K-12 Funding and Administration

LAUSD Superintendent Fires Lemon Teachers

Once nearly unheard of, heads are rolling under John Deasy

LAUSD School Board District 4 Election: Absentee Ballot Results Show Steve Zimmer Leading Kate Anderson

With just under 24,000 absentee ballots counted by the city clerk, incumbent Steve Zimmer has a significant 16-point lead over challenger Kate Anderson. Zimmer has tried as best he can to hold the middle ground between the teachers union and the reformers. But middle grounds are hard to come by in ... More >>

Mayor Michael Bloomberg Pours $1 Million into LAUSD Elections to Oust Steve Zimmer, Elect Monica Garcia

See also, "LAUSD's Dance of the Lemons," and "Can Kate Anderson, Mom of Twins, Fix LAUSD?"Los Angeles Unified School District, whose teachers union UTLA has squelched attempts to raise student learning by making ineffective certified teachers relearn subject matter and skills, just attracted $1 mill ... More >>

Los Angeles Unified School District Braces For First Parent Trigger Take Over

Los Angeles Unified School District will finally become a target of a Parent Trigger, a California law that allows parents to take over a failing school in which their children attend, according to L.A. School Report. Parents at 24th Street Elementary School, with the help of Los Angeles-based educ ... More >>

Can Kate Anderson, Mom of Twins, Fix LAUSD?

Proposition 38 Election Results: Molly Munger's Tax-Hike Falls To Massive Voter Opposition

Major media outlets have concluded that Molly Munger's Proposition 38 is a big loser -- and by a huge margin if current numbers hold up. As of 10:20 p.m., the California Secretary of State web site shows that voters shot down Prop. 38 by 74 percent -- no other initiative on the 2012 state ballot is ... More >>

Why Did California Lawmakers Kill Miramonte-Inspired Bill to Help Fire Pervy Teachers?

Senator Alex Padilla (D-Paicoma) is fuming this morning over yesterday's decision by the Assembly Education Committee to throw out SB 1530 -- that famous Miramonte-inspired bill that would have made it easier for school districts to fire teachers accused of "sex, violence or drug offenses involving ... More >>

Academia Semillas, a Failing School, Escapes Closure

At LAUSD, big friends help

Mark Berndt's $40,000 Payoff

Arrested as sex pervert, former LAUSD teacher settles into retirement

Outing Lemon Teachers at LAUSD

33,000 teachers, now always stamped "satisfactory," might finally get graded

LAUSD Bans Chocolate Milk: Thanks To Parents, Jamie Oliver & Jimmy Kimmel

photos by Gendy Alimurung​ Say goodbye to chocolate and strawberry milk at Los Angeles public schools beginning July 1. The LAUSD Board of Education voted 5-2 to remove flavored milk with added sugar. A new dairy contract will exclude the chocolate and strawberry milk as part of the district's ... More >>

Scott Svonkin's Solar Adventure

Candidate for community college board fought citizen oversight in San Gabriel

SoCal 'Parent Trigger' Pushers Travel to Sacramento, Tell State Board of Education: Don't Let Teachers Have a Say

California Teachers AssociationPatricia Rucker, right, is both a Board of Education member and a CTA lobbyist​If the battle over California's new parent-empowerment law was only vicariously between the California Teachers Association and the growing charter-school business before, it just got ... More >>

Scott Svonkin's Personality Problem

How did a food-spewing bully get major Democratic backing to run for Community College trustee?

Parents Fighting For Law-Backed Right to Take Over Compton Elementary School Take Cause to Sacramento

Parent Trigger proponents head to Sacramento.​Updated after the jump: The folks trying to legally take over their Compton elementary school are claiming a big victory in Sacramento following this trip. The parent troops in Southern California who have been trying, so far unsuccessfully, to re ... More >>

El Camino Real High School in San Fernando Valley, Nationally Respected, Flees LAUSD to Become Charter School

Office-clinger Tamar Galatzan, behind Zuma Dogg, unsuccessfully humping to become a Los Angeles City Council member.​Update: The school was in the news recently for the Jeff Stenroos faked shooting. One of the top-rated schools in the Western U.S., El Camino Real High School -- so good that ... More >>

Compton School Board Rejects 'Parent Trigger' Petition, Cites Insufficient Staples, Typos

Simone WilsonA McKinley Elementary student looks up at the CUSD Board of Trustees​Updated after the jump: We've got the PDF -- and a lot more questions. Finally, over two months after it was filed, Compton school board members responded to a parent petition at their meeting last night: After ... More >>

How Is Firing 5,000 LAUSD Teachers Preferable to Chipping at Their Huge, Union-Protected Health Benefits?

Merry Retirement​Either we're missing something here, or this is the biggest no-brainer in the history of L.A. education (teehee, oxymoron). The Los Angeles Unified School District is facing at least a $408 million budget shortfall for the 2011-12 school year. No matter what, someone -- make ... More >>

Shocker: California Superintendent Tom Torlakson Plans to Re-Write Parent Trigger Law, Education Reformers Stunned

California Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson​California Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson plans to essentially re-write the Parent Trigger law, which allows parents to take over a chronically failing school through a petition drive. Torlakson has been a staun ... More >>

Mayor Villaraigosa's Friends, Including City-NFL-Stadium Deal Hopeful Anschutz Corp., Aim $1 Mil at his School Board Picks

Mayor V's candidates get $1 million in support.​L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa wants to keep his grip on the L.A. school board, and he's got some friends in high places helping him out. One of those friends, the Anshutz Corp., has given $100,000 to the Coalition for School Reform, a committe ... More >>

Parent Trigger Showdown in Compton Gets Increasingly Heavy; Jerry Brown, Kamala Harris, and Barack Obama M.I.A.?

Governor Jerry Brown​Update: Former state Sen. Gloria Romero accuses Compton Unified of strong-arming parents to stop charter school. Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher and another huge law firm join Parent Trigger effort pro bono. Things get increasingly heavy in Compton today when the McKinley Parent ... More >>

L.A. Teachers Union Loses Historic Lawsuit to ACLU: No More 'Last Hired, First Fired'

Better luck next time, Duffy​Updated after the jump: UTLA plans to appeal the ruling. Update: L.A. Mayor, Board of Education Prez and Superintendent-to-be join the victory lap. This one's for the kids. An L.A. Superior Court judge ruled just a few hours ago, in Reed v. State of California, ... More >>

LAUSD School Board Promotes John Deasy To Superintendent -- Without So Much As A Job Interview

John Deasy, man of the hour​Well, we were right: Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's superintendent of choice made it past the L.A. School Board yesterday. Board members voted him in 6-0; only Steve Zimmer, of Board District 4, abstained. John Deasy will now be promoted from deputy superintendent to ... More >>

Is Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa Pushing To Replace L.A. Unified Superintendent Ramon Cortines With John Deasy?

LAUSD Deputy Superintendent John Deasy​The conventional wisdom in local public education circles was that Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent Ramon Cortines would retire this spring... well, so much for that. HollywoodHighlands.org bloggers John Walsh and Miki Jackson and the ... More >>

Governor Jerry Brown's New California Board Of Education Appointments Could Disable Compton 'Trigger'

A new State Board of Education might be Brown's way of pulling the trigger on charters​Jerry Brown announced his California Board of Education appointments yesterday -- and they're sure to throw a wrench in the spokes of the Parent Trigger movement. For a group of parents in Compton, this wil ... More >>

California's Parent Trigger

How McKinley in Compton became the first school taken over by parents under a radical new law

Superintendent of Public Instruction Election Results: Torlakson Beats Aceves

Tommy T. is the man to beat.​Updated with near-final numbers showing Torlakson on top. In that all-important state Superintendent of Public Instruction race (come on stoners, you can take your eyes off Prop. 19 for a second), it was a close one. Tom Torlakson, who was endorsed by the Democra ... More >>

Steve Zimmer Anti-Reform, Yolie Flores For Reform: The Stark LAUSD School Board Drama Unfolding After Historic ACLU Settlement

Anti-reformer Zimmer ​Steve Zimmer, elected by "sophisticates" on the Westside, is starkly shown as the leading anti-reformist on the LAUSD Board of Education in a fascinating LA Times story about how United Teachers Los Angeles got snookered by the pro bono American Civil Liberties Union, Pub ... More >>

A.J. Duffy should resign in wake of Ruelas suicide: UTLA chief, not the L.A. Times, is the rot in Southern California school wars

Does A.J. stand for a joke? ​Pipsqueak United Teachers Los Angeles chief A.J. Duffy, who has turned the L.A. teachers union into a national laughingstock and encouraged this region's teachers to think like infantile whiners, should resign after trying to blame the Los Angeles Times for the tra ... More >>

ACLU Suing California Over School Fees

​Just what California's ailing schools need....The ACLU filed a lawsuit in L.A Superior Court suing California for allowing school districts to charge for books and other educational supplies. The ACLU says these practices violate the clause of the California Constitution guaranteeing a free e ... More >>

Has Ray Cortines Got Cojones?

If not, LAUSD board could buckle to union over L.A. Times teacher-test-score expose

Santa Monica Council Launches Inquiry Into Police Investigation Of Latino School Board Member Oscar De La Torre

Oscar de la Torre.​The Santa Monica City Council has agreed to look into possible police misconduct after authorities put a school board member under suspicion for child endangerment and then dropped the investigation. The Santa Monica Police Department opened an investigation into Oscar de la ... More >>

Educating Maria

On L.A.'s Skid Row, a generational war over how to teach the American children of illegal immigrants

LAUSD Superintendent Ramon Cortines Retiring

​Following a frenzy of budget cuts and rapid changes to a struggling school system, Los Angeles Unifed School District Superintendent Ray Cortines announced Wednesday to the Daily News that he plans to retire next spring. "I'm tired," he told the newspaper.

State Superintendent Race Still Too Close to Call

Retired public school superintendent Larry Aceves​In an extremely close race that is still not official, retired public school superintendent Larry Aceves and state Senator Tom Torlakson appear to be heading for a run-off in the November general election for California Superintendent of Publi ... More >>

Larry Aceves and Tom Torlakson Move Forward in State Superintendent Race

State Assemblyman Tom Torlakson​The San Francisco Chronicle has called the statewide race for superintendent of public instruction, with retired public school superintendent Larry Aceves and state Assemblyman Tom Torlakson facing each other in a November run-off. State Senator Gloria Romero ... More >>

LAUSD Honchos Back Gloria Romero in Superintendent Race

State Sen. Gloria Romero.​Los Angeles Unified School District President Monica Garcia and Vice-President Yolie Flores are backing California State Senator Gloria Romero in her bid to become the next state superintendent of public instruction.Romero, a hard-charging reformer from Los Angeles w ... More >>

Will LAUSD Ever Adopt Merit Pay For Teachers?

Michelle Rhee, the hard-charging chancellor of Washington D.C.'s public school system, won a major battle over performance-based pay the other day, which now ties teachers' salaries to classroom results not seniority and improves teacher evaluations. LAUSD Superintendent Ramon Cortines​That news c ... More >>

L.A. School District To Consider Resolution Denouncing Arizona Immigration Law

​Los Angeles public schools president Monica Garcia was expected on Tuesday to propose a resolution denouncing Arizona's controversial immigration law and laying out ways to discuss the law in classrooms, according to La Opinion. "The goal is to ensure that America is a place where all citize ... More >>

California's Big Whiff on Education-Reform Money

What the hell led to the "Race to the Top" rejection from Obama?

Insiders Versus Charters at LAUSD

Strings were pulled, and Ramon Cortines was stopped by his own Board of Education

L.A. Medical-Pot Shops Peddle to LAUSD Pupils

As kids flood weed outlets, Ramon Cortines admits there's no plan

LAUSD's Finest: Los Angeles School Police

How an oblivious school board lets a tiny, scandal-ridden force endanger L.A. kids

Antonio's Kitchen Cabinet

A team advises the mayor how to fix troubled high schools. Most haven’t fixed any.

Is This the Part They Call Reform?

Villaraigosa doesn’t win a decisive victory, and one of his own candidates is already minimizing his role