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.