“I think it’s a huge blow to the [Democrats for Education] brand,” says Green Dot Public Charter Schools founder Steve Barr in this new Huffington Post story about the controversial endorsement of Prop. 32 by Gloria Romero, former state legislator and current head of Democrats For Education Reform California.  “I don’t want to have much to do...

LAUSD Board’s Martinez Wants To Restore Arts Funding In Schools She also wants a commitment to make arts a component of the new Common Core curriculum, integrating skills like drama, drawing and dance into the teaching of math, English and science. The national standards are set to take effect in Fall 2014, and the district is...

You might be surprised to find out that “Won’t Back Down” — a screening of which I snuck into the other night — isn’t actually the fictionalized story of Desert Trails, site of the real-life still-unfolding parent trigger attempt outside of Los Angeles, or the CA parent trigger law that allows parents to vote to...

Yesterday, the CTA dropped another $6.9 million into the fight against Proposition 32, which would, among other things, prohibit unions from taking money automatically deducted from their members’ paychecks and spending it on political activity. (See LA Times:  Teachers union gives another $6.9 million to Prop. 32 fight.) “This is a huge priority for us,...

Gloria Romero to Antonio Villaraigosa: We’re not removing you from Prop 32 ad SFGate: LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa was ticked that the pro-Prop 32 folks were using his name and comments “out of context” in an ad. He asked them to remove his name/comments from the ad promoting the measure on the November ballot that would ban...

LAUSD restructures district offices Daily Breeze: As of this school year LAUSD no longer consists of eight geographical district offices by number, but instead is composed of four “educational service centers” designated by direction — north, south, east and west — and a fifth at-large center that is based not on geography but school type. Most local school...

You might enjoy (or be appalled by) this Thursday night segment from the CNN Show Anderson Cooper 360 including footage of reporter Kyung Lah chasing the four SB1530 abstainers around the statehouse. It’s a little heavy-handed, but three of the four legislators play right into CNN’s hands by ducking interviews and issuing terse “no comments”...

Rumors are flying fast and furious about Assembly Bill 5, a proposed amendment to the Stull Act offered by San Fernando Valley Assemblyman Felipe Fuentes. The latest word from EdSource is that AB 5 is being revised slightly to try and mollify opponents and also to help make the state eligible for a No Child Left...

Prop 32 would have huge implications for LAUSD politics, drastically limiting the amount of money unions could spend on local races. In 2011, UTLA spent over $2 million on school board races. And at first it seems like a straightforward, partisan issue– Democrats and Unions vs. Republicans and rich guys. But one Democrat has stepped forward to support...