From the gymnasium of South Los Angeles’ Accelerated
School on Tuesday night, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa used his first
State of the City Address to deliver his most complete and
resounding overture yet for taking over the city’s public
schools.
“Unless we face the crisis in our schools, we will never
truly hold ourselves to account,” Villaraigosa said.
“We can’t be a great global city if we lose half of our
workforce before they graduate from high school.”
In a nearly 40-minute speech interrupted by applause 52 times,
Villaraigosa outlined an ambitious course of action for the coming
year, which in addition to taking control of the Los Angeles
Unified School District, includes hiring 1,000 new police officers
and planting 1 million new trees.
His proposal, which has been leaking out since he entered office
in July, would shift much of the authority of the school district
away from school boards and to the mayor’s office in an
effort to streamline the bureaucracy and create better
accountability within the district. Though groups including the
union representing the district’s teachers, as well as LAUSD
Superintendent Roy Romer, have expressed opposition to the
mayor’s proposal, he has held his resolve to restructure the
district leadership structure.
“We can’t address our problems in the classroom
““ we won’t make real headway ““ unless we change
the lack of accountability at the top,” he said. “We
need leadership at every level.”
Villaraigosa’s plan includes the creation of “small
learning communities,” in which parents, teachers and
students communicate more readily to enhance student learning.
He also called for an increase in charter schools in Los
Angeles.
In keeping with earlier statements, Villaraigosa said he wants
to lengthen school days and academic years.
The mayor did not provide details on how such changes would be
funded, which should become clearer after Thursday, when he
releases his budget for the coming fiscal year.
In his speech, Villaraigosa acknowledged those who oppose his
plan and said his proposed changes would last for six years, at
which point the state of the education system in Los Angeles would
be reevaluated.
“I know that this proposal will raise some concern and
spark some controversy,” Villaraigosa acknowledged.
“Change is never comfortable.”
But the plan has been opposed by groups who believe
consolidating power is not the best course of action.
A bill set to be heard by the State Legislature later this month
would divide up districts with more than 500,000 students into
smaller districts “enrolling no more than 50,000
pupils.” With over 700,000 students, the LAUSD is the second
largest school district in the United States, and the only district
in California that would be affected by this bill.
Villaraigosa’s takeover, which would require approval by
the State Legislature, would follow similar actions by mayors of
New York, Chicago and Boston.
But mayoral takeovers often meet with only mixed success, said
Priscilla Wohlstetter, director of the Center on Educational
Governance in the USC Rossier School of Education.
And since such actions tend to foment around school systems that
are in trouble, she said, a mayoral takeover is not necessary in
Los Angeles, where the school system is not suffering.
“I do not think that the schools are in crisis in Los
Angeles. We’ve seen steady progress in achievement,”
she said. “I wouldn’t say L.A.’s in crisis, so I
wouldn’t say it demands this very radical
solution.”
Villaraigosa’s motivations for taking over the schools may
be more political than practical, she said.
In his speech, Villaraigosa said his administration will, over
the next five years, eliminate the inherited deficit of $295
million. He said his forthcoming budget will move the city $47
million closer to that goal.
Villaraigosa said he wants to hire 1,000 new police officers and
alluded to his recent proposal to raise trash collection fees in
order to achieve this goal.
Villaraigosa also said Los Angeles will begin an initiative to
plant 1 million new trees in an effort to make it “the
greenest and cleanest big city in America.”
And no discussion of Los Angeles would be complete without
mentioning traffic.
Villaraigosa said his budget will increase funding for road
maintenance and create a “gridlock tiger team,” which
would scour the city for congestion and attempt to relieve it.
A contingent of about 30 people protested the mayor’s
education policies outside the Accelerated School while
Villaraigosa delivered his speech.