Earlier this month, LA School Report interviewed education players in California about AB 375, sponsored by Assemblymember Joan Buchanan (D-Alamo), which would streamline the dismissal process for teachers accused of sexual abuse and other forms of misconduct.proposal. EdVoice, LAUSD, and others generally said they were happy something was being done to improve the current teacher dismissal process....

Referencing the recent District 4 primary between Kate Anderson and Steve Zimmer, StudentsFirst head Michelle Rhee last week boasted that  the Coalition for School Reform effort she helped fund “came within three percentage points of unseating an incumbent, union-backed Board member – something that would have been unthinkable just a couple of election cycles ago.” But...

Santa Monica Mayor Richard Bloom seems like he’s on the verge of having won his race against Assembly member Betsy Butler. (See: KPCC, LA Observed, LA Weekly). If this happens, Bloom will have won despite being outspent by a wide margin, lacking key Democratic endorsements, and even having the state Democratic party circulate flyers against him.  And his victory...

There were 28 state legislative contests pitting two Democrats against each other this year, according to this October 17 LA Times article. But the still-unresolved contest between incumbent Betsy Butler and challenger Richard Bloom for California State Assembly District 50 may be one of the only situations in which the state Democratic Party not only endorsed the incumbent Democrat but also...

Santa Monica Mayor Richard Bloom, a Democrat running for the 50th State Assembly seat against Democratic incumbent Betsy Butler, isn’t refraining from criticizing his opponent for her abstention during the committee vote on SB 1530. “I’ve never done that in 13 years of being a public official,” he told me earlier this week. “I think...