Like New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Antonio Villaraigosa, the leader of the nation’s second largest city, has decided that he and he alone can save the Los Angeles Unified School District from the mediocrity that is public school education in Southern California, keep in mind that this is the same school district where tens of thousands of high school seniors lacked the requisite 9th grade math proficiency to pass a high school exit exam. Villaraigosa, like Bloomberg in New York, is convinced that additional layers of bureaucracy are the best solution for LA’s educational woes.

Not everyone on the left coast shares Villaraigosa’s enthusiasm, he has faced powerful opposition from both the Democrats and the GOP, but this is insignificant compared with the vocal criticism he is now facing from the state’s teacher’s union, the same union that taught Schwarzenegger the true meaning of “girly man.”

Mayor Villaraigosa’s plan to reform public education in LA is long on rhetoric, but short on substance, the absence of clear direction has not been lost on Villaraigosa’s fellow leftists in the statehouse. The problem with Villaraigosa’s plan and Bloomberg’s and that of most politicians who support “school reform” is their plans call for greater government bureaucracy meaningless tests, while true accountability always seems to be absent. Nor are parents asked to assume a greater role in their child’s education.

As long as LA and public schools around the country, reward mediocrity and placate the lowest common denominators that make up a sizeable portion of LA area students, little will change. If Villaraigosa was truly serious about reform he’d announce the immediate closing of LA area schools and provide parents with vouchers for their children to attend the school of their choice, ensuring LA students receiving a meaningful, rather than a meaningless education.
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-schools16jun16,0,5418816.story?coll=la-home-headlines