LAUSD

May 15 2009

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has proposed an incredible $4.8 billion in cuts to K-12 education

When we as families have to deal with difficult economic times, we have to find ways to make ends meet. Some of us try cutting out extras like going out to restaurants or buying new clothes. Sometimes we are forced to make deeper sacrifices, such as finding an extra job or taking out a second mortgage. But even in the roughest of times, there are areas of our family budget we consider sacred and try hard not to touch.

Cynthia E. Griffin-  |   OW Managing Editor
May 14 2009

LAUSD begins surveys of students, parents and school personnel

 Los Angeles, CA -- Students, teachers, all school personnel, and parents who want to anonymously tell the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) what they think about their individual schools, can do so through at least June 22.

The opportunity to give your opinion is being offered as part of the district’s efforts to produce its second annual School Accountability Report Card (SARC) which will be available in January 2010.

Cynthia E. Griffin-  |   OW Managing Editor
Apr 16 2009

Local middle and high schools could be hard hit

 Los Angeles, CA -- The Los Angeles Unified School District Board (LAUSD) Tuesday voted 4-3 to approve a 2009-2010 budget that calls for the elimination of more than 6,800 people, and the new spending plan will go into effect beginning July 1, 2009.

The cuts are part of an effort to close a budget shortfall of more than $590 million.

Apr 9 2009

April 17-18

 The Living Legends Festival (LLF) is scheduled Friday and Saturday, April 17-18 at California State University, Dominguez Hills (CSUDH). The LLF concert will begin at 4 p.m. on Sunday, April 19, at Holman United Methodist Church, 3320 W. Adams Blvd., the Rev. Henry L. Masters, pastor.

Earl Ofari Hutchinson  |   OW Contributing Columnist
Apr 2 2009

African American students the biggest losers with LAUSD’s meat-axe budget cuts

LAUSD Superintendent Ramon Cortines minced no words at the education forum sponsored by the Los Angeles Urban Policy Roundtable on Saturday, March 28. He said that the cuts the LAUSD will make to patch up a $718-million budget deficit will be big, painful and draconian.
Parents, teachers and students will be the big losers. But the biggest losers of all will be the District’s African American students.

They make up about 11% of the students in the sprawling district. They are the most underserved and underperforming of all students.

Across Black America

Here’s a look at African American people and issues making headlines throughout the country.
 

Alabama
Freeman A. Hrabowski, president of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, will address the annual African American Business Council luncheon on June 28. Hrabowski, who is chairman of President Barack Obama’s Advisory Commission on Education Excellence for African Americans, has a national reputation for his work studying the performance of minority students in math and science. Hrabowski, named one of the 10 best college presidents in the country by Time magazine, was a child leader in the Civil Rights Movement in Birmingham in the 1960s.
 

Arkansas
The Liberty Counsel filed a motion and a brief in United States District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas seeking to intervene on behalf of a Concepts of Life crisis pregnancy center to defend against a suit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union and the Center for Reproductive Rights. The groups seek to impose a permanent injunction before the Human Heartbeat Protection Act goes into effect July 18. Liberty Counsel also filed a brief opposing the ACLU’s request for an injunction. The “Heartbeat” bill states that when a woman seeks an abortion at or after the 12th week, doctors must test for a fetal heartbeat before an abortion is performed and inform the pregnant mother that the child in her womb has a heartbeat. If a heartbeat is detected, a woman cannot have an abortion, except in cases of rape, incest, and if a mother’s life is in danger. “As we promised when the legislation was introduced, Liberty Counsel will defend this law without reservation for the people of Arkansas, born and pre-born,” said Matt Staver, founder and chairman of Liberty Counsel. “No right is more foundational than the right to life. Without life, all other rights are irrelevant,” concluded Staver.