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June 27, 2006
NSBA's take on the takeover of Los Angeles schoolsIn a letter to the Los Angeles Times yesterday, NSBA President Jane Gallucci said that Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's proposal to take over the Los Angeles school system will fragment the responsibility and accountability for student achievement. Read highlights here.
While Villaraigosa sells his "great deal for kids" here, many are not buying his big idea to put schools in charge of their curriculums, to create a council of mayors responsible for reviewing the district's budget and coordinating the delivery of essential services for kids, and to give himself the power to handpick the next superintendent. While the mayor has struck a deal with the teachers union, some other teachers are opposing the mayor's proposal saying that it "could ravage districtwide reading and math programs that they say have brought continuity to thousands of classrooms and helped drive up standardized test scores ...."
Others lined up in opposition include current superintendent Roy Romer with a thoughtful editorial in Sunday's L.A. Times in which he says the mayor's deal with the teachers union "is about power and money, not about children--and certainly not about education reform." And as the California School Boards Association points out, "The mayor's proposal would shift control from the school board to the superintendent, and the superintendent would be selected by the mayor--thus ultimately giving the mayor the keys to the schoolhouse door."
In April, NSBA's governing body approved a policy calling for mayors to back away from taking over school districts and concentrate on issues outside the schoolyards that impact learning, such as crime, housing costs, and healthcare. Now there's a news flash for the mayor ... get the job done that you were elected to do.
Posted June 27, 2006 11:36 AM | School Boards
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