The Los Angeles Board of Education approved the next phase of a $1-billion effort to provide computers to every student, teacher and administrator, reports the Los Angeles Times. The board agreed to distribute iPads to every student at 38 more schools, begin a bidding process to provide laptops for students at seven high schools and buy as many iPads as needed to complete new state tests in the spring. In doing so, the board opted not to follow the advice of an oversight panel that had recommended purchasing thousands of fewer devices. In the end, board members — who said they wanted to avoid unnecessary spending — approved a proposal that removed entirely a cap on how many iPads the district could buy for standardized testing scheduled for the spring. But they also insisted that they expected the number to be well below the 67,500 tablets the district staff had recommended…
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Dozens of L.A. Unified schools lack staff needed to run libraries
As many as 145 schools across L.A. Unified may have closed their libraries, according to staffing numbers provided to KPCC this week. The district said it does not have a tally of shuttered libraries, but figures show schools and the district have hired only a fraction of the library aides needed to operate libraries in every public school, Southern California Public Radio reports. The district has 457 elementary schools, but only 380 schools have at least a part time library aide, according to statistics provided by L.A. Unified. That translates into about one in five schools that can’t open their libraries…
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