Op-Ed: THERE SHOULD BE NO STRIKE By Richard Wagoner Leaders and Board members of Los Angeles Unified School District would like the public to believe that the looming teachers strike is all about salary. Indeed, it could easily be: teachers have not received a raise in three years, the request by the Union (and the […]
Community Schools At The Margins Of Current ESEA Reauthorization Debates: Center Them In Bernie Sanders’ Presidential Education Platform
Right this very moment in the U.S. Senate, Senators are debating amendments being offered to the Senate-side bill to reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA, the current version commonly referred to as No Child Left Behind). Given that we have a sitting Senator (Bernie Sanders, I-VT) involved in the process and a past […]
LAUSD: Haste Makes Ed Tech Waste
By Cynthia Liu, CEO/Founder of K12NN. [BREAKING: The FBI carted away 20 boxes of documents relating to the iPad purchase from LAUSD offices late Monday, December 1, 2014.] Two education technology disasters mark the former LAUSD Superintendent’s brief tenure: the iPad debacle, born from cozy relationships with vendors and dependent upon broadband infrastructure that, in […]
Los Angeles Unified Must Refocus: Five Ways Bad Ed Tech Deals in LAUSD Hurt Kids Right Now
Recently released investigative reports by Southern California radio station KPCC have increased public scrutiny of Superintendent John Deasy’s cozy relationships with Apple and Pearson executives in the period 2011 to 2013, before both corporations won the 2013 bid to supply Los Angeles Unified with iPads and software. This is the infamous “$1 billion iPad” deal […]
iPad Watchdog Stuart Magruder’s Re-Appointment: Which Way Will LAUSD Go?
The question for many school districts around the country this spring was this: how are they supposed to give computer-based, end-of-year Common Core State Standards (CCSS) tests? For over a year in Los Angeles Unified, parents, students, teachers, and community members have wrestled with the details of Superintendent John Deasy’s 1:1 iPad program and its […]
BREAKING: American Institute of Architects, Los Angeles, Resubmits Stuart Magruder Appointment to LAUSD Bond Oversight Committee
This press release was issued by the American Institute of Architects, Los Angeles chapter just now. It calls for the re-appointment of Stuart Magruder to a second term on the Bond Oversight Committee that has been providing professional feedback on Los Angeles Unified use of bond funds for school facilities. AIA-LA Statement, LAUSD Citizens Oversight […]
March 14, 2014: Remarks at the Association of Children's Librarians Annual Institute
Cynthia Liu is CEO/Founder of K-12 News Network. On March 14, 2014, I was invited to speak to the Association of Childen’s Librarians of Northern California at their annual Institute in the beautiful San Francisco Main Public Library. Here’s the substance of the talk I gave. In re-arranging my address to the ACL for publication […]
LAUSD iPads and the Will of the Voters: Just the Facts, Please
Commentary by Public Policy Educator, Ellen Lubic, Director, Joining Forces for Education Today, Diane Ravitch posted on her website an article on the LA Times editorial which once again lambasted the Board of Education for micro managing the ‘poor beleaguered’ Superintendent of LAUSD, John Deasy. The title of Diane’s writing is Putting Bureaucrats First. Evidently the LA […]
Might Makes Right When Viewing LAUSD and California Nepotism…..or Does It?
Guest post by Ellen Lubic, educator and angry taxpayer. She is Director of Joining Forces for Education, a new non-profit group based in Los Angeles. Yesterday, the Los Angeles Times printed two stories that affect public school education, and those who ‘dabble’ in it. One was by journalist Howard Blume on the Billion Dollar iPad scandal at LAUSD, […]
Open Letter to President Obama — The One Book You Should Read on Public Education: Reign of Error, By Diane Ravitch
by Cynthia Liu Dear President Obama, You must read Professor Diane Ravitch’s latest book, Reign of Error: The Hoax of the Privatization Movement and the Danger to America’s Public Schools. You won’t like it. No one likes reading about their failures. And that’s exactly WHY you should read it. Your legacy is at stake. You […]