Schools

One of the best-loved murals on the campus of 186th Street Elementary School in Gardena depicts some of the world's most inspirational figures -- Mahatma Gandhi, Mother Teresa, Martin Luther King Jr. and Cesar Chavez -- underlined by a question, "Are you a peacemaker?"

As the state weighs cutting about $8.1 billion from public schools, colleges and universities, scores of educators, parents, students and others told lawmakers Monday that such reductions would jeopardize student success and safety in the short term and California's prosperity in the long term.

California's education leaders on Saturday lauded the release of $3.1 billion in federal economic stimulus funds for education, which includes more than half a billion dollars for hard-pressed colleges and universities. The state's universities are facing budget-related enrollment cutbacks, higher fees and class reductions in the fall, and officials said they hoped some of the most painful cuts could be avoided.

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa on Tuesday unveiled a refurbished parent center on a middle school campus in South Los Angeles to spotlight his fledgling improvement efforts at 10 schools. The updated parent room at Gompers Middle School was joyfully received, but his overall effort has hit snags as his team struggles to boost student achievement while also including teachers and parents in vital decisions on how to move forward.

A 9-year-old boy took his grandmother's pistol to an El Monte elementary school Tuesday and accidentally discharged it as school was letting out in the afternoon, police said. No one was hurt in the incident at Baker Elementary about 2 p.m., when the boy, who has not been identified, took the .22-caliber semiautomatic pistol out of his backpack and fired a shot into the asphalt of a sports court.

A speech by President Obama has prompted accusations of "indoctrinating" America's youth and led to calls for "transparency" -- nearly a week before the address is scheduled to be delivered to the nation's schoolchildren. The U.S. Department of Education last week announced plans for the president to speak "directly to the nation's schoolchildren about persisting and succeeding in school," as Secretary Arne Duncan wrote in an e-mail to principals at more than 100,000 schools. The 15- to 20-minute address is scheduled for Tuesday, the first day of school for many districts, at Wakefield High School in Arlington, Va. It will be broadcast over the Internet, on C-SPAN and via satellite.

The Los Angeles Unified School District is trying to make the transition from a centralized bureaucracy that dictates the minutiae of daily education in its schools to a model that confers more power on individual schools and holds them accountable for the results. Yet the central office still seems to have trouble knowing when to let go. Its waffling is the latest obstacle to the district's new initiative to open perhaps 250 schools to outside management, such as charter operators or community organizations.

Leaders of a Jewish seminary in Los Angeles are arguing against a proposal by its parent organization that could lead to the closure of the campus as part of a larger financial restructuring. The head of the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion has raised the possibility of closing two of its three U.S. campuses. The three are in Los Angeles, Cincinnati and New York.

Since the cancellation of virtually all public summer school in Los Angeles, Yolanda Murrieta has been scrambling to find alternatives to keep her three children busy and academically engaged. Tutoring, which would cost hundreds of dollars a month, is not an option. Instead, Murrieta is cobbling together a schedule that includes regular library visits and trips to the Boys & Girls Club.

Facts remained murky Wednesday on the Israeli tank shelling of a U.N. school in the Gaza Strip that U.N. relief officials said left 43 Palestinians dead and almost 150 injured. The Israeli military continued to defend its troops, saying they were responding to mortar fire from militants on or near the school grounds, where the U.N. says about 1,600 people were taking shelter from the fighting between Israel and Hamas.