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LAUSD board to consider removing a policy that forces schools to hire from a list of displaced teachers — and forces teachers into assignments they don’t want
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Lessons from Parkland: 6 big things we’ve learned about student safety, school security and resilience since the tragic 2018 massacre
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Commentary: The time is now for parents to ask tough questions of education leaders
The Morning Read
Your Daily Roundup of LAUSD news from across the web | 02.13.19
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Commentary: LAUSD may owe $13.6 billion for health care & pensions — and the strike made things worse. Obamacare is a way out
When then-President Barack Obama signed the Affordable Care Act in 2010, the law immediately made some employee benefits offered by state and local governments redundant at best or regressive at worst. This issue is playing out in a painful way in Los Angeles. Teachers in the second-largest school district are now back at work after...
By Chad Aldeman | February 3, 2019
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A mom asks: What if we talked with our kids about school the way we do about football?
A version of this essay originally appeared on the VolumeandLightNashville.org blog. The Super Bowl. Football’s field of dreams. The Mecca of elite athleticism and competition. For avid football fans, the Big Game is a big deal, even if the teams they’ve cheered for since forever (ahem, Steelers/Packers) failed to make it to the largest stage in American...
By Vesia Wilson-Hawkins | February 3, 2019
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After charter moratorium vote, families voice anger, betrayal, disappointment — and vow to fight back
*Updated Feb.1 Families, teachers and students from Los Angeles’s independent charter schools turned out by the thousands Tuesday to urge school board members to reject a resolution calling for a moratorium on new charters in L.A. Unified. After the resolution passed with only one dissenter, parents said they felt betrayed and worried about what the...
By Esmeralda Fabián Romero | January 31, 2019
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Commentary: LAUSD board retreats from fiscal challenge again — and teachers union boss may be the big winner
Nearly a year ago, the Los Angeles Unified School District Board of Directors voted to approve a new three-year agreement with United Teachers Los Angeles and seven other district bargaining units, extending union members’ ability to earn free lifetime health, dental, and vision care for themselves, their spouses, and their dependents. Long acknowledged as one...
By Chris Bertelli | January 30, 2019
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After thousands rally for charter schools, LAUSD board votes for a moratorium
*Updated Jan. 30 Hours after about 3,500 charter school supporters rallied at Los Angeles Unified’s headquarters, the school board approved a resolution Tuesday calling for a moratorium on new charters. Only the state can change charter law, so the 5-1 vote directs the district to ask state leaders to study potential changes to the law...
By Taylor Swaak and Esmeralda Fabián Romero | January 29, 2019
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Antonucci: Things you might not know about the Los Angeles teacher contract
Mike Antonucci’s Union Report appears weekly at LA School Report. *Updated The 40-page tentative agreement reached between L.A. Unified and United Teachers Los Angeles in the early hours of Jan. 22 has a lot of details and dense contract language. Teachers did not have much time to read and digest it before they had to vote, and...
By Mike Antonucci | January 29, 2019
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‘A call to action’: School board vote on supporting a charter moratorium leaves a lot unanswered but presents an opportunity for inclusive talk and real change, advocates say
Today’s L.A. Unified school board vote on a resolution calling for a moratorium on new charter schools is the latest fallout in the battle against charters that engulfed the district during the six-day teacher strike. But despite scant detail on the resolution’s origin and impact, advocates believe it poses an opportunity for an inclusive community...
By Taylor Swaak | January 29, 2019
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Commentary: A blanket ban on new charters makes little sense. We need more, not less, of what works
There’s a simple and hard truth to public education in Los Angeles: education access in our city has never been equitable. Most of our well-off families live in neighborhoods with excellent neighborhood schools or can afford, and choose, private school. But for the vast majority of kids in our city — particularly low-income students, students...
By Emilio Pack and Cristina de Jesus | January 28, 2019
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Commentary: With strike, L.A. teachers union came out strong fighting for its members. But who’s fighting for our kids?
As I watched the Los Angeles teachers strike play out over the past couple of weeks, I’ve been impressed by the strength of the teachers union. It is fiercely committed and stops at nothing to fight for working conditions of the adults it represents — the teachers. But lost in the conversation is the most...
By Alma V. Marquez | January 28, 2019
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After teacher strike agreement, LAUSD school board to vote Tuesday on supporting charter school moratorium
The L.A. Unified school board will vote Tuesday on a resolution that would direct the superintendent to pursue a moratorium on new charter schools in the district. The resolution would also require the school board to call on state officials to study the financial impact of charters on the district to inform revisions to the...
By Taylor Swaak | January 25, 2019