BoardBuzz

« NCLB loophole goes both ways | Main | Technology Salute deadline extended to May 9 »

April 20, 2006

L.A. mayor reveals school takeover plans

The Los Angeles Times headline tells the tale: Mayor's School Takeover Would Bypass Local Voters. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa called for a "council of mayors" to oversee the sprawling Los Angeles Unified School District, second-largest in the nation.

That council — including leaders from the 26 smaller cities served by L.A. Unified and a member of the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors — would hire the superintendent and approve the district's multibillion-dollar budget.

But Villaraigosa would retain the reins of power because council votes would be in proportion to the member cities' population and Los Angeles is bigger by far than all the others combined.

The elected Los Angeles Board of Education would not be disbanded but would be relegated to advocating for parents, ruling on student discipline and preparing annual reports on the effectiveness of schools

Villaraigosa said it isn't legally possible for him to take direct control of the LAUSD because so many other cities are part of the district, the Los Angeles Daily News explains. Instead, he will seek state legislation that would strip the school district of most of its authority except student discipline and parent advocacy. Villaraigosa's move would follow similar actions by mayors of New York, Chicago and Boston.

The L.A. teachers union is not happy. Former Mayor Richard Riordan said the changes would improve education but predicted there would be "blood on the floor" before it was all over.

NSBA's Delegate Assembly, at its annual meeting on April 7, took a strong stand against mayoral takeovers such as this one in Los Angeles. The Delegate Assembly urged local civic leaders, instead, to deal with out-of-school factors that impact learning such as safe housing and access to quality healthcare. Read details here.

Marlene Carter, president of the Los Angeles School Board, told the Times: "Changes in governance are not the answer," she said. "To me, it is staying steady and staying with what's working. The trajectory [of the district] is in the right direction. It's going up. I've always said that I agree that it's not enough and it's not fast enough, but you don't risk what's working."

Posted April 20, 2006 2:50 PM | School Boards

Trackback Pings

TrackBack URL for this entry