Schools scramble to keep federal grants
Local officials are quickly revising some school reform plans to keep federal grants of up to $2 million per school this year for a group of campuses, including some overseen by Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.
Problems arose when federal evaluators found that a small sampling of schools they visited in March had not carried out promised reforms or else had carried out plans with elements not eligible for funding. State reviewers then followed up to identify problems in more than 40 school systems, including Los Angeles Unified, Pomona Unified, Riverside Unified, Santa Ana Unified, San Bernardino City Unified, San Diego Unified and San Francisco Unified.
The state Board of Education voted in July to delay funding if key issues were not addressed by the fall.
San Francisco Unified has had among the most pressing shortcomings to resolve. That district had