L.A. SCHOOLS AT A CROSSROADS CAN THE LAUSD BE FIXED?Byline: NAUSH BOGHOSSIAN Staff Writer After two decades of false starts and broken promises, Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. Unified finds itself on the brink of reform, with city and education leaders betting their political futures on their ability to revolutionize rev·o·lu·tion·ize tr.v. rev·o·lu·tion·ized, rev·o·lu·tion·iz·ing, rev·o·lu·tion·iz·es 1. To bring about a radical change in: Television has revolutionized news coverage. 2. the troubled school district. But the kind of political infighting in·fight·ing n. 1. Contentious rivalry or disagreement among members of a group or organization: infighting on the President's staff. 2. Fighting or boxing at close range. that stymied previous efforts threatens to derail de·rail intr. & tr.v. de·railed, de·rail·ing, de·rails 1. To run or cause to run off the rails. 2. the latest campaign before it even begins. The school board filed suit to halt Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's reform bill, Superintendent 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 was hired over the mayor's objections, and the teachers union has threatened to strike if its demands aren't met. And while all the parties vow that student achievement is their No. 1 goal, critics question whether egos and self-serving interests will trump educational reform. ``The real question is going to be whether or not after the court decision, after the negotiations with the union, after the election -- how much cooperation there will be between all the groups,'' said Bob Stern, director of the Center for Governmental Studies in Los Angeles. ``Otherwise, everybody gets hurt, particularly the mayor's further ambitions, clearly Brewer in comparison to (retired Superintendent Roy) Romer
A Romer or Roamer is a simple device for accurately plotting a grid reference on a map. , the union in terms of its reputation and how the public feels about teachers, and the school board in terms of re-election possibilities and further support for future bond measures. ``And clearly the public and the kids don't win.'' The mayor's reforms center on Assembly Bill 1381, which will give him significant control over district operations and shift power from the school board to the superintendent. It also will give him direct responsibility for three of the district's lowest-performing high schools and their feeder campuses -- up to 40 of the district's approximately 700 schools. A hearing on the school board's legal challenge is set for Friday, with a decision likely before the law is scheduled to take effect on Jan. 1. Adding to the uncertainty is the election in March, when four of the seven school board seats are up for grabs. The election is expected to be a face-off between the incumbents supported by the teachers union and challengers backed by the mayor, who would virtually guarantee that his reforms would be implemented. ``What's happening is the groundwork is being laid for a possible showdown between the mayor and teachers union in the school board elections,'' said Sherry Bebitch Jeffe, a political analyst and senior scholar at the University of Southern California The U.S. News & World Report ranked USC 27th among all universities in the United States in its 2008 ranking of "America's Best Colleges", also designating it as one of the "most selective universities" for admitting 8,634 of the almost 34,000 who applied for freshman admission . Political future Villaraigosa -- widely expected to run for governor in 2010 -- has staked his political future on improving Los Angeles' public schools. The passage of AB 1381 has been attributed to his strong relationships in the Legislature, where he once served as speaker, and an aggressive campaign to set the course for the nation's second-largest school district. During a recent interview, Villaraigosa said he believes the biggest impediment A disability or obstruction that prevents an individual from entering into a contract. Infancy, for example, is an impediment in making certain contracts. Impediments to marriage include such factors as consanguinity between the parties or an earlier marriage that is still valid. to reform is the school board. Its lawsuit challenging AB 1381 claims the mayor doesn't have the authority under the state constitution or the City Charter to be involved in district operations. ``The biggest concern that I have is the steadfast resistance on the part of the school board to work in a partnership to implement 1381 and the reforms that our kids need to have the best schools possible,'' he said. The school board also ignored Villaraigosa's requests to be involved in hiring a new superintendent, appointing Brewer without the mayor's input. The two leaders have since vowed to work collaboratively, however, and have voiced support for an audit of the district and new performance standards and professional development for teachers. Nothing in the way In an interview last week, Brewer insisted that nothing will get in the way of reform. ``With or without 1381, the mayor and I have already agreed we're going to move forward. The board and I are going to move forward. ``I'm not worried about politics. The way I'm going to trump politics is the community is going to step up and help me,'' he said. ``Nobody -- not me, not the mayor not the board -- is going to make it happen unless the community is behind us.'' A wild card in the process is United Teachers Los Angeles and its flamboyant president, A.J. Duffy, who has not yet been invited to meet with Villaraigosa and Brewer or to help develop action plans. However, the powerful group has ramped up its criticism of Los Angeles Unified, demanding that the district dismantle dis·man·tle tr.v. dis·man·tled, dis·man·tling, dis·man·tles 1. a. To take apart; disassemble; tear down. b. its mammoth mammoth, name for several large prehistoric elephants of the extinct genus Mammuthus, which ranged over Eurasia and North America in the Pleistocene epoch. bureaucracy, create smaller classes and give educators more control over their campuses. It has also demanded a contract with a one-year, 9 percent raise, and hired former UTLA UTLA United Teachers of Los Angeles (California) President Wayne Johnson to organize and mobilize mo·bi·lize v. 1. To make mobile or capable of movement. 2. To restore the power of motion to a joint. 3. To release into the body, as glycogen from the liver. its 48,000 members. Johnson successfully orchestrated or·ches·trate tr.v. or·ches·trat·ed, or·ches·trat·ing, or·ches·trates 1. To compose or arrange (music) for performance by an orchestra. 2. a nine-day teachers' strike in 1989 that resulted in a three-year contract that raised salaries a total of 24 percent. Duffy also disparaged the proposals for professional development, incentives and performance standards, saying nothing will happen without the union's approval. Block unlikely But Villaraigosa said the union is unlikely to block his reforms. ``My conversations with Mr. Duffy have not given me any reason to believe that they won't work with us to implement AB 1381,'' Villaraigosa said. ``I think he wants what we want, and that is better schools for our kids and a school district where we're all working in partnership.'' And Brewer said the union -- like himself and all the other stakeholders Stakeholders All parties that have an interest, financial or otherwise, in a firm-stockholders, creditors, bondholders, employees, customers, management, the community, and the government. -- needs to understand that it is working for the parents and students. ``If it tries to get in the way,'' he said, ``it's going to get pushed out of the way.'' Duffy finds himself in a precarious political position, caught between a law he helped craft in a closed-door meeting with Villaraigosa and a membership that opposes the law and has directed him to negotiate certain demands if it should become law. ``I have a constitutional mandate to negotiate work-site agreements,'' he said. ``I have to be there to protect my members.'' Duffy agrees with the mayor that the real impediment to change is the seven-member school board. `Refuses to reform' ``This district consistently refuses to reform, they put all their eggs in one basket with scripted program teaching so we can raise test scores. That's not what UTLA is about,'' Duffy said. But he also said the union will not resist if the mayor shows regard for teachers and parents as decision-makers. ``Then, I don't think there's going to be a problem working with the mayor to bring 21st century reforms to this tired old district,'' Duffy said. ``I believe he wants those reforms for LAUSD LAUSD Los Angeles Unified School District (Los Angeles, CA) and he has great regard and respect for teachers. ``If I didn't believe that, I wouldn't have come to a compromise agreement with him.'' But Duffy also said the union leadership has its own long-range goals, which include demands that the district dismantle its bureaucracy and allow greater local control at school sites. It mounted demonstrations Wednesday that drew about 11,000 teachers. Observers say the UTLA's demands are an effort to demonstrate its strength against the alliance of a popular mayor and the district superintendent District Superintendent may be:
``They're re-exerting their muscle and desire to be a central player here. Given the history here, the union will be recalcitrant recalcitrant adjective Poorly responsive to therapy and reluctant to give up any power that it's obtained over the last 20 years. The ship would go down before they do that,'' said David Abel, chairman of New Schools Better Neighborhoods, a civic advocacy organization. ``Right now, they're the most powerful force in education. I think the symbolism Symbolism In art, a loosely organized movement that flourished in the 1880s and '90s and was closely related to the Symbolist movement in literature. In reaction against both Realism and Impressionism, Symbolist painters stressed art's subjective, symbolic, and decorative is they're backtracking (algorithm) backtracking - A scheme for solving a series of sub-problems each of which may have multiple possible solutions and where the solution chosen for one sub-problem may affect the possible solutions of later sub-problems. from their willingness to work with the mayor.'' The parties are poised to act, but they must wait for the outcome of the AB 1381 court challenge. ``There's no real reason to forge a grand compromise until you know the outcomes of the court case. I don't think anyone is in a position to push their plan all the way to the end,'' said Raphael Sonenshein Raphael J. Sonenshein (born 1949) is a professor of political science at California State University, Fullerton. Teaching at the college since 1982, Sonenshein holds a bachelor's in public policy from Princeton University and a doctorate in political science from Yale University. , a noted political scientist who teaches at California State University, Fullerton California State University, Fullerton, commonly known as CSUF, CSU Fullerton, or Cal State Fullerton, is a part of the California State University system. The University is located in the city of Fullerton, California, in northern Orange County. . ``Everyone's positioning their ranks for what will happen next, but nobody really knows what will happen. It opens up all these possibilities.'' Education leaders are watching the tactical maneuverings of the stakeholders. They believe that if everybody does not agree on a cohesive plan and compromise, AB 1381 will end up being another failed reform effort at the LAUSD, with students on the losing end -- again. ``For one thing, all the major parties could decide that a grand compromise is better than fighting. Another is that one side can prevail like in the school board elections, which in many cases conclude conflicts. The other is the courts could end up resolving it,'' Sonenshein said. In the political battle for turf and power, everyone needs to cooperate and communicate, the experts say, or it's the students who will lose. ``If they get on the same page, we don't even know if they'll get on the right page and the students get left watching yet again,'' Bebitch Jeffe said. ``There's a lot at stake politically, a lot at stake in terms of dealing with problems with reforming the district, and students being left by the wayside in the battle.'' naush.boghossian(at)dailynews.com (818) 713-3722 CAPTION(S): 5 photos, 6 boxes Photo: (1 -- color) Deena Merrill, a sixth-grade teacher at Woodland Hills Academy, helps a student with her report on ancient Egypt  Editing of this page by unregistered or newly registered users is currently disabled due to vandalism. . Below,
students make a list for earthquake preparedness Earthquake preparedness refers to a variety of measures designed to help individuals, businesses, and local and state governments in earthquake prone areas to prepare for significant earthquakes. in another class at
Woodland Hills Academy.
Photos by Tina Burch/Staff Photographer (2 -- color) 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. (3 -- color) David Brewer III (4 -- color) A.J. Duffy (5 -- color) no caption (students) Box: (1) THE HISTORY (2) THE PLAYERS (3) THE UNKNOWNS (4) Teachers union (5) School board (6) Bystanders |
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