Villaraigosa keeps focus on schools the day after State of City speech

A day after focusing on education during his State of the City address, L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa made the media rounds Thursday to reiterate his position.

Villaraigosa told KTLA Channel 5 that California was 47th in the nation in spending on schools, and although the actual ranking is in some dispute, there is no question the state has slashed funding for education, leading to thousands of recent and pending layoffs in the Los Angeles Unified School District.

By addressing school funding, the mayor was echoing the reaction of union leaders and a school board member to his remarks. L.A. Unified supports a plan by Gov. Jerry Brown to use money controlled by Community Redevelopment Agencies for schools.

The city of Los Angeles and other municipalities oppose that proposal.

The KTLA conversation quickly turned to the subject of teacher tenure, which can be earned after two years on the job.

“The tenure system isn’t working, where people basically have a job for life and every decision is based on seniority and not performance,” Villaraigosa said.

As in his speech, the mayor also talked about streamlining the thick teachers contract.

The KTLA anchors also talked about potholes, saying driving down Wilshire Boulevard was like “off-roading in a truck.”

“I got the message,” Villaraigosa said.

The city needs to redouble its efforts to address road conditions, he added, pledging to maintain the size of the police force despite a still-unresolved city budget deficit.

ALSO:

Thousands protest budget cuts at Cal State

Admissions suspension lifted for UCLA Islamic studies program

Westchester High to become magnet school amid cost, ethnicity concerns

-- Howard Blume

Photo: Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa gives the State of the City Address at Jefferson High School in Los Angeles on April 13, 2011. Credit: Gary Friedman / Los Angeles Times

Comments

[TAM]

The Pint Size Mayor needs to be concern with the budget, and not the schools. He was elected to run the city, and not schools. It is easy to talk about the schools because he does not have make decisions. He is using the schools as a smoke screen because running a city takes more than talk. He was not a good student, and we have the results on that on how he handled problems. The Pint Size Mayor is all talk, and no action. He is inept as well as his staff, and we are hurting.

[Richard Sinay]

I wonder if the mayor the tenure system is the reason why so many kids drop out of school today. There is no logic in that assumption. Schools receive the students and they do the best they can with them.A teacher is not a teacher if they are not trying to save a student from a difficult life. Let's put the whole thing on teachers and I suppose the mayor has a plan that would help save the schools. Tell him to go talk to Mayor Bloomberg and ask him all about the wonderful things he and his band of clowns are doing in New York.

[LAFWY]

Antonio Villar's speech was not the State of the City, it was the State of the Los Angeles Unified School District.

[John Q Public]

I find it amusing when small minded politicians like Villaraigosa always point to the teachers as he cause of all out Budget woes. First, Teachers are the least paid public employees given their education level. Second, while tenure is a topic for discussion, is Mr. Villaraigosa planning to apply the same criteria of "No Job For Life" to the Public Employees at City Hall and Emergency Services? Of course not! It's just too easy to attack the teachers. If Mr. Villaraigosa is interested in dealing with the real problem, start with Public Employee Pensions for Emergency Services and City Employees.

[Astonished]

So, the dishonorable one is skirting the budget issue and instead embracing schools, which of course he can do since he has no power over them. While everyone keeps bashing City workers and their pensions, I put this out for consideration. Capping pension expenses, employee pay and health benefits are all well and good. BUT, (and here's where the going gets rough) unless the politicials are forced to stop spending money like it's water and stop giving tax breaks and concessions to all their cronies, NOTHING WILL EVER CHANGE! Except of course, that the public will be unable to bash City workers as much.

[Sjv]

This guy is a joke and always has been. He is a rudderless leader who attempted to strong arm the school district when he came in to office with his "council of mayors." LAUSD has 18 cities that are not under his jurisdiction. He offers no new ideas and has no clue. He is also committing political suicide by going against his base.

[Confucious]

Mayor V. and LAUSD board want to get rid of tenure to get rid of "bad" teachers? Suppose they do get rid of tenure and get rid of 10% of "bad" teachers, that's a couple thousand teachers in LAUSD. Now, where are we going to find couple thousand teachers before September? And are they going to work for peanuts? Get real mayor V. If you want to hire the best, you've got to pay a lot more than the current pay to entice the brightest college students. The brightest college students will not choose an average salary job when they can go to medical or law school and make so much more. But CA will not pay more for education, but they will regret it later when the jails are overcrowded and, oh wait, it already is.... I guess CA will never learn.

[Confucious]

Ever wonder why students have 100% graduation rate at elementary and middle school but have only 50% graduation rate at high school? SOCIAL PROMOTION. You want to fix education? Try fixing social promotion and you will see change. Mayor V. and others who criticize don't know the real reason why students are dropping out. Some students come to high school with little more than 5th grade education, yet high school teachers are suppose to wave their magic wand and make them graduate. THE EDUCATION SYSTEM IS SET UP TO FAIL. Understand the system = understand why kids fail.

[blf2115]

How about we get rid of Villaraigosa? Who gave him tenure? He really doesn't have a clue about how to run anything except a bicycle. Oops, forgot he screwed that up too!

[LostAnglrs]

I'd like him to discuss the issues of his people and how the increasing thuggery in that culture will affect Los Angeles as we move on. How can he send a message to them to shape their babies up right?

[Luis G. Sanchez]

Confucius at 2:13p.m. is exactly correct. Social promotion is the major problem. Teachers and administrators at schools have a definite impact on students and should continually seek to improve. Efforts to improve are welcome. Blaming teachers and no address social promotion is irresponsible.

[TC observer]

Wasn't education 'reform' one of his initial agenda items waaaaay back when?

How much progress has been made for his stated 'efforts'?

Sheesh, shouldn't his 'focus' be on CITY issues like the BUDGET deficit?

Somewhere in his FINAL term he may want to work on ETHICS reform in LA City politics...in between his forays into feamle television news reporters and securing his private box at the proposed NFL stadium.

[Socraticgaze]

OOPS MR. MAYOR
The Mayor misspoke on local television when he said "Last Hired...First Fired" has to go. The mayor does not seem to know the difference between a layoff and the firing of an employee.
When you fire an employee you terminate them because of poor work performance or bad character.
When you layoff an employee you terminate them because of lack of money or work.
LAUSD is laying off employees because there is a lack of money. LAUSD has the right to layoff employees in a crisis.
UTLA has a right to decide how the layoff will proceed and UTLA lays off members by seniority. Is this a fair practice? Yes, because UTLA members freely agree to this layoff policy when they sign their membership contacts.
However, what we learn from the Mayor's slip of the tongue is that both the Mayor and the Board of Education want to use a layoff as an opportunity to fired under-performing teachers! If LAUSD has under-performing teachers, and they do, it's not the fault of the union or seniority, rather, it's the fault of principals and administrators who can't do their job!

[scoracticgaze]

Someone buy the Mayor a dictionary!
Tenure: the status granted to an employee after a probationary period indicating the position of employment is permanent (Yet, employment is subject to termination due to either poor job performance or budget shortage layoff).
When a teacher is granted tenure it is LAUSD the grants the tenure, not UTLA, yet the Mayor and his Board of Education talk about tenure as an evil created by unions. Also, once an employee has tenure they can still be fired for poor job performance or laid-off because of lack of money...so tenure does not guarantee a job for life!
It's just shameful that the Mayor and his Board of Education misled the public about the crisis in education. Yes, there is a crisis, students fail, but students fail because traditional schools are not empowered to deal with delinquents effectively (while charters schools can permanently expell delinquents and send them to a traditional school) and LAUSD and the Board of Education allows the less than proficient student to be promoted to the next grade. Promoting students that are less than profcient to the next grade sets up the next teacher to fail. If the Mayor and LAUSD want to do something extraordinary they should create a policy of "Promotion by Achievement" were the results of CST scores are used to either promote or retain students and not bash teachers.

[socraticgaze]

The Mayor says, "Tenure is a guaranteed job for life" and tenure has to go.
Really Mr. Mayor? Haven't teachers with tenure already been laid-off during the last two years and haven't 5,000 tenured teachers received pink slips this year?
Yes, Mr. Mayor, tenured teachers are being laid-off, which proves tenured jobs are not guaranteed for life!
A tenured teacher is a teacher who has completed a probationary period of teaching and has been deemed competent by LAUSD to be granted a permanent status of employment while still subject to layoffs during a budget crisis or termination due to poor job performance.
The Mayor and his Board of Education want to use layoffs as a means of firing poor performing teachers and so they attack seniority and tenure instead of attacking the foolish principals and administrators that granted tenure to poor performing teachers in the first place.

[Searcher]

This whole argument regarding teacher effectiveness is totally ridiculous. Why are we focusing all our effort, money and training on teaching the worst performing students academics? Not only do they get very little out of this exercise, but their failure creates such a bad self image at the expense of teaching this student population productive skills they may excel at. Not to mention that teaching non-college bound students practical skills will help prepare them for finding meaningful employment after high school and therefore not relying on illegal businesses. Academics was never intended for everyone, many people don't have the interest, the metal focus, nor the aptitude to succeed. It is time to come to grips with the realization that our system of one size fits-all education is a failure and it is time to realign our objectives with reality.