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The article discusses a legal settlement between the Los Angeles, California school district and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Southern California regarding students' rights and the district's seniority-based teacher layoff procedures. It presents restrictions regarding layoffs in disadvantaged schools, comments from the organization United Teachers Los Angeles, and remarks from ACLU chief counsel Mark D. Rosenbaum.

The article discusses the role of parent-teacher school councils in spending money allotted to Los Angeles, California schools through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. District Superintendent Ramon C. Cortines favors the decentralization so that parents and communities feel some responsibility for outcomes. Bill Ring, head of the parents' organization Transparent, complains that no transition plan was in place to develop capacity for these groups to spend money wisely.