Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has added his voice to a group of education leaders who are reluctant to support the current union-supported teacher dismissal bill being considered in Sacramento unless it’s amended to address key issues. In an April 19 letter sent to the bill’s sponsor, Assemblymember Joan Buchanan (D-Alamo), Villaraigosa praises Buchanan for...

From LA School Report contributor Hillel Aron: “Bad teachers are rarely fired. In the 2005-06 school year, according to LAUSD’s human resources division, just six of L.A.’s army of 34,000 teachers were dismissed, and 10 were convinced to resign. In 2006-07, those numbers were three and 15…. “Without fanfare, the school district famous for its...

State Senator Alex Padilla (D-Pacoima) announced Thursday that he was shelving SB 10, his controversial bill intended to speed up and streamline the teacher dismissal process in California public schools. Now, Padilla plans to join forces with Assemblymember Joan Buchanan (D-Alamo), head of the Assembly’s Education Committee, who introduced her own alternative teacher dismissal bill...

Both LAUSD Board Member Tamar Galatzan and UTLA President Warren Fletcher have plans to push for reform of the district’s teacher misconduct investigation process, but their plans have different focuses and end goals, according to a LA Daily News report. Board Member Galatzan is focusing on how long the teacher investigation process can take (an...

United Teachers Los Angeles announced in the latest edition of its weekly newsletter that it plans to push back harder against LAUSD’s so-called “teacher jails,” where teachers accused of misconduct are sent to wait while the district investigates their cases. As LA School Report contributor Hillel Aron wrote in a recent LA Weekly report, teachers sent to “jail” are usually...

From LA School Report contributor Hillel Aron, writing for the LA Weekly: “On the outskirts of LAUSD’s sprawling, mazelike Educational Service Center in Reseda sit seven long, shabby, peach-colored bungalows with barred windows and rotting wood, which all but scream Southern California public education. “In one of them is a roughly 35-square-foot room where 25 or...

State Audit on How LA Unified Handles Child Abuse Claims The results of a state audit on how L.A. Unified handles child abuse claims is set to be released Thursday morning. KPCC California School Districts Face Huge Debt on Risky Bonds Two hundred school districts across California have borrowed billions of dollars using a costly and...