Were it to come to fruition, the Broad Foundation‘s recently announced plan to expand charter schools in LA Unified to include half of all district students would create a system that is unprecedented in size and scope across the United States. LA Unified already has more charter students than any in the nation. Whether expressing support or opposition to...

Folks, this one was down… to… the… wire! Our poll asking readers to share their opinions on the Broad Foundation‘s massive charter expansion plan got lots of votes and even some national attention (thank you, Diane Ravitch). In the end, it was a virtual tie between readers responding with answers that strongly favored the Broad...

The “Great Public Schools Now Initiative” was unveiled recently and has caused great controversy at LA Unified. Led by the Broad Foundation, it has set a goal of adding 260 charter schools to low-income areas to enroll half of all LA Unified students within eight years. The plan is estimated to cost almost half a...

Nearly 90 percent of Los Angeles residents support improving the city’s public education system, and almost three quarters of them favor expanding charter public schools, according to a poll commissioned by the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation and the California Charter Schools Association (CCSA) released this morning. Conducted over 10 days through Oct. 1, the poll comes...

With his massive plan to enroll half of all LA Unified’s students into charter schools, billionaire philanthropist Eli Broad is threatening major disruptions at LA Unified, cementing his role as Public Enemy No. 1 to many district and local union leaders. But Broad’s enduring support for public charter schools now appears to be contributing to...

In building a case for creating 260 charter schools within in LA Unified eight years at a cost of $490 million, the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation has cited “significant” gains by three charter organizations that have received $75 million from the foundation. But when all factors are considered, there is little conclusive evidence in the report...

LA Unified School Board President Steve Zimmer kept up his attack against the Broad Foundation charter schools expansion plan, appearing on KNBC’s “News Conference” yesterday and calling the plan a “perversion of what the charter movement was supposed to be.” “The reason why I’m concerned is because this is really a business plan that doesn’t address all students,”...

Steve Zimmer, president of the LA Unified school board, said today that plans by Eli Broad and other philanthropists to expand the number of charter schools in the district represents “a strategy to bring down LAUSD that leaves 250,000 kids vulnerable to damage.” A draft report of the plan appears show how the organizations involved...

A few days after the posh parties with the likes of Reese Witherspoon, Orlando Bloom, Ed Ruscha and Frank Gehry to celebrate the opening of the new Broad Museum, the LA Unified teachers union, UTLA, is planning a protest at the museum on Sunday, aimed at its namesake: Eli Broad, one of LA’s leading philanthropists. More specifically,...