In L.A. School Board Race, Sky-High Spending Continues Record spending will continue in the last remaining race for a seat on the Los Angeles school board, as a political action committee has put together a war chest of about $600,000 to use on behalf of a candidate endorsed by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. LA Times See...

The Coalition for School Reform’s District 6 (East San Fernando Valley) runoff election coffers have been replenished thanks to big donations received from Los Angeles philanthropist Eli Broad and StudentsFirst, Michelle Rhee’s education advocacy group, among others. According to reports just filed with the LA City Ethics Commission, Broad gave the Coalition $250,000. StudentsFirst contributed another...

Voters head to the polls in less than six weeks to decide the East San Fernando Valley District 6 School Board runoff between Antonio Sanchez and Monica Ratliff, but things are off to a pretty slow start when it comes to fundraising and spending. In terms of direct campaign fundraising, Ratliff hasn’t raised any money at all...

California Democrats Blast Efforts to Overhaul Schools California Democrats on Sunday condemned efforts led by members of their own party to overhaul the nation’s schools, arguing that groups such as StudentsFirst and Democrats for Education Reform are fronts for Republicans and corporate interests. LA Times L.A. School Reform Effort Draws Diverse Group of Wealthy Donors...

Last week, the Coalition for School Reform announced a new spokesperson would be taking over for the May 21 runoff between District 6 candidates Monica Ratliff and Antonio Sanchez. The reform-oriented independent expenditure committee has also fired up its Twitter feed (@ReformLAUSD), begun training a new set of campaign organizers (pictured), and announced its first voter...

Former District 4 (Westside/Hollywood) School Board candidate Kate Anderson sounded relaxed and content during a phone interview yesterday afternoon. The Mar Vista parent laughed easily and often, and said she was getting to see her children a lot more in the month since the March 5 primary. But she wasn’t without ideas and regrets in terms...

The new spokesman for the Coalition for School Reform is a familiar face — Addisu Demissie of 50+1 Strategies, the Oakland-based strategist who ran the Coalition’s field operation in the primary. Demissie replaces Janelle Erickson, who recently took a job as campaign manager for Mayoral candidate Wendy Greuel. The Coalition was 1-1-1 in the primary.  It helped get...

Insiders who spoke with LA School Report over the past few days generally rejected criticisms aimed by some outside observers at the Coalition for School Reform-funded campaign to elect a slate of reform-minded candidates to the LAUSD School Board. “Because Kate [Anderson] lost, every single thing [the Coalition] did looks wrong,” said one insider who — like...

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...

At first glance, the upcoming District 6 (East San Fernando Valley) runoff election between Antonio Sanchez and Monica Ratliff looks like it might share many similarities to the District 5 election two years ago. The 2011 runoff (for an area running from Los Feliz to Maywood) pitted reform candidate Luis Sanchez (no relation to Antonio) against...