Howard Blume

Howard Blume covers education for the Los Angeles Times. He’s won the top investigative reporting prize from the L.A. Press Club and print Journalist of the Year from the L.A. Society of Professional Journalists chapter. He co-hosts “Deadline L.A.” on KPFK, which the press club named best radio public affairs show in 2010. He teaches tap dancing and has two superior daughters.

Kindergarten teacher Sydney Cooper leads her class at Encinal Elementary School in Atherton, Calif., Thursday, Dec. 17, 2020. (Photo: Karl Mondon/Bay Area News Group)

California kindergarten saw big enrollment drop during pandemic. What’s happening now?

September 27, 2022 at 9:47 a.m.

No grade level suffered a steeper enrollment drop during the COVID-19 pandemic than kindergarten, driven by what many parents saw as the futility of placing a 5-year-old in front of...

Seventh and eighth grades students attend a combined Advanced Engineering class at Olive Vista Middle School on Jan. 11, 2022 in Sylmar, Calif. (Photo: Frederic J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images)

L.A. school district scrambles to respond to cyberattack. Schools are open.

September 6, 2022 at 8:53 a.m.

A cyberattack brought down the computer systems of the Los Angeles Unified School District over the weekend, but officials said late Monday night that schools would open as scheduled Tuesday...

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