A group of a few hundred protesters who had gathered at Frank Ogawa Plaza in Oakland broke off and marched onto the 980 freeway, laid down, and blocked traffic going in both directions toward 880 and the Bay Bridge in order to call attention to education cuts. more ›

There was a huge turn-out at today's Rally for California's Future at Civic Center. The plaza was already half-full when we arrived around 4:30, and dozens of schools from elementary to college-level were well represented. Crowds of protesters were still heading toward the rally when we left at 5:30. The whole plaza was full to the brim at that point (as you can see from the photo we took from the fifth floor of the main library), and the crowd had spilled onto the library lawn. more ›

If our demographic oracles are correct, hardly any of you have children. But for those who do, and whose kids go to public school and might need a little extra help, listen up: The SF School Board is voting at its regular meeting tonight whether or not to cut all summer school programs except those for high school seniors who need to fulfill a few last requirements to graduate. They've got a $113 million budget problem to deal with, and summer school's going to be the first to get cut (besides, like, arts education and theater and all that we hold dear). This is bad news for some parents, but excellent news for most kids, we suspect. The agenda is here and the meeting's at 6 p.m. at 555 Franklin Street. more ›

The good news: The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has announced that it's giving over $300 million to the cause of training good teachers and figuring out what makes a good teacher. The bad news: None of the money is coming to San Francisco. $290 million is being spread around to four testing ground school districts in Tampa, Pittsburgh, Memphis, and L.A., where it will be used for teacher training and new programs and incentives to encourage the best teachers and remove ineffective ones. Another $45 million will go toward research. The foundation purposely chose four diverse school districts in, well, three corners of the country, each with their own problems and successes. Vicki Phillips, who directs the foundation's K-12 education program, hopes the outcome of the grants will "rock" every school district in the nation. more ›