Mayor Wants Outsiders to Run Some Schools

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said Tuesday he will push the school district to allow outside operators to bid for control of hundreds of campuses, a move he described as the centerpiece of education reform for his second term.The proposal drew the ire of the teachers union, which has strongly criticized the mayor's own school-improvement efforts at 10 schools, including Roosevelt High in Boyle Heights. Villaraigosa, in turn, called the union "the biggest defender of the status quo." The mayor's goal, embodied in part in a proposal by Board of Education member Yolie Flores Aguilar, would let charter-school organizations, the mayor's nonprofit and other groups compete to run 50 new schools scheduled to open over the next four years.... Villaraigosa also wants to allow outside groups or the district to shut down and restaff hundreds of existing schools that have long been rated "failing" under federal accountability rules.

When it comes to how to reverse the Los Angeles Unified School District's years-long decline in school enrollment, graduation rates and reputation, there's little consensus. Any truly reformist plan comes with too many uncertainties that threaten the interests of those who wield power at the district - the teachers unions, classified workers, administrators, and elected board members who are all engaged in protection politics. The result has been years of lip service to "reform" but only watered-down, feeble attempts to fix the broken system.