L.A. SCHOOL REFORM ON RIGHT TRACK.

Byline: RICHARD RIORDAN  Local View

LAST month, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa announced a bold plan to reform the Los Angeles Unified School District. That plan now works its way through the state Legislature in the form of AB 1381. Legislators ought to approve the plan quickly, and usher in the most fundamental change in the LAUSD in more than 40 years.

Villaraigosa should be commended for taking on the responsibility of educating our children. His high visibility brings with it accountability that has been hidden for too long.

Having spent the better part of my second term as mayor battling the bureaucracy at the LAUSD, I can say that this plan is a historic opportunity for reform. 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.

The plan would refocus the school board, so that instead of endlessly debating real-estate transactions, it would get back to serving parents and students by setting education policy.

And similar to New York's Chancellor's District schools -- which have improved faster than regular campuses -- the mayor will oversee the lowest-performing schools in a collaboration with teachers, principals and parents.

AB 1381 is good policy. It gives the mayor of Los Angeles responsibility for improving the nation's second-largest school district. We know that when mayors get off the sidelines and get in the game, schools improve.

But Villaraigosa's proposal accomplishes something even more important. By working with legislators in Sacramento, teachers and education reformers, the mayor achieved what others -- including myself -- could not. He has built a broad-based coalition for change.

The district's response to the mayor's reform proposal is straight out of the bureaucracy playbook: Delay, obfuscate and dissemble. As with every reform proposal over the last decade -- from expanded charter schools, to small learning communities, to local control of budgeting -- the LAUSD has mounted a full-scale campaign to resist change. District officials should be cheering on behalf of the children and finding ways to partner with the mayor.

With political consultants and public-relations experts -- paid for at taxpayer expense -- the district is engaged in an absurd spin campaign that parses the subtle difference between the awful and the terrible. The message: Everything is fine here; leave us alone.

This time, it won't work. L.A.'s economic future depends on giving more of our young people a better shot at a good life. Yet, 81 percent of LAUSD middle-school students are trapped in schools the federal government defines as failing. Nearly 90 percent of eighth-graders score below proficient on assessments of reading and math. And study after study confirms that the graduation rate in LAUSD hovers alarmingly around 50 percent.

This means that fewer than one out of four students who enter ninth grade in the LAUSD will graduate four years later with the minimum requirements to gain entry to UC or CSU colleges. A college education is a passport out of poverty for L.A.'s kids. And a well-educated work force is the engine that will keep our economy growing.

The effort to improve our schools must stay on the front burner. With the mayor's leadership, there's no doubt that it will.

Politics is the art of the possible, and no one understands that better than Villaraigosa. But what he has achieved with this reform effort -- more authority for the superintendent, a stronger role for teachers and parents and a real plan to turn around our lowest-performing schools -- is remarkable.

This summer, AB 1381 will move through the Legislature in Sacramento. Like countless other parents here in Los Angeles who have waited too long for reform at LAUSD, I will be cheering the mayor along.