Articles tagged with education

Governor’s budget. Gov. Jerry Brown’s latest budget proposal includes more money for schools, and less money for just about everything else. Even with state revenues surging, Brown’s revised budget trims $1.3 billion from the plan he presented in January.
Brown says there’s no guarantee the surge in tax revenue will last. And he says California’s finances remain unstable because of the federal sequester budget cuts …

On today’s Mixer, we welcomed Gene Maddaus from the LA Weekly and Howard Blume, the education reporter from the Los Angeles Times.
There are a couple of new polls that came out this week. One comes from the Pat Brown Institute of Public Affairs at Cal State Los Angeles, showing 46% of likely voters backing Wendy Greuel and 45% who back Eric Garcetti.
Nine percent are still undecided.
The Cal State survey shows Greuel polls …

Immigrant tally. A new study confirms that the national debate over immigration reform is as important in Los Angeles as anywhere in the country.
One in 10 adults in L.A. County either crossed the U.S. border illegally or overstayed their visa, according to a report by USC researchers. In some parts of Koreatown and South L.A. that number is 1 in 3.
The report by USC’s …

Algebra was responsible for the first F I ever got.
While I was never a straight-A student, I wasn’t a screw-up either. But tell that to Mexican-immigrant parents who dropped out of school after first grade and took pride in seeing their offspring get the education they never had. I’ll never forget that dreadful parent-teacher conference after that seventh grade F, or the silence in …

A few years ago, the Children’s Nature Institute moved its headquarters from a rustic outpost in Franklin Canyon to the very urban Pico-Union neighborhood with the mission of raising awareness of the nature that exists in the urban world. They also started taking kids and their families on urban nature hikes —  in their own neighborhoods. The Institute also takes nearly 20,000 kids, ages three to …

Day of activism. Marches, rallies, prayer vigils and voter registration drives are taking place up and down California and nationwide today as activists work to shape the immigration reform debate.  A major rally is also scheduled in Washington, D.C., where bipartisan groups in the House and Senate are putting the finishing touches on reform proposals. The activists want to make sure those proposals include …

Downtown LA’s population has more than quadrupled in the past decade. Many of the new arrivals are families with young children, and they say there aren’t enough good public schools in the area.
Last year, a group of downtown parents decided to start their own elementary school. Metro Charter was approved by the LA school board this month and is scheduled to open in the …

While officials in Washington debate gun legislation, cities and counties are debating how they can make schools safer in the wake of the Newtown massacre. One question that arises is: should local school districts invest in armed guards or in services that may prevent violence in the first place?

Last month the small city of Fontana, in San Bernardino County, received a shipment of semi-automatic …

Governor Jerry Brown delivered his State of the State address today. In a wide-ranging speech, Brown said California has “confounded our critics.” Brown quoted the bible, Oliver Wendell Holmes and Franklin Roosevelt, and laid out a blueprint for his next two years in office.
Raphe Sonenshein is executive director of the Pat Brown Institute at Cal State-Los Angeles, and he spoke with KCRW’s Warren Olney …

School Shooting. Taft Union High School in Kern County is closed this morning, one day after a 16-year-old opened fire with a shotgun in a classroom and critically injured a peer. Authorities he’ll be charged with attempted murder. The teen allegedly targeted two boys who he claimed bullied him. One of those boys – a football player – is the injured student. He’s expected …

Stories we are following today in the KCRW newsroom:
Deep pockets. A non-partisan group says more than $350 million has been spent on California’s 11 statewide ballot measures. Ironically, Proposition 32, a measure that aims to reduce the influence of campaign contributors on state politics, has drawn the most money: almost $132 million. Overall, the research organization MapLight says Prop. 32 and two competing tax …

We continue our series on state propositions with Prop. 38, a measure that aims to reverse the damage of a half-decade of budget slashing by raising $10 billion a year for California schools.
If Governor Jerry Brown is staking his political legacy on Proposition 30, then L.A. civil rights attorney Molly Munger is staking a large chunk of her personal fortune on Proposition 38. Two …

It’s enough to make a diligent citizen’s head spin. Californians are being asked to vote up or down on 11 statewide ballot measures next month. It’s a dizzying array of issues ranging from school funding and genetically modified foods to the death penalty and campaign finance reform, and KCRW will be trying to help listeners make sense of it all. The most hotly contested measure on the …

The LAPD is investigating detective work that put a Los Angeles man in prison 19 years ago—for a murder he did not commit. We talk with him about his new life on the outside. Listen below:

UPDATED 8/14/12:
Today is the first day of school for students in the Los Angeles Unified School District. Over the next few weeks, millions of students and teachers around California will be getting ready for the start of the new school year; and as teachers and staff gear up for another year of English, history, algebra, what-have-you, they’re facing another, bigger challenge—how to provide a …

State budget cuts have prompted UCLA’s Anderson School MBA program to reject public money in favor of private donations and higher tuition. Supporters call it a way to save needier programs that cannot be self-sufficient. Opponents say it’s part of a trend away from public funding of higher education. Also, debris from last year’s Japanese tsunami is washing up in Canada, Alaska and the …

Higher tuition and big cutbacks at California’s public colleges and universities have in-state students being courted by out-of-state schools.
The Los Angeles Times reports schools in neighboring states – such as Arizona, Oregon and Washington – are stepping up recruitment of California high school students. Those schools are advertising special discounts, small classes and numerous courses that are available.
The University of California and Cal State …

Teachers from Miramonte Elementary School spoke out for the first time since they were transferred out of their classrooms in February, in the wake of sexual misconduct allegations involving two teachers at the school.
About a hundred parents, students and teachers gathered at Augustus Hawkins High School in South LA. The school opens in the fall, so right now it’s being used to house the …

Protesters in downtown Los Angeles converged on Pershing Square tonight as part of the May Day rallies that have been going on all day.
Thousands of workers, students, immigration reform advocates and others took part in the events, including protester Haley Callis with Occupy LA. The 28-year-old from Seal Beach joined KCRW’s Steve Chiotakis live on the air. Callis said the Occupy movement has raised …

KCRW producer Frances Anderton talked with the kids at Inner-City Arts about their experience with the school, the building and the Los Angeles Riots. The building stands in stark contrast with the surroundings. You can hear that conversation here:

On today’s show, Warren talks about LA’s “built environment” before and after the 1992 riots. Check out a slideshow of Inner-CityArts below:

(Photo credits: Inner-City Arts; Iwan …