Morning Brief: LAUSD Fundraising, SGV Anti-Asian Hate, “Rust” Shooting Lawsuit

Good morning, L.A. It’s Jan. 13.

Bake sales save salaries, at least for some schools. 

If you were to take a jaunt across any given campus in the Los Angeles Unified School District, you’re gonna see someone or something backed by fundraising and not government money. Despite a yearly operating budget of $9 billion, LAUSD still needs some additional coin courtesy of PTAs and booster clubs.

In 2018-19, that additional coin was to the tune of $36.9 million. 

LAist compiled a comprehensive database breaking down the revenue data from 348 parent organizations raising money on 302 LAUSD campuses. Groups gathering funds are bountiful, but the amount of money pouring into the campus coffers is not the same across the board.

Kyle Stokes, who led the investigation into PTAs and booster clubs, writes:

“ Two-thirds of LAUSD’s parent fundraising happens on just 6% of LAUSD’s campuses — mostly in wealthy westside neighborhoods or the southwestern San Fernando Valley…..In an overwhelmingly Latino school district, LAUSD schools with larger populations of white students tend to raise more.”

Read Kyle’s exhaustive and impressive reporting here. 

Keep reading for more on what’s happening in L.A., and stay safe out there.

What Else You Need To Know Today

• The San Gabriel Valley is home to one of the highest concentrations of Asian residents in the nation. But the recent wave of anti-Asian violence during the pandemic has many in the SGV feeling unsafe in their own safe haven. 
• An armorer from the set of “Rust” claims in a new lawsuit that an ammunition dealer was to blame for Alec Baldwin’s fatal shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins. 
• Grocery stores are experiencing inventory shortages once again. Here are some reasons why.
• Former President Donald Trump dipped during an NPR interview where openly defended debunked election conspiracies. 
• Mayor Eric Garcetti is one step closer to his ambassadorship. On Wednesday, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee voted to send his nomination for U.S. Ambassador to India to the full Senate. 

Before You Go...We Remember Clyde Bellecourt

Former South African President Nelson Mandela (R) listens to Clyde Bellecourt, director of the American Indian Movement, making an appeal for the case of Leonard Peltier at the Minneapolis Club in Minneapolis, Minnesota on Nov. 21, 2000.

(

Craig Lassig

/

AFP via Getty Images

)

Clyde Bellecourt was a trailblazer. For decades, he was one of the most significant advocates for Native American civil rights, dating back to 1968, when he co-founded the American Indian Movement. Today, AIM represents more than 375 million Indigenous people over the whole world.

"At the heart, AIM is deeply rooted in spirituality, and a belief in the connectedness of all indigenous peoples," Bellecourt wrote in a letter for the organization.

He died at 85 after a battle with prostate cancer.