Earlier this week, the LA Weekly honed in on the outsized influence California’s largest teachers union is perceived to have on education policy issues, including recent efforts to speed the removal of sexual predators from the classroom. “That’s how CTA infamously killed a [2012] law to fire sex-pervert teachers, SB 1530,” LA Weekly writer Matthew Mullins wrote. “A...

Garcetti, Greuel Debate Who Can Best Lead Los Angeles As Mayor The two candidates for mayor of Los Angeles made robust cases for themselves in a televised debate Monday night from the USC Health Sciences Campus east of downtown, but they became most passionate when they squared off, again, on the question of who would...

L.A. School Board to Consider Faster Investigation of Teachers Sexual misconduct allegations at Miramonte Elementary School sparked a surge of investigations of Los Angeles teachers, pushing the ranks of those in “teacher jail” to more than 300 — and prompting officials this week to consider the rights of accused employees. LA Times See also: AP,...

Greuel to Release Education Plan Greuel might have wanted her staff to do a little better advance work, because Garcetti is well liked at the school — Camino Nuevo Charter Academy — which he helped get a $700,000 grant to help build a new soccer field,” reports The Times. KPCC Eric Garcetti Avoids Schoolyard Tussle...

24th Street Elementary Pulling Parent Trigger The Parent Trigger at 24th Street Elementary School in West Adams keeps chugging along — despite what L.A. mayoral candidate Eric Garcetti thinks about it. LA Weekly See also: San Bernardino Sun New Analysis Bolsters Case Against Suspension, Researchers Say The results of a new analysis of out-of-school-suspension data...

Teachers to Vote on ‘Confidence’ in L.A. Schools Supt. Deasy Members of the L.A. teachers union begin casting ballots Tuesday in a symbolic confidence-vote referendum on L.A. schools Supt. John Deasy. LA Times See also: LA School Report CTA Goes Hollywood on Teacher Dismissal Bills An adage in politics is that if you can’t beat...

Sen. Padilla Drops His Teacher Dismissal Bill Two days after Assemblymember Joan Buchanan, D-Alamo, introduced a bill that would make it quicker and potentially cheaper to fire teachers, Sen. Alex Padillo, D-Los Angeles, has shelved his controversial version of a teacher dismissal bill and signed on as a principal co-author of hers. EdSource L.A.’s Mayoral...

The teachers union’s on-again, off-again plan to survey its members on what they think about LAUSD Superintendent John Deasy’s job performance is back on again. However, this time around the union has a much stronger idea of what kinds of negative views its members should express. The union first mentioned in January that it planned...

“UTLA has treated the parents, the process, and the law with respect. They deserve real credit for their actions in this regard, and we recognize and appreciate the professional nature in which they have approached this important effort.” – Blog post from Parent Revolution (read full text here) Previous posts: You Say You Want a Revolution; Contrasting Reactions...

Despite Increase in Funding, School Districts Still Sending Layoff Notices to Teachers Year after year, March 15th has been a date of dread for California public school teachers. The date, wAhich falls on a Friday this year, is the preliminary deadline for school districts to send out “Reduction In Force” notices for cuts to next...