Villaraigosa affected UCLA through K-12, transportation measures

Two-term Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa will step down in June after the upcoming Los Angeles mayoral election, leaving behind a series of public school reforms and transportation developments.

The connection between Villaraigosa and UCLA is often indirect because they operate in two different political spheres – the mayor is part of city government, whereas UCLA is a state institution, said E. Felicia Brannon, executive director of Community and Local Government Relations at UCLA.

Still, Villaraigosa has overseen city policies that affect UCLA students, in addition to working with university groups to craft public programs, including those focused on K-12 education.

Villaraigosa, the first Latino mayor of Los Angeles in more than 130 years and a UCLA alumnus, assumed office in 2005. During his eight-year term, Villaraigosa has focused primarily on education and transportation policies.

He attempted to restructure the Los Angeles Unified School District and shift its control to the mayor – a proposal that garnered negative criticism from teachers and administrators. The proposal was signed into effect in 2006, but was later ruled unconstitutional based on the premise that it infringed on the education agency’s rights.

Later, Villaraigosa made a deal with the Los Angeles Unified School District to share control of some of the city’s most underperforming schools. These schools now operate under the Partnership for Los Angeles Schools.

Many graduates of UCLA’s Principal Leadership Institute are now principals in some of the mayor’s small schools that were created through the Partnership for Los Angeles Schools, said John Rogers, an associate professor at the UCLA Graduate School of Education and Information Studies.

UCLA Center X, a program that aims to reform schooling for the underserved students of Los Angeles, is involved in the mayor’s program to improve the city’s lowest performing schools, said Tyrone Howard, faculty director of Center X and an education professor at UCLA.

“The (collaboration) has been successful for putting focus on the underserved schools,” Howard said.

During his term, Villaraigosa has also tried to address traffic congestion and transportation inefficiencies in Los Angeles.

L.A. residents, including UCLA students, also saw an expansion of the city’s public transit system under Villaraigosa’s tenure. Expansions of Metro Rapid Bus lines and services like FlyAway to the Los Angeles International Airport have made it easier for locals and students to get around Los Angeles.

To fund the transit projects, Villaraigosa proposed Measure R in 2008, which passed and raised sales taxes in Los Angeles County for 30 years and campaigned for the passage of the federal transportation bill. Measure R and the federal transportation bill are part of the 30/10 Initiative, a plan to allow Metro to build 12 mass transit projects in 10 years rather than 30, but have been criticized as failing to keep the promise of finishing transit projects in a decade, according to the Los Angeles Times.

The new mayor of Los Angeles will face severe budget problems, which stem partly from an inability to adjust to a weakening municipal economy, according to an article in the Los Angeles Times.

The mayoral primary will be held on March 5. Eight total candidates, including frontrunners Councilman Eric Garcetti and city controller and UCLA alumna Wendy Greuel, are vying for the position.

If no candidate receives the majority of the votes during the primary, the formal run-off election will be held May 21.

The Community and Local Government Relations Office at UCLA plans to continue working with the mayor’s office to support K-12 education, said Marco Perez, Assistant Director of Community and Local Government Relations at UCLA.

“UCLA will continue to be committed to be providing resources to the schools and will continue with all the programs that they have been providing to the community, regardless of who will be the next mayor,” Perez said.

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