been moved up to this weekend. Check out the first five minutes here: I had the chance to watch the first two episodes and I have to say that I liked it — not because it’s necessarily accurate or even particularly new...
By Alexander Russo | February 15, 2013
Investigation: Nearly 1,000 Native Children Died in Federal Boarding Schools
Podcast: What a Mentorship Mindset Can Do for Student Motivation
Black and Hispanic Voters Say Democrats Aren’t Focused Enough on K-12 Education
Teen Activist Rhea Maniar on the Power of Abortion to Turn Out Young Voters
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Movie Trailer Enflames Charter Meeting
Tuesday night at the charter board meeting for John Macdonogh High School in New Orleans, there were at least a few parents and community members upset about how things were going at the school handed over to Steve Barr’s Future Is Now charter network last year. One key aspect of the emotion-filled event was the first...
By Alexander Russo | January 18, 2013
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Democratic Education Advocates Split Over Prop. 32
“I think it’s a huge blow to the [Democrats for Education] brand,” says Green Dot Public Charter Schools founder Steve Barr in this new Huffington Post story about the controversial endorsement of Prop. 32 by Gloria Romero, former state legislator and current head of Democrats For Education Reform California. “I don’t want to have much to do...
By Alexander Russo | October 15, 2012
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Don’t Forget The “Teacher” Trigger
You might be surprised to find out that “Won’t Back Down” — a screening of which I snuck into the other night — isn’t actually the fictionalized story of Desert Trails, site of the real-life still-unfolding parent trigger attempt outside of Los Angeles, or the CA parent trigger law that allows parents to vote to...
By Alexander Russo | September 14, 2012
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Morning Read: The Powers That Be
• Adelanto parents lose charter school bid: On Friday, the Adelanto School Board rejected the petition by parents of Desert Trails Elementary (site of the recent parent trigger ruling) to convert their school into a charter, saying there wasn’t enough time to implement before the school year. The board voted, instead, to install a “community advisory council”...
By Hillel Aron | August 20, 2012
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Steve Barr: Beyond Charters
There was a time when Green Dot Public Schools founder Steve Barr — the man responsible for the 2008 hostile takeover of Locke High School and a frequent critic of the teachers union and the Board — was seen by many as the barbarian at the gate. Now, Barr has a daughter in 2nd grade at Ivanhoe...
By Hillel Aron | August 2, 2012