THE MAYOR AND THE ADMIRAL: IN NO-WIN SPOT, NEW SCHOOL CHIEF FACES GETTING IT RIGHT.Byline: EARL OFARI HUTCHINSON Local Views THE formal announcement that 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 picked retired Vice Adm. 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 as school chief had the air of a defiant, big-tent revival. The defiant part was that the board chose Brewer without Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa having any say in the decision. The revival part was the board's euphoria over Brewer. Members are supremely convinced that Brewer has the right stuff to ``transform,'' as he put it, the LAUSD LAUSD Los Angeles Unified School District (Los Angeles, CA) into a first-rate big- city school system, and that he's a tough guy who can stand up to Villaraigosa. He'll have to be that guy. Although Villaraigosa put on a conciliatory con·cil·i·ate v. con·cil·i·at·ed, con·cil·i·at·ing, con·cil·i·ates v.tr. 1. To overcome the distrust or animosity of; appease. 2. face for his public statement about Brewer, he earlier fumed fume n. 1. Vapor, gas, or smoke, especially if irritating, harmful, or strong. 2. A strong or acrid odor. 3. A state of resentment or vexation. v. over being left out of the selection process. He's also hinted in the past that, once his mayoral takeover plan becomes law, he will fire any superintendent who doesn't meet his standard. The tussle over a superintendent is not just a juvenile clash of wills and egos. Villaraigosa desperately wants to prove that he can do what he claims the school board hasn't, and make the LAUSD work. He needs to have his man in there to do that. Brewer isn't his man. And if the board gives Brewer a long-term contract, it could set up a nightmarish legal wrangle to oust him should he fail to live up to Villaraigosa's expectations. That puts Brewer squarely in the middle of the board and the mayor's tug-of-war. Although he's a military spit-and-polish guy who comes with an impressive Navy resume, Brewer is vulnerable on two counts: He's no educator, and he has no grounding in the rough and tumble The first use of the term Rough and Tumble for fighting dates back to the early 1700s in the North American frontier. Rough and Tumble fighting was the original American No Holds Barred underground hybrid "sport" that had but one rule - you win by knocking the man out or making him of L.A. politics. These are two double-edged swords that Villaraigosa can wield if he so chooses. The record of top ex-military men running big-city school districts has been mixed. In Seattle and Jacksonville, ex-military bigwigs got high marks for improving test scores and reducing dropout (1) On magnetic media, a bit that has lost its strength due to a surface defect or recording malfunction. If the bit is in an audio or video file, it might be detected by the error correction circuitry and either corrected or not, but if not, it is often not noticed by the human rates. But military men have been abysmal failures as superintendents in Minneapolis and New Orleans, where they either resigned or were given the boot. Then there's the swamp of L.A. politics. Outgoing Superintendent Roy Romer complains that his three-term stint as Colorado governor didn't prepare him for the topsy-turvy tangle of local politics. And the situation should be even harder for Brewer. Not only does he have to get along with the feuding mayor and school board, but he is also the consummate outsider. He has never lived in Los Angeles, does not know the political players, and has little feel for the oft-times fierce ethnic fights -- physical and otherwise -- in the schools. That much was embarrassingly apparent when Brewer botched botch tr.v. botched, botch·ing, botch·es 1. To ruin through clumsiness. 2. To make or perform clumsily; bungle. 3. To repair or mend clumsily. n. 1. the pronunciation of Villaraigosa's name at his introductory press conference. The gaffe elicited some laughter and wisecracks, but it showed that Brewer is in desperate need of a crash course on local politics. That may not be enough. Brewer is also an African-American, who's now charged with running a district where Latinos make up more than 70 percent of the students. Though Villaraigosa has been careful not to play the ethnic card in talking about who should run the district, in times past Latino leaders have loudly demanded that a Latino be superintendent. Villaraigosa almost certainly has felt that pressure, and will feel it again. On the other hand, black leaders and some local elected officials strongly opposed Villaraigosa's takeover plan. Their big concern -- never publicly stated, but privately grumbled -- was that black students are a dwindling dwin·dle v. dwin·dled, dwin·dling, dwin·dles v.intr. To become gradually less until little remains. v.tr. To cause to dwindle. See Synonyms at decrease. minority in the schools, especially the worst failing ones in South Los Angeles South Los Angeles is the official name for a large geographic and cultural area lying to the southwest and southeast of downtown Los Angeles, California. The area was formerly called South Central Los Angeles, and is still sometimes called South Central. , and that a Latino-controlled district would shove them further into the educational cold. No doubt, Brewer will be closely watched to see if there's any racial tilt toward blacks, and one of those watching will be the mayor. But Brewer's race also makes it tough for Villaraigosa to aggressively nitpick nit·pick intr.v. nit·picked, nit·pick·ing, nit·picks To be concerned with or find fault with insignificant details. See Synonyms at quibble. nit or find fault with him. The last thing the mayor needs is to fuel talk that he is insensitive to blacks. He has spent the past year doing everything he could -- from making a slew of black appointments to spending much time courting black groups -- to break down the suspicions and even hostility from blacks that dogged him during his first, and failed, mayoral campaign against Jim Hahn. Brewer and Villaraigosa are in tough positions. Brewer's honeymoon period honeymoon period A timespan after diagnosing a disease before its impact is manifest, fancifully likened to the HP of early marriage, during which the husband and wife are most cordial and passionate with each other Diabetology A period of residual β cell will be nonexistent non·ex·is·tence n. 1. The condition of not existing. 2. Something that does not exist. non . He will be scrutinized for any stumble or sign of weakness. He must be doubly careful to say and do all the right things in his first days in office to placate all parties. And though Brewer was not his choice, Villaraigosa must be equally careful not to behave in a way that could tag him as a sour-grapes, vindictive obstructionist ob·struc·tion·ist n. One who systematically blocks or interrupts a process, especially one who attempts to impede passage of legislation by the use of delaying tactics, such as a filibuster. . He has frequently said that he only wants what's best for the schools -- now he must prove he means it by not allowing his ego or ambition to undercut the man charged with turning those schools around. No matter whether it's the mayor or the board who ultimately has the final say over the LAUSD, L.A.'s schools remain among the nation's worst. As Brewer has acknowledged, it will soon be his job to change that. At his news conference, Brewer vowed to turn the LAUSD into a ``world-class district.'' Villaraigosa should back off and see if he really can. CAPTION(S): 2 photos Photo: (1 -- color) no caption (Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa) (2 -- color) no caption (David Brewer III) |
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