Villaraigosa Offers Plan for LAUSD Control

Speaking at the Accelerated School, a charter school located on South Main Street, Villaraigosa said he would ask the state Legislature to approve his plan this year to oversee the school district on a six-year trial basis.

Under his plan, Villaraigosa would chair a Council of Mayors, consisting of the mayors from the 27 other cities that comprise the LAUSD, that would control the school district’s budget and have the authority to hire and fire the superintendent.

“We’ll never realize the promise of our people, we won’t tap our talent, L.A. won’t be one city if we shrug our shoulders and adopt the path of least resistance, if we choose to remain a city where 81 percent of middle school students are trapped in failing schools,” Villaraigosa said.

The mayor said voters need to be able to “hire and fire one person accountable to parents, teachers and taxpayers, a leader who is ultimately responsible for system-wide performance.”

He said all cities within the LAUSD would be proportionally represented on the Council of Mayors. He said the existing school board would be retained, “with that board’s powers designed to serve the needs of parents, not politicians.”

Villaraigosa also proposed expanding the number of charter schools in the district “to give families more choices and to keep positive pressure on the school bureaucracy.”

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