News Update

Carvalho cuts back popular elementary program for struggling students

Los Angeles Unified Superintendent Alberto Carvahlo has reduced an elementary school program that parents and teachers credit with helping struggling students catch up academically, the Los Angeles Times reported.

The program, Primary Promise, helps students in kindergarten through third grade who need extra help in math and reading. Former superintendent Austin Beutner launched the program in 2020 in 305 of the district’s 450 elementary schools. Carvalho cut the program to only 168 schools, saying it’s too costly and not as effective as he hoped.

Instead, the district is hiring reading instructors at more than 20 middle schools and coaches to help English learners.

Parents and teachers protested the cutbacks.

“This program has helped immensely, and I know it’s not just my kid,” Danielle Watkins, who has twin third-graders at Charnock Road Elementary, told the Times. “I was really upset to hear that they were getting rid of Primary Promise, knowing how much it benefited my son. I want others to have that kind of opportunity as well.”