EDITORIAL TIME FOR HEALING ONLY A UNITED EFFORT WILL HELP LAUSD MAKE A GREAT LEAP FORWARD.`PHILOSOPHICALLY, we're on the same page,'' LAUSD LAUSD Los Angeles Unified School District (Los Angeles, CA) Superintendent-designate David Brewer This article is about the businessman and Lord Mayor of London; for the American jurist, see David Josiah Brewer Sir David Brewer CMG (born 1940) was Lord Mayor of London between 2005 and 2006. III says of his relationship with Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa Antonio Ramon Villaraigosa (born Antonio (Tony) Ramon Villar, Jr. on January 23, 1953) is the mayor of Los Angeles, California. He is the first Latino mayor of Los Angeles since Cristobal Aguilar in 1872. . ``When you start talking philosophically, you're talking at 30,000 feet. So I think right now the (mayor) and I are clearly philosophically linked at 30,000 to 20,000 feet. When we get down 10,000, 5,000, and start working things on the ground, that's where we really have to start working even more together.'' He can say that again. At 30,000 feet, we all agree on education policy: Reduce dropouts, empower parents, cut waste and raise kids' test scores. It's easy to agree on generalities. It's on the particulars -- or ``on the ground,'' as Brewer put it -- where politics and personalities start to conflict. When it comes to reforming the Los Angeles Unified School District The Los Angeles Unified School District (the "LAUSD") is the largest (in terms of number of students) public school system in California and the second-largest in the United States. Only the New York City Department of Education has a larger student population. on the ground, choosing one course of action means rejecting several others. Putting one person in charge means demoting someone else. Turf is carefully guarded and egos are easily bruised bruise v. bruised, bruis·ing, bruis·es v.tr. 1. a. To injure the underlying soft tissue or bone of (part of the body) without breaking the skin, as by a blow. b. . Which is why Brewer is right that a happy consensus in theory won't amount to much in reality unless all sides in the LAUSD struggle agree to start working together ``on the ground.'' Villaraigosa seems to share this understanding. Even though he has good reason to be critical of the way Brewer was chosen, he's been very supportive of the new superintendent. ``I think he's the right guy for the job and is committed to working with a partnership,'' the mayor said. It's high time the Los Angeles school The Los Angeles School of Urbanism is an academic movement emerged during the mid-1980s, loosely based at the University of Southern California and UCLA, that poses a challenge to the dominant Chicago School of Urbanism. board, the unions and the other major players took an equally constructive approach. For too long, even though everyone has agreed on reforming the LAUSD, on-the-ground disputes have shattered shat·ter v. shat·tered, shat·ter·ing, shat·ters v.tr. 1. To cause to break or burst suddenly into pieces, as with a violent blow. 2. a. lofty philosophical agreements. Brewer and Villaraigosa both seem to appreciate that cooperation is key to moving the LAUSD forward. Let's hope the rest of the players soon catch on. CAPTION(S): box Box: Daily News Endorsements To Date |
|
||||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion