ANTONIO PRESSURED ON LAUSD PLAN BUSINESS, CIVIC LEADERS WANT UNION DEAL REVISED.

Byline: NAUSH BOGHOSSIAN Staff Writer

After cutting a backroom deal on school reform with teachers unions, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa finds himself under mounting pressure from business and civic leaders to revise the measure before state lawmakers vote on it.

Critics complain that Assembly Bill 1381, formally introduced in June by Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez, falls short of the mayoral takeover that Villaraigosa promised shortly after he took office a year ago.

Billionaire philanthropist Eli Broad, a Villaraigosa ally and one of the city's most influential figures, has come out against the plan, as have the state PTA, the California Contract and Independent Cities associations and the Valley Industry and Commerce Association.

``The perception is that Villaraigosa has great plans and certainly good intentions, but he got to Sacramento and underestimated the power of the opposition,'' said Bob Scott, the chairman of VICA, which represents 300 businesses in the San Fernando Valley.

``I think the concern is that it's more cosmetic than anything else. ... Now we're looking in at going in for `school reform-lite' in a school district that through history repels any meaningful reform.''

AB 1381 would strip the elected school board of much of its authority and delegate it to the superintendent, who would be hired by Villaraigosa and the mayors of other cities in the Los Angeles Unified School District. It also would give educators more control over curriculum and budget decisions at individual schools.

Villaraigosa insists his plan is the only hope for the nation's second- largest school district, where roughly one-third of the the students fail to get a high school diploma, and that he has the political capital to make it work.

He met last Tuesday with financiers Tony Ressler and Frank Baxter, Staples Center executive Tim Leiweke and other prominent business leaders in an effort to drum up support.

And he launched a series of town-hall meetings last week that he plans to use in a citywide effort to build support.

``The process we're doing is going out there and speaking to community groups, to parents, letting folks know what his vision for the bill is and reforming LAUSD,'' Villaraigosa spokesman Nathan James said.

``There are going to be a lot of folks who are going to be standing with the mayor next month.

``The fact is this bill has the support of not only the teachers, not only a number of prominent labor organizations, but the hundreds of parents that are signing up at the town hall meetings.

``That is the real test of support for it and I think you'll see it in the coming weeks how these folks are going to get involved in the effort.''

AB 1381 has garnered the support of the powerful Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, along with Green Dot Public Schools, the Small Schools Alliance, ACORN and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

It also has been backed by businessman Richard Riordan, the former mayor who went on to serve as Schwarzenegger's education czar.

``Having sent the better part of my second (mayoral) term battling the bureaucracy at LAUSD, I can say that this plan is a historic opportunity for reform,'' Riordan wrote in an Op-Ed piece published in Sunday's Daily News.

``Mayor Villaraigosa's proposal promotes the superintendent from general manager to CEO, giving him the authority to appoint a strong management team, cut waste and return money to the classroom, where it belongs.

``It will refocus the school board that instead of endlessly debating real-estate transactions, the board will get back to serving parents and students by setting education policy.''

Riordan is at odds with Broad, who wrote a letter to Villaraigosa on June 30, expressing disappointment in the compromise bill the mayor hammered out with United Teachers Los Angeles and the California Teachers Association.

``It is regrettable that you did not want to wage a campaign for true mayoral control, but rather saw fit to negotiate with UTLA and CTA,'' wrote Broad, who advocates a complete mayoral takeover of Los Angeles Unified.

``I regret that I cannot support, in its present form, the bill that was passed by the Senate Education Committee,'' the letter said. ``If significant changes are not made, we may be better off having the bill fail.''

Sources said they expect the legislation to change significantly by the time it is debated by lawmakers in early August.

Superintendent Roy Romer says that Los Angeles Unified is making significant improvement without mayoral interference, citing six years of rising test scores.

``The more people take the time to look at the bill, the more they'll know it's not a wise bill,'' Romer said. ``I think legislators will be and should be listening to that kind of opposition because it's thoughtful opposition.''

Echoed school board President Marlene Canter: ``People are looking at this from the economic development perspective of the city and are seeing that this legislation is diffusing accountability, blurring the lines of authority and jeopardizing the success of the past six years, and that's why they're opposing it.''

The business community's excitement over Villaraigosa's LAUSD takeover plan has dimmed as details of AB 1381 have emerged, said Jack Kyser, chief economist of the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp.

``People are sitting around not knowing what to do and how all this is going to play out. This is still very, very important to them,'' he said.

``I think a lot of people say, OK, we need to have somebody in charge who will be an agent of change, but is this the way to go about it or is it a window dressing and not much changes at the end of the day?''

Getting the business community to buy into the plan must be a priority for the mayor, Kyser said.

``If you start to have dissent, that would make it difficult to get anything passed,'' Kyser said.

naush.boghossian(at)dailynews.com

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