CALIFORNIA | LOCAL
September 2, 2013 | By Larry Gordon
If California public schools were graded the way students are, the result would be a middling “C” grade, according to a new poll. The PACE/USC Rossier School of Education poll found that about 45% of respondents, the largest share, said they would give California public schools a C. Fewer than 1% awarded the schools an A and about 9% judged them worthy of a B. More than 25% went for a D and nearly 14% said a failing grade was deserved....
OPINION
May 13, 2013 | By Michele Siqueiros
California has proved to be a land of opportunity where hard work delivers prosperity and nurtures innovation. Its human capital has helped the state develop into the world's ninth-largest economy, which attracts nearly half of the venture capital in the nation. But this opportunity and success have not reached everyone, and the California dream is in danger of slipping away. Today, California ranks first in the country in the number of working low-income families. "Working Hard, Left Behind," a new study conducted by the Campaign for College Opportunity, found that millions in the state are working hard but are increasingly left behind.
CALIFORNIA | LOCAL
March 26, 2013 | By Michael J. Mishak and Howard Blume, Los Angeles Times
SACRAMENTO - When Michelle Rhee wants to make a point about what she sees as the coddling of American children, she refers to her daughters' abundant soccer trophies. "My daughters suck at soccer," she says to crowds that roar with knowing laughter. The former District of Columbia schools chancellor is pitch perfect in the role of outraged parent and education reformer, distilling complex policy debates into bare-knuckled banter. In Rhee's world, as she recently told crowds in Los Angeles and Sacramento, teacher seniority protections are "whack," principals can be "nutty" and charter schools can be "crappy.
OPINION
August 26, 2012 | Peter Schrag, Peter Schrag, a former editorial page editor of the Sacramento Bee, is the author of "Not Fit for Our Society: Immigration and Nativism in America."
The University of California's plea to the U.S. Supreme Court, filed earlier this month, to uphold race-based affirmative action in college admissions is -- in effect -- a confession of failure. UC's plea comes in an amicus brief in a crucial case challenging affirmative action at the University of Texas. If the court declares the Texas policy unconstitutional, as it well may, it would mark the end of affirmative action in all public higher education in America and, just possibly, for any private institution getting federal funds.
CALIFORNIA | LOCAL
June 9, 2012 | By Nicholas Riccardi, Los Angeles Times
SACRAMENTO - In a second-floor walk-up near the Capitol, two children of one of the world's richest men used to slump into armchairs in the evening and gripe about California education, unwittingly laying the groundwork for a potential upheaval in state politics. That was a decade ago, and the apartment was a crash pad for Molly Munger, a Pasadena lawyer and the eldest daughter of Warren Buffett's billionaire business partner. Having traded in a successful career as a corporate litigator to become a civil rights attorney after the 1992 Los Angeles riots, she was in the capital often to help low-income neighborhoods fight for school construction money.
CALIFORNIA | LOCAL
May 31, 2012 | By Howard Blume, Los Angeles Times
State officials are neglecting their legal obligation to ensure that students who are learning English are receiving an adequate and equal education, according to a lawsuit filed Wednesday by the ACLU of Southern California and other advocates. The focus of the litigation is a small school system near Fresno, but the legal implications are broader: The suit accuses the state of poor oversight and says it must, by law, act to make sure these students are keeping pace academically with their peers across California.