The Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) is standing up to the trigger cuts that went into effect yesterday in the state of California, on the grounds that the $38 million slash from transportation funding conflicts with LAUSD’s constitutional mandate to provide home to school transportation in order to ensure desegregation and equal access for students in the district.

According to a press release from LAUSD Superintendent John Deasey, the Crawford v. Board of Education of the City of Los Angeles decision requires LAUSD to desegregate their school district by implementing programs like the Magnet School Program and Permits with Transportation Program. 35,000 students receive transportation services under the Crawford order.

In addition, 13,000 students with special needs receive transportation services to and from school that are required by federal and state laws that guarantees them the same educational access as other students.

LAUSD said the cuts to transportation funding would force them to dip into classroom funding in order to supplement the budget for school buses.

The Contra Costa Times reports that LAUSD will already have to cut $8 million from its General Fund as part of the trigger cuts that were initiated yesterday, and could face more cuts in January.

Statewide, the cuts to transportation services total $250 million. California Governor Jerry Brown said school districts have individual flexibility to make the necessary cuts elsewhere if they must bus certain students. The trigger cuts were part of a budget plan determined in the summer that wrote in cuts contingent upon the shortfall of state revenue

I think it's great that the L.A. Unified School District (LAUSD) has reported not only a decrease in its dropout rate, but an increase in its graduation rate for 2007-08. But, I also think we have to take such numbers with a grain of salt. For instance, LAUSD may have a better dropout rate than before, but it still scores pretty low when compared to other districts in the state. Read more...

[Our Feature Spotlight focuses this week on Citizen Journalism]

When Sacha Baron Cohen made a pantsless debut appearance of his openly gay Austrian fashionista, Bruno, at MTV’s 2009 Movie awards he dropped down from above and right into rapper Eminem’s lap. Media was so concerned with how the rapper, labeled as a gay-basher, would react to “Bruno’s” arse being in his face, they overlooked the fact that this display of indecency was being broadcast to thousands of teens across the United States. It came out days later that the interaction was planned, and Bruno’s antic was forgiven as the world moved on to the next juicy dish.

Today, however, Cohen’s antics as Bruno has the Superintendent of the LA Unified School district calling foul on the comedian.

By: Youth Radio, Los Angeles

Apparently education is too far down the food chain. Why is education the last thing the government wants to fund? It doesn’t make sense to me how this works out. One inspiring person I know who’s trying to make a difference is my economics and government teacher. Since we got the news of the budget cuts and how much it will be affecting not just our school but schools around the country, he has been trying to organize and get people’s attention. Read more...