School overcrowding is down and buildings are safer and updated. But according to a recent report, there’s still $60 billion worth of work needed on LA Unified schools. Since 1997 an unprecedented series of bonds approved specifically for school buildings to ease overcrowding has provided the district with $19.5 billion. While the district has completed 20,000 modernization...

It may seem arbitrary, but there are usually half a dozen days off in the LAUSD school calendar that are called “Unassigned Days.” They are not for an official state or federal holiday, but somehow they usually coincide with a religious holiday. So, the first Unassigned Day of the year fell on Sept. 14 when teachers...

* UPDATED LA Unified today finally released a report that confirming that two charter schools, Magnolia Science Academy 6 and Magnolia Science Academy 7, were operating with insufficient funds and for years and have been financially mismanaged. The 78-page report, prepared by an outside firm for the district’s Office of the Inspector General, concludes that...

Celebrities are often the trendsetters around the country and LA, as health and spiritual movements like yoga, Kabbalah and diet fads get widespread media attention due to their famous adherents. But there is one celebrity-led health trend that has state and LA officials alarmed, and that is the plunging number of children receiving vaccinations against...

Washington Post education reporter Jay Mathews took an in-depth look at Los Angeles County this month when he applied his Challenge Index rankings and came up with a list of the top 75 private and public schools. The results may surprise some, as Mathews noted that only six schools on the list are private, and...

Getting safely to and from school can be tricky in a rough neighborhood. To make it easier, City Attorney Mike Feuer launched a pilot program earlier this month at four LA Unified elementary schools, aimed at keeping kids safe. The Neighborhood School Safety Program targets schools in areas with high “quality of life” crimes, including...

* UPDATED Concerned by a slew of problems with the district’s new student management computer system, board member Tamar Galatzan said today she is asking the district’s Inspector General to conduct an audit of the defective rollout. “I demand to know what happened and how this got so messed up,” she told LA School Report. “Because until it...

School starts again today. Another year of hoped for higher graduation rates, lower dropout rates, higher academic achievement, lower temperatures between district and teacher union officials negotiating a new bargaining agreement. So what’s really new this year in LA Unified? 1. More digital devices are coming. They’re not going to be all iPads. Thanks to...