Villaraigosa to focus on schools in state of the city speech

In his sixth state of the city address Wednesday, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is expected to focus on education and the local school district -- an arena in which he has no direct control -- even as a huge budget deficit looms over the city.

He is also expected to lay out a list of accomplishments at City Hall, while making the case that education is a crucial and successful part of his agenda.

In his scheduled 5 p.m. speech at Jefferson High School, he is to take specific aim at the telephone-book-size teachers contract, calling it an impediment to improving schools.

The current contract expires in June -- an opportunity for change, the mayor is expected to assert. He plans to hold a "a breakfast gathering of education stakeholders" Thursday morning at Getty House, the mayor's official residence.

The speech occurs as the Los Angeles Unified School District unveils its new formula for determining which schools have made the most progress with their students based on standardized test scores.

The mayor is expected to call for such measures to be part of an individual teacher's performance evaluation.

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-- Howard Blume

Comments

[swhitS]

How about measuring his performance?

[TwoCents]

And here he goes again, probably another attempt to take control of LAUSD, too... It hasn't worked in the past...and why does he need to focus his attention on something he has no control over, while the City of L.A., of which HE IS THE MAYOR, is still floundering around? How soon until his term is up?

[boochie]

We just have to accept that the LAUSD is about as good as it's going to get. We can't go back to 1960 or 1970 education standards as the city is a very different place today.

[Ocaptainmycaptain]

Mr. Blume, when you write "telephone-book size teachers contract," that sounds like you made a judgment. Did you?

[Ocaptainmycaptain]

“...the role of a news organization is to put a spotlight on these issues/challenges, and on the people who are doing incredibly strong work to try to affect change. The news division's involvement begins and ends with that spotlight. We're not coming at this from a policy angle.”—Steve Capus, President of NBC News operations, on their unbalanced coverage during “Education Nation,” last fall

[Confucious]

“On my BlackBerry, I get the major crimes that happen in this city as they happen on a real-time basis. . . . When you find the suspect, you can be certain it will almost always be a high school dropout and/or somebody who can’t read or write. There is a connection, make no mistake about it, with the dropout rate.”
- Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa (from the book: The Last Dropout)

I agree that there is some truth to that statement made by mayor V. But understand that for every dropout, you will surely find a dysfunctional family. Now is the mayor going to blame the teachers because the students come from a dysfunctional family? Family is where it all starts from, schools do not pass or fail students, the students pass or fail on their own. Please people, understand that if you have caring parents, you will do fine, maybe even go to college and get a decent job and become a productive member of society.

The mayor and citizens of CA need to stop bashing public school teachers and work together to solve this problem. We don't need advice from a "high school dropout" mayor on how to run a school. BTW wiki stated that mayor V. never graduated from UCLA, but only attended when he left in 1975. And he went to some unaccredited law school called "People's College of Laws" school by MacArther Park. I looked up the law school and it is a joke. No LSAT required, you only need a social security, which you can conveniently buy across the street and a "demonstrate a commitment to progressive social change".

[steve rodriguez]

Right let's get the drop out rate under 50% at LAUSD!
p.s. If you drop out of school you are not entitled to the Dream Act benefits!

[socrates]

Oops Mr. Mayor.
You said, "No more...Last hired...First fired."
Well, no one is being fired!
Employees are fired when they are terminated for poor work performance or character.
Employees are laid off when there is a lack of money or work.
LAUSD is conducting a layoff due to a budget crisis or lack of money.
LAUSD lays off employees and UTLA lays off by seniority.
Is it fair that UTLA lays off by senority? Yes, because members agree to the layoff policy when they become members.
What the Mayor and LAUSD want to do is fired bad teachers during a layoff, but we wouldn't have bad teachers if principals and administrators were effective at their jobs.
So, no more "Last hired...First hired" nonsense because no one is being fired.

[socraticgaze]

The Mayor doesn't like seniority and says, "No more last hired-first fired."
But, LAUSD is conducting a layoff...no one is being fired.
And while LAUSD has the right to layoff during a budget emergency, UTLA has the right to layoff by seniority. All UTLA members have agreed to layoffs by seniority by signing their UTLA contracts.
The Mayor says, "Tenure has to go because tenure guarantees a job for life."
Not true- tenured teacher have been laid off the past two years and 5,000 tenured teachers have received layoff notices this year. Tenured teachers are nothing more than teachers who have completed their required probationary teaching period and have been granted permanent status by LAUSD.
What the Mayor and Board of Education want to do is to fire ineffective teachers (that the district mismanaged and granted tenure to) during a layoff.
Instead of attacking good teachers with senioiry, the Mayor and LAUSD ought to go after the foolish principals and administrators that grant tenure to ineffective teachers!