founder of GoMamaGuide.com and LAUSD parent
Author of Westside Guide to Public Elementary Schools, Westside Guide to Middle School, Valley Guide to Public Elementary Schools, and the forthcoming GoMamaGuide to LAUSD; also an LAUSD parent; founder of GoMamaGuide.com
The State of the LAUSD, Taking Advantage of LA’s Public School System Next Tuesday is back to school day for LA Unified and, yesterday, Superintendent John Deasy gave his annual State of the District address at Garfield High School in East LA. He said new state money will help reverse years of recession-era cutbacks, while hundreds of new teachers, librarians and other staff are being hired. Fifteen hundred administrators were in the audience, and each seat featured a sealed envelope—with the name of a high school freshman at risk of dropping out. John Deasy joins us tonight.
It’s a Cruel Summer for LAUSD Kids LA Schools are among those that will open again on Monday—which many parents think is unseasonably early. Superintendent John Deasy told LA Unified school administrators today to be more courageous in standing up for the rights of students. In his annual address on the state of the LAUSD, he pronounced it improving… with a dire warning about what might happen next.
Shorter School Calendar Has Parents Breathing Sigh of Relief Superintendent Ramon Cortines says this weekend's agreement to save jobs by cutting school days demonstrates "a partnership" between the LAUSD and its unions. Some 1800 teachers, 100 administrations and 300 librarians, nurses and counselors will keep their jobs. Class sizes will stay the same, but more instruction will have to be crammed into less time with five fewer school days this year and seven next year. What does it mean for parents?
LAUSD Slashes 1.6 Billion Dollars over Three Years Yesterday, the Los Angeles Unified School Board passed a $5.5 billion budget. That sounds like a lot, but the LAUSD is the nation’s second largest, and the operating budget’s been cut so much that 2200 teachers will have to be laid off, class sizes will increase and in coming years, it’s going to get worse.
All Things Not Created Equal in Teacher Layoffs LA Unified has sent pink slips to thousands of teachers. Individual schools will receive a total of $270 million in federal stimulus money to buy back jobs as they see fit. But not every school will get the same amount of money. Title I schools, where 40% of the students are poor enough to qualify for the school lunch program, will get $1000 per teacher. Non-Title I schools will get $195.
Can Federal Stimulus Money Save California Schools? Education spending is so confusing that different reports contain different numbers for how much California schools might get from $44 billion in stimulus money. But the conclusions are all the same, that there won't be enough to avoid more cuts in programs and a sizeable number of layoffs. At the LA Unified School District , Superintendent Ramon Cortines threatened to quit if the elected board did not layoff 8500 people, including 6000 teachers. The board voted to postpone any action, and Cortines is negotiating with various unions.
Who's to blame for the opioid crisis? Some of the lawyers who took on Big Tobacco are now going after Big Pharma. It’s all about the deadly epidemic of opioid use. Are the drug companies to blame? What about the users? Later, on today’s Talking Point: making sense of Britain’s upset election.
Janesville and the American Dream Janesville, Wisconsin is the hometown of Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan. But he couldn’t prevent the closing of the General Motors factory after 100 years. On this Memorial Day rebroadcast of To the Point, we hear what’s happened to what once was a model of American middle-class unity.
The week that wouldn't quit Will next week get even weirder? (Special one-hour episode)
Human Rights in the era of Donald Trump President Trump’s UN Ambassador, Nikki Haley, said today the US might pull out of the United Nations’ Human Rights Council. Serious violators of human rights are members of the Council itself–and a US resignation could make things worse. Later on today’s show, now that he’s into his second term, comedian turned US Senator Al Franken is telling jokes again.
