The Chocolate-Flavored Milk Wars Come to Santa Monica
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Analysis of recent test scores at LAUSD campuses as compared to four outside reform organizations, and banning chocolate and other-flavored milk at schools. Also, the last of the big-name aerospace companies leaves LA. On our partial rebroadcast of today's To the Point, America’s largest credit rating agency is now under investigation. At the same time, local governments are taking another look at whether S&P is serving their needs.
Banner image: A student drinks a bottle of Nesquik chocolate milk during lunch hour. Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
Main Topic
Test Scores and Milk Wars ()
We have two school stories tonight, both full of surprises.
Analyzing scores at the lowest performing schools across the board, the Los Angeles Times has found that, when it comes to improved proficiency in Math and English, schools run by the LA Unified School District itself are out-gunning them all, including those run by outside reform organizations and Mayor Villaraigosa's Partnership for LA Schools. Howard Blume has been following the story for the Times.
Our second story is part of a national movement. The LAUSD banned chocolate milk and other sweetened milk from school lunches in April of this year. That sounds like a healthy move, but it turns out to be controversial after all. Primary care physician Harriet Fraser has picked up where the LAUSD left off and headed a campaign to ban sweetened milk in the Santa Monica-Malibu School District, where her child goes to school. Keith-Thomas Ayoob, Associate Professor in the Department of Pediatrics at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York, takes a contrary view.
Guests:
- Howard Blume: Los Angeles Times, @howardblume
- Harriet Fraser: Santa Monica parent
- Keith-Thomas Ayoob: Albert Einstein College of Medicine
Reporter's Notebook
Northrop Says Goodbye to Southern California ()
Northrop Grumman is the last of the big-name aerospace companies headquartered in Southern California, and now it's going, too. Like others before it, Northrop will move its top executives closer to the action in Washington, DC. In this case, to Falls Church, Virginia. D.J. Waldie is a historian, poet and author of many books on many subjects. He'll have an essay in the forthcoming book, Blue Sky Metropolis: The Aerospace Century in Southern California.
Guests:
- D.J. Waldie: retired Lakewood City official
Links:
Main Topic
Is Justice Department's Investigation of S&P Retaliation? ()
When Standard & Poor's downgraded America's credit rating, questions were raised about the agency's role in failing to blow the whistle on sub-prime mortgages. Now the Justice Department has launched an investigation. At the same time, local governments are taking another look at whether S&P is serving their needs. Louise Story broke the news of the investigation today in the New York Times.
Guests:
- Louise Story: New York Times, @louisestory
Links:
Underwriters
Which Way L.A.? is made possible in part by the Ralph M. Parsons Foundation, the Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Foundation, the Nathan Cummings Foundation, and the John Randolph Haynes and Dora Haynes Foundation, which supports study and research into policy issues of the Los Angeles region.
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