Six candidates are running in the Nov. 5, 2024, general elections to represent Districts 1, 3, and 5 on the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) school board. The candidates advanced from the March 5 primaries because no candidate in their respective races won a majority of the vote. Incumbent Tanya Ortiz Franklin won her primary for District 7 outright with 55.9% of the vote.

LAUSD enrolled around 428,000 students during the 2022-23 school year, making it the country’s second-largest district. The district has faced declining enrollment since the early 2000s, when over 700,000 students attended its schools.

Kahllid Al-Alim and Sherlett Hendy Newbill are running in District 1. Incumbent Scott Mark Schmerelson and Dan Chang are running in District 3. Karla Griego and Graciela Ortiz are running in District 5.

The role of charter schools, policing and campus safety, enrollment, absenteeism, and funding have been issues in the election. In the run-up to the election, District 3 candidates Schmerelson and Chang, and the organizations supporting them, had raised the most money of the three races.

District 3 overlaps with much of the San Fernando Valley. Both Schmerelson and Chang completed Ballotpedia’s Candidate Connection survey. Schmerelson received 44.5% in the six-candidate primary, while Chang received 29%.

• Schmerelson worked in different positions in the LAUSD before joining the board, including as a teacher and a principal. In his Candidate Connection survey, he listed the following three priorities: “School Safety is of paramount importance”; “I am supported by teachers, administrators, school police, parents, community members across the district, the Democratic Party, the LA County Federation of Labor, and Planned Parenthood.”; and “I believe in local control of school budgets and decision making process.”
• Chang works as a mathematics teacher in a LAUSD middle school, and also founded and ran education nonprofits and charter schools. In his Candidate Connection survey, Chang listed the following three priorities: “Improve Student Safety and Well-Being”; “Teach the Science of Reading (Phonics) and Problem-Based Math”; “Cut the Downtown Bureaucracy and Provide More Money to Valley Schools.”

The 74′s Ben Chapman wrote, “With the teachers’ union struggling to defend its 4-3 majority on the board, Chang and Schmerelson’s race will decide whether the board tips in favor of charters and school reforms, versus more orthodox approaches to improving schools favored by the union.”

United Teachers Los Angeles (UTLA), the local teachers union, endorsed Schmerelson. The California Charter Schools Association Advocates (CCSA) endorsed Chang.

Debates over the role of charter schools in the school system have been fixtures in LAUSD school board elections. In 2017, candidates backed by charter school advocacy organizations won a majority on the board. As of 2024, the 2017 LAUSD elections were the most expensive school board elections in U.S. history. UTLA-backed candidates regained a majority in 2022. According to information on the Los Angeles Unified School District’s website more than 150,000 students attended 272 charter schools in 2024.

In February 2024, the LAUSD board voted 4-3 to to limit charter schools from sharing space on district campuses targeted for academic improvement or that serve special needs and disadvantaged students through programs like the Black Student Achievement Program. As a result of Proposition 39, which voters approved 53-46% in 2000, districts in California are required to share public school facilities with charter schools. Chang said that he would support repealing the policy. He also said that charters “are pioneering innovative educational practices. They are highly accountable, well-regulated and an integral part of L.A.’s public school system.” Schmerelson, who voted for the policy, said, “I do not believe the district’s tightened policies on sharing campuses with charter schools will be too restrictive for charters. I have long been a proponent of high-quality charter programs, but the board’s job is not to favor these privately managed programs over our district school programs.”

Click here to read about candidates in Districts 1 and 5.

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