Two dozen L.A. schools to lose federal funding
In the face of declining federal funds, Los Angeles school officials stripped about two dozen campuses of aid that has been used to improve the academic achievement of low-income students.
The move, approved at Tuesday’s Board of Education meeting, was angrily opposed by school board member Tamar Galatzan. She represents the west San Fernando Valley, where eight schools are projected to lose the funding.
The students losing services are “just as deserving as students at other schools,” Galatzan said. Some schools facing sharp reductions are blocks from similar schools that will retain the extra aid. Galatzan also complained
L.A. Unified stops charters from letting 'volunteers' get admission preference
The Los Angeles Board of Education on Tuesday passed a resolution that would ban charter schools from offering admission to families in exchange for volunteer work or other services. The admission preference had been offered by two charter schools overseen by the Los Angeles Unified School District.
One, Larchmont Charter School, ended the practice recently. The other, Los Feliz Charter School for the Arts, was headed toward dropping the preference when the school board acted.
Critics have called such preferences inappropriate, noting that the law provides for a lottery when there are more applicants than spaces at a charter school. They said skirting the lottery could lead to abuses, such as families getting into schools because of connections or because they promised substantial donations or other valuable